The fat man used to be a sideshow staple: Pay 10 cents and watch his belly jiggle. But not anymore. We’ve gotten so big we’ve put the genuine freaks out of work.
Just look at the recent death of Bruce Snowdon, the last professional sideshow fat man who often performed under the name "Harold Huge."
But what struck me wasn’t the end of his oversized life at the age of 63 so much as the death of his career years earlier. When the 607-pound Snowdon retired in 2003, he was the last of his beefy breed… not because we ran out of fat men, but because we have too many.
And there’s certainly nothing funny about that.
So today you’ll still find bearded ladies, strong men, snake charmers, sword swallowers, glass eaters and geeks on the midway… but if you’re waiting for the fat man to sing, just look around you. It shouldn’t be hard to find one.
And maybe future carnivals will feature a new kind of freak: the healthy man.
A rare breed myself,