Showing posts with label obesity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label obesity. Show all posts

Sunday, 6 January 2013

The War on Obesity; A Scientist Speaks. The Pangolin’s Resident Scientific Adviser Dr P J Whimbrel

Good Morning. Or Evening. Depending on where you are. In Glossop and certain parts of Birkenhead, its yesterday. Time’s a bugger isn’t it? No matter. I have been asked to say something about recent recommendations made by a Mr Andrew Burnham MP, Shadow Health Secretary, about the food we eat and the road to obesity. I strongly suspect that Mr Burnham (5 stone 6 wet through) is not unlike my cousin, the celebrated gong soloist Pip Whimbrel who eats huge amounts, especially of raw suet, but never gains any weight. Dear Pip’s been 19 stone since he was three. You see, its all to do with something called metabolism. Or Mr Burnham’s got worms.

Whatever. 

It may be apposite at this point to draw your attention to some very interesting research I have been conducting into the relationship between humour and weight. We took two cartoons labelled ONE and TWO (TWO referring to the second one).

We showed these cartoons to a randomly selected group of people brought together by my colleague Prof Anna Prongg who hung a sign saying “BIG HANDFULS OF FREE MONEY IN HERE” outside Pangolin’s research HQ.

The results are interesting. All the fat mouthbreathers thought cartoon ONE was hilarious. Some collapsed in blobby heaps, weeping with laughter whilst others applauded and shouted, “****ing hell! That’s the funniest thing I’ve seen since the one with the bloke and the banana skin !”. The same group were perplexed by cartoon TWO. Some tried to eat it. Others shouted, “Where’s the money, then?” But not one cracked a smile.

Conversely, the thin, rail-like members of our randomly selected group, some sporting tattoos saying “Bilderberg! Find! Kill!”, dismissed cartoon ONE out of hand with shouts of, “Shameful working class parody!” and, “Ooh – er Missus, domestic violence is a crime!”

Upon being shown cartoon TWO, however, thin group members all nodded knowingly. Prof. Prongg noted at least three faint, sardonic smiles and several remarks including “Cool” ,“Wicked and, “Zebulon? What sort of a ****ing name is Zebulon?”

Sadly, at this point security had to be called as it turned out that one of the fatties was called Zebulon McHeftie.

Nevertheless, this unfortunately truncated piece of research does strongly suggest that if you like seaside postcard humour (cartoon ONE), you’re a fattie. If, on the other hand, you prefer cartoon TWO, you’re a pretentious conspiracy theorist and poor company to boot. 

Thank you.

And next week, my distinguished colleague, the very lovely Prof Anna Prongg, will tell us where all the money went.



















Saturday, 5 January 2013


The Pangolin can now reveal the government's latest tactics in the War on Obesity.  After all, when one's At War, the last thing one needs is an enemy who can vanquish one merely by plonking their vast bulk into one's lap. Especially if they then sit there, farting.

There are to be limits on the amounts of fat, sugar and salt in food.  "Why, it's not before time", observed Lizzi Titsrake of the Food Safety Council. "From now on, butter and margarine will be sold in packets no larger than 3cm x 1.5cm x 0.5cm.  And you'll only be able to buy one from each shop you visit.  Salt will only be available in those little blue twists of paper you used to get in crisp packets.  And as for sugar?  Everyone will be obliged to set forth with an icepick and carve their own (tiny) cubes from the EU sugar mountain. So yar boo sucks to you, Lardass!"

There will be a crackdown on pushers, too.  Those scandalous vans with names like "Mr Whippy" and "Supersoft Ice Cream" will be banned from purveying their wares outside schools and other places where impressionable youngsters, er, hang out - like behind bike sheds.  Anyone caught importing doughnuts or pizzas will face a hefty (sic) fine and face a lettuce diet for a minimum of 30 days.

There will be exceptions, of course.  Eric Pickles' Department is well known for spending around 4% of the GDP on custard tarts alone, and this is likely to continue throughout the campaign.  "After all", says Mr Pickles. "An army can march on MY stomach - we're performing a public service!"