Baby Reindeer: Good for the Fats?

Comedian Guy Branum and I Discuss, Fatly

I was totally captivated by Baby Reindeer when I watched it a couple weeks ago; as my friend Guy Branum puts it in the video below, it’s a “big, big, cathartic piece of art.” I also felt conflicted about the way the show flattens and exploits the various trans/fat/Black side characters who orbit its cis white male creator and star—people who rarely get to helm Netflix shows about their inner lives conjured up as shallow avatars to power yet another white man’s messianic fall and rise, reflect him back to himself, and make him a star. Baby Reindeer is the kind of autobiography that repels such criticism by pre-empting it with the most abject, brutal self-flagellation imaginable. It almost feels churlish to ask: Is this… okay? And even if it’s not, hasn’t this wretch punished himself enough??

Guy and I get into it below. And if you want to watch the full 36-minute version, which gets into it EVEN HARDER, it’s available on the Text Me Back Patreon! (Which, just a reminder, includes a paid Butt News subscription at the $8 level!)

In other news, I am hard at work on the next installment of Fat Suit Fart Attack, in which I grapple with how fucking hard I laughed while watching THE KLUMPS. Watch for it! Coming SOOOOOOOON!

And I think my next regular Butt News after that will be Hook? IDK! Pop off in comments! I have also activated something on here called “Chats”? Let’s see if we can figure out how to use it! Love you always!