Post 1, Group B--The Nutty Professor, Kendra ZeMenye

The Nutty Professor is a 1996 fantasy and science fiction comedy film starring the comedy actor Eddie Murphy and Jada Pinkett Smith who is the second wife of Will Smith. The Nutty Professor was a remake of the original movie filmed in 1963. The movie was about a nerdy, clumsy scientist who made a potion to transformed himself into a handsome guy, just to win the girl of his dream. The 1996 film portrays Eddie Murphy as Sherman Klump, a shy, but kind-hearted, an obese college professor who weighed about 400 pounds and fell in love with Carla Purty played by Jada Pinkett Smith who is Sherman’s love interest. He decides to lose 400 pounds just to win Purty's heart until he went down the wrong path. The director Tom Shadyac used the movie to portray how American society discriminates against people who are obese or who do not conform to our superficial standards.

It bothers me to hear people making fun of people who are big. Like they are saying people who are obese are lazy, clumsy, clueless, unattractive, and not bright but if you put the overweight person as a main character, the audience expects to see an obese person to be slow and dumb. Apparently, the director wanted to make a challenge by turning an unpopular overweight character into a likable character. What makes the audience like Sherman Klump was the way he respects his students, and he treated Carla Purty like a lady. He’s not like all the other guys who treat women as sex objects. 

Sherman gets humiliated because he was different, but because he did not conform to the superficial standards of American beauty. For example, in the restaurant called "Scream," Sherman and Carla were both being ridiculed and called names by a show businessman named Reggie Warrison. He said to Sherman that his big body was a full moon and he should be on his diet called “slim slow.” That hurts Sherman more. The more he was feeling embarrassed, the more he became sad, desperate, and insecure. It does compare today when you are being teased a lot because of your appearance. The restaurant scene makes me want to cry because you feel isolated by hiding somewhere where you want to get away from somebody who's been teasing you. The director Tom Shadyac conclusively shows how American society excludes people who don't conform to external standards. 

In the scene where Sherman created a blue weight loss potion that could help him transfer himself into a handsome guy just to attract Carla Purty's attention. He thinks it is the only way he could change his appearances which is why he wanted to improve his appearances. For me, I don’t approve Sherman making that kind of potion because I feel like Sherman is taking it too far and what Sherman’s doing is dangerous. At first, I thought he was damaging his body on purpose, but he was using the blue potion to lose 400 pounds. It does relate to society's today because people tried to improve themselves by getting plastic surgery, going to the gym, or using any weight loss product. For me, I try so hard to fit in and be one of the cool kids by wearing clothes that show off half of my skin and wearing make-up, but it did not make me feel like a better person. That compares to Sherman because he wanted to be accepted. It happened in real life when you had to dress to impress to change your appearances of attracting people's attention so you could act like you're a big shot.

After watching the movie, I learn that life is about how much you accept for who you are instead of pretending to be someone you’re not. I learn the most important lesson; you can't judge people based on their appearances whether if they're skinny, big, accessible, a nerd, tall or short; it's just like, "Don't the judge the book by its cover." I often learn that looks don't matter, but personality is what matters. And sometimes it is hard for someone to accept you, just because you're different. Most of all, it is not okay to joke someone based on their weight or how they dressed.