Making it big with Mike & Molly

The habit of poking fun at obese people continues in Mike & Molly, an American sitcom which aired on CBS for two seasons. Its creator, Mark Roberts, came up with the not-so-unique idea of getting together two people having weight issues and becoming a couple. In order to make the story more interesting, the guy, Mike Biggs, played by Billy Gardell, works as a cop while his partner, Molly Flynn, portrayed by Melissa McCarthy, is a teacher in the fourth grade.

Critics gave mixed reactions to Mike & Molly, although one found the jokes being dished out in the show generally bland. This is understandable mainly because after some time, you end up spinning the same jokes about the excess fat that these people have. Eventually, the joke ceases to be funny as you have heard it many times over, and it would take a gifted comedian to pull out the laughs from the same lines again.

It is because of this fascination with obesity that consequently got the show in controversial waters. Maura Kelly wrote a blog about the show and posted this on the website of Marie Claire. In her blog, Maura commented that she found it gross watching an overweight couple kissing one another, a remark that she would eventually regret and apologised for.

Mark Roberts called the comments ‘high schoolish’, a fairly accurate assessment given that only immature teens could utter such words without considering the feelings of those involved. Nevertheless, the Maura blog received more than 3,000 comments, and not a few of these were in a disagreeing tone.

In spite of the controversy or perhaps because of this, Mike & Molly went on to win an Emmy Award this year for female lead Melissa McCarthy as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. The show was likewise nominated as favorite new comedy series by the People’s Choice Award.