'Mike & Molly' Creator Mark Roberts FIRES BACK At Marie Claire Blogger Maura Kelly

"Mike & Molly" creator Mark Roberts has spoken out about Maura Kelly's "Should 'Fatties' Get A Room?" blog post for Marie Claire, calling Kelly's words hateful and saying that he feels sorry for her.

Roberts spoke to Fancast about the situation:

Did you at first think it might be some sort of joke or piece of satire? I wasn't quite sure what it was except hateful. It just seemed pretty hateful. It seemed like something someone would say when they're really drunk at a party with their other hateful friends, but may be not good to write down and put it out for people to look at.

[...]

Ms. Kelly - who admits to having never seen 'Mike & Molly' - said she'd be "grossed out" not even to watch the leads kiss, but to watch them "do anything."
It's something you would hear one of the really stupid girls say in a high school cafeteria. It's not something you expect to come from an adult. She did apologize, but I'm taking her off my Facebook friends.

Roberts added that, "This show is about how everybody in the world deserves to have love, so to have somebody come out and say that these people should not even be seen in public is insane." He also joked that in an upcoming episode, Molly will cancel her subscription to Marie Claire.

Comments

[cityprole]

12:21 PM on 11/01/2010

Well now..one more sh*tty excuse for a magazine that, if there is any justice, should be out of business in 6 months..

[MsCuda]

11:35 AM on 10/31/2010

People are overweight for a whole shipload of reasons. My daughter is fighting obesity--she who at one time was a local model. Then her bi-polar disorder got the best of her and she's on Seroquel among a whole host of other meds. Because of the Lithium, her thyroid went nuts and so she's on meds for that which haven't helped her lose the weight because of the other meds. At last count, she's on about 7 to 10 meds, some of which, like the Seroquel, are known to cause massive weight gain in many people.

The interesting thing is that all the people who look down their thin, pointy noses at overweight people seldom ask "why?" They're the same type of people who assume that being gay is a choice; what *they* are is uneducated and judgmental.

I'd much rather spend time with someone who is so comfortable in their own skin that they don't have to put someone else down in order to feel good about themselves.

[MrsSBee]

10:50 AM on 11/04/2010

Oh my gosh! I am overweight for the exact same reason as your daughter. I really feel for her because this is a very difficult & mostly ignored situation. I'm particularly frustrated because I found out after finally getting off the meds 2 years ago, I was misdiagnosed. I had doctor after doctor who found it easier to shove drugs at me, rather than find out what really going on. I'm getting proper care now, but at 5ft tall & 238 lbs (I've started to lose weight, the meds had me at over 280 at one point!), do you think people bother to ask why I am overweight before I am talked about or made fun of... NO!
Not everyone is lazy & can't push themselves from the table. Some of us have actual medical reasons for our obesity & we struggle like hell every day for some sort of normalcy in this size zero obsessed world.
I have to agree with MsCuda. Just think before passing judgement on someone for their size. Until you have walked a mile in their shoes, you have no idea how they got there!

[Godot123]

04:55 PM on 10/30/2010

There are times when one should exercise self-restraint rather than the right to express one's opinion. Ms. Kelly, this was one of those times.

[bgraceg]

04:35 PM on 10/29/2010

There is so little diversity on television; most of the actors/reality show participants do not look anything like the average person on the street, they are in fact a very very small minority in terms of appearance and body mass...so you get one show with a couple actors who are more representative of 'average' Americans and all hell breaks loose? It isn't endorsing obesity just to depict these characters, any more than a show that showed a drunk or an addict would be endorsing that issue.

Fat is our current day 'evil'..but its purely cultural. If food became universally scarce, it would be the new 'good'.

[VegetableMan]

01:30 AM on 10/30/2010

it's a shame the mods don't allow a little more diversity in the replies here, too.

[GlassMask]

02:34 PM on 10/29/2010

As a Chubbo-American myself (as is my lovely wifey), I, ummm, have nothing to say about this. It isn't an issue. Some shallow wannabe writer spews some hate in a dying magazine devoted to skinny people. Doesn't affect me at all; it's strictly her problem to deal with. My life just keeps getting better. I just opened in a wonderful play, and have two voice-over projects lined up before that run even ends. What someone else thinks of me means absolutely zip.

I can't change the half-a-mind of Maura Kelly, but living well is the best revenge. She's possibly cuter, healthier, richer and better-known than me. But it sounds like I'm happier, smarter and nicer. You decide who the winner is...

[SherryIndianapolis]

09:16 AM on 10/31/2010

LOVE YOU AND YOUR WIFE!!!

Peace to the both of ya....

[justforyou]

10:45 AM on 10/31/2010

great comment. Congratulations on your play and other projects. Living well truly is the best revenge.
May there be more diversity and joy in the world and less spite...especially from skinny people who don't know it all.

[byla]

10:57 AM on 10/29/2010

If it were a sitcom where Mike meets and dates a thin girl, no one would be complaining about it being "gross" (King of Queens anyone?) but because Molly is also overweight, it's suddenly disgusting. The show is funny, in large part because of the two main characters' self deprecating humor at being overweight and the process of trying to lose it.

[Joy Treganowan]

10:52 AM on 10/29/2010

Fat people are treated worse than any other demographic I can think of. They are publicly criticized, bullied, and heckled by adults - I call that bullying. It's worse than drug addicts, homosexuals, or any race I can think of. Somehow it's acceptable to say they "need to learn how to stop being lazy" or "stop stuffing their faces." Only those who have suffered obesity, just like any other addiction, understand how difficult it can be.

[quivira]

01:18 PM on 10/29/2010

Kelly should compare it to someone telling her, in the throes of her anorexia, to just eat a sandwich.

[lovemyluggage]

09:13 PM on 10/30/2010

fanned & faved!

[ilovemyprez]

12:31 PM on 10/30/2010

I think Muslim/Arabs in America right now have it just as bad.

[Debra Steinman]

08:01 AM on 11/04/2010

Nice try at making a non political piece, political...no go

[BlameYourself]

11:19 AM on 11/04/2010

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh go to the politics section with this.

[EmilyRose2010]

10:51 AM on 10/29/2010

this show is real, surely it will have a short run, leave this show alone!, we talk about gays until we are sick of hearing about them, lets here about middle America now, its call fat, get use to it, thanks.

[handsome stranger]

10:11 AM on 10/29/2010

The show is entertaining and funny -- my only requirements for a sitcom.

In the first episode, Mike and Molly meet and an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. The show is not designed to glorify obesity, which we all know is unhealthy.

And to those of you who posted mean things about fat people, congratulations for not being overweight. Now get back to your cigarettes and cocaine.

[CuteAndVicious]

10:57 AM on 10/29/2010

Mhmm *snaps fingers* couldn't of said it better myself :)

[James Haun]

11:38 AM on 10/29/2010

cigs and coke - not just for breakfast anymore!

[CBWood]

10:08 AM on 10/29/2010

WAY TO GO AMERICA! Elements (who get too much publicity and notice) here are becoming beyond HATEFUL...and in this CHRISTIAN NATION...HA!!! Yes, obesity is a problem (speaking as one who knows) but where is the LOVE? Give me an overweight person demonstrating honest love and caring over a skinny, rich BITCH every time!!!!

[CuteAndVicious]

11:01 AM on 10/29/2010

America isn't a Christian nation. I agree with the rest.

[ResistanceisFutile]

09:41 AM on 10/29/2010

Now, here is an idea.

Over the course of the sitcom, which at times is funny, Mike and Molly lose weight until they are healthy at which point the series ends.

[american-dolt]

09:14 AM on 10/29/2010

Yes please get those Hate Crimes in order we can't have freedom of thought and speech.

[Singing Sparrow]

08:44 AM on 10/29/2010

I wonder that folks don't recognize this as a class issue. the insurance companies are scared to death of losing profits to type 2 diabetes and strokes,etc. Thin ,well -to- do folk also get sick and cost money to treat but they seem to get sympathy.
How cruel this will appear to historians when they have the proof that the obesity of the lower classes was brought on by the chemicals masquerading as food.

[Debra Steinman]

08:13 AM on 11/04/2010

Sorry but I know plenty of Rich, well to do people, living in their mansions with their maids who are at least the same size as the people on the sitcom.

Your argument is inherently flawed.

[Singing Sparrow]

11:30 AM on 11/04/2010

Oh Please!! Reread what I actually said. I am not saying that the privileged don't get ill or suffer from the same chemical laden food stuffs rather I am pointing out that they do not reap the derision that the working classes do.

[FabulousAt52]

08:42 AM on 10/29/2010

You want offensive? Here's one for HP:

Stop deleting my frucking posts for no good reason.

[deanable]

09:31 AM on 10/29/2010

I hear you man

[JQP 1970]

09:56 AM on 10/29/2010

Waaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[paddles]

08:17 AM on 10/29/2010

Is that a scarecrow on the cover of the magazine, ugh-not attractive in the least. And not smiling either.