Yes, them writing it this way and surprising us near the end made it an even better story. A lesser show wouldve probably showed a main character getting anorexic while showing us his increaingly anorexic body all along, and maybe throwing in his dilusional fat body only now and again, like only when he looked in the mirror or something. And a lessor show would've shown us the excersise instructor being imaginary much sooner than they did. But having done it all that way would've taken away the surprise twist.
It really is brilliant, because the majority of the episode is shown through his eyes without it being entirely through his perspective. It is the world his disorder gets him to think exists. You see his misinterpretations and delusions to a point of being entirely absorbed in his reality.
@@trevor3013 He only wrote the first episode before Family Guy came back from cancellation. After that he gave the creative freedom to the writers while he’s busy on Family Guy.
So did I. I like stories like these, that make you think one thing and then surprise you. And how they didn't just make Stan being fat his own delusion, but made Stan's hard driving trainer who kept calling him fat also his delusion
I wonder if one of the writers either suffered from anorexia or knew someone who did because that is spot on for how someone with an eating disorder feels
anorexia is actually more common than you think, a lot of people just go undiagnosed. i wouldn’t be surprised if some of the team _have_ experienced it
It’s scary how true this is, this episode is also very insightful especially for me. I remember my mother telling me at one point she could she my cheek bones. I hope anyone else going through this knows there not alone.
@@ray-0249 no I used to starve myself cause I thought I was overweight, I thought I was a healthy weight but then I sore just how skinny I was I could see every bone and every rib so now I'm trying to bulk up which is sort of going well
I have a friend who used to be anorexic, according to her this is basically it. At some points the calorie deficit goes to your brain and you literally can't be rational enough to see your problem. It truly is a weird illness
Year late, but also the fact that people try to force an anorexic to eat when they just can't. It's a mental illness and just forcing them is going to make them avoid it even more
@@Umiruame for me, I have 2 friends on San Clemente and Toronto, In San Clemente, About an Actress since in 2015 (8 years later) I have an friend since in 2020, I just say hello to a new friend rachael, also she weights 40-lb and Not enough muscle, and in Toronto, I have a new friend Maddie, and the best thing I subscribe to her on TH-cam when I was at 21.
Honestly this is so fucking well made. I know how stan feels and his storyline here is so. Goddamn. True. For a fucking cartoon comedy this is incredible
holy shit i had anorexia in 7 grade, i lost 20 pounds and my hair started falling out, i had such bad body dysmorphia that even when i weight 110 and was 5 foot 3, i thiught i was obese. this is a great representation.
@@aliajam6187 you know you’re « skinny » but you feel so big . we feel like we’re as big as a ballon , we feel like we’re knocking down everything on our way , everything feels heavier
I knew a girl like that it got bad to the point she stopped having her period She passed out at school and had to be hospitalized where she thankfully got the help she needed her cycle afterwards was pretty screwed up tho I only know this because I found her in the bathroom crying when it set in she seriously messed up her chance to have kids one day because she got that obsessed with how she looked
@@aliajam6187 it’s not that i think i’m “fat” but that i can do better. when i think of being skinny i see it as an ideal, an achievement; but no matter how i perceive myself i don’t consider myself any of those things so i just keep going lower and lower until i’m satisfied, and i never am.
I know people have shown their love for this episode, but I just want to add that I really enjoyed the way that they switched to his real self after we saw his imagination. It was a small plot twist, but it actually got me when I first watched it, and that perspective really helps you understand what anorexic people go through.
Yep, and we realize Francine and Hayley were actually trying to help him since he had lost so much weight, it wasn't because they wanted to make him fat
Yeah and I find it interesting how once Stan sees Zack at his own home and isn't actually there, his mind makes him say how he calls fat people tiny ironically, potentially meaning that at the gym he actually calls skinny tiny to try to get them to beef up. Also it's Stan's own delusion of Zack that concinves him that his family is trying to make him fat as a form of sabatoging him, like so many others in mental crisis have that push those closest to them away
In hindsight, no one said Stan was fatter except himself, Bullock just said he had a weight problem, and Zack never interacted with anyone else. That was a genius twist, putting us in Stan’s head to show how anorexia can warp a persons perception of themselves, why everyone can see the problem but them.
I also liked that for most of the episode Stan was animated the way he saw himself. Another comment mentioned that they might have animated him is skinny and only showed his reflection in the mirror as fat or something. But this way we really see things through his eyes until his family reveals what his problem is. They also made out like Zack really was a person he met at the mall and didn't even imply that he was imaginary until later on; again they could have made it way more obvious by showing Stan talking to air and only having Zack appear some of the time.
@@hannahpapernick-yudin2846the fact that Zack showed up to his house and Stan was surprised that he knew where he lived was the first clue he wasn’t real
Gotta say this is handled brilliantly. Most shows we would see it from everyone else's perspective but here we see it from Stan's until the end. It really helps see it from the eyes of someone with the disorder
The Simpsons actually did It once, Lisa was bullied into thinking she was fat so she stoped eating and started working out like crazy, though she was conscient about her problem but didn't do anything about it
@@ajsimard3938 To be perfectly honest, for a long time, I thought the actual name for this episode WAS Stanorexia. It wasn't until much later that I learned what the actual name for the episode was. If you're wondering where the mixup came from, or why I believed I had the right name for years after I had first seen this episode, well, if I knew the answer, I would tell you. Seriously, I have no clue where this mixup on my part came from.
@@gracelynwoods yeah i saw everything as a competition and was constantly paranoid, i had my guard up 24/7. it was to the point where i saw my mom adding oil to *literally cook food* as her trying to secretly add calories in my food to make me gain weight-
@@meIatonin yeah I thought the same. I got too paranoid that I would only eat food prepared by me. And when I cooked food for others I secretly wanted them to eat a lot of it, while I wouldn’t eat any. It was messsd up. I hope you’re feeling better now.
This episode is extremely relatable. I still have issues with seeing myself as a fat person no matter how fit I appear to other people. I was fat throughout my entire childhood up until early adulthood.
My jaw dropped the first time I saw this episode. That reveal was just too good, even going the extra mile and making Bullock mention Stan has a "weight problem" but not emphasizing that it was in the opposite direction Stan believed.
There's a girl in my school who it just registered with me is or was anorexic. I have no idea how it took me so long to realize. She's skinnier than me and I have a thyroid issue, and she literally wrote an essay about how scary anorexia is. I really do hope she has recovered. She seems to be at a healthier weight than she was, so I'm going to just hope. Talking to her about it would probably be a bad move.
You could try talking to her about other stuff, offer her friendship and see if she wants to talk to you about it; who knows you may just make a friend If she asks you to leave her alone do so... Just my two pennies worth
I know I'm late, but it never hurts to try and talk about it, it's just important to be understanding and listen to them. It helps to know someone is thinking of you, even if the person isn't ready to get help.
I remember watching this episode when i was younger and it left a huge impact on me. I was much heavier back then and still feel like this every time i look in the mirror or pictures. It just won't go away...
Yeah this is literally how it is. No matter how much weight I lost I still saw myself as obese. I went from over 220 lbs to lower than 130 in less than a year. Of course eventually when summer came around, people started to notice how much weight I really lost. So I went as far as wearing really oversized clothes in 90 degree weather. Though 90 degrees felt like 50 cause of how much I didn't eat. It was a constant struggle not to pass out infront of my family, because I knew that me starving myself was wrong, even if I didn't realize there was any real effect at the time. I was just terrified of being force fed in a hospital. Gaining weight was the worst thing that could ever happen in my head at the time, even if I lost only a few pounds I would be upset. I'm not going to go into the sick things I did to pull it off, so as to not give anyone currently suffering with anorexia any ideas, but it really does fuck with your head, and honestly I think most people with anorexia will come up with their own twisted ways anyway.
3:10 the obstacle course scene stood out for me because it showed that even his coworkers are worried about him. And he passes out from exhaustion because of how underweight he was, but we didn't know that because we were seeing it through his eyes.
Stan was especially vulnerable to this condition in that family. He’s incredibly narcissistic, vein and judgmental about appearance. When he realized he was fat, he freaked out and course corrected in the opposite direction. Hailey is vein but also a lazy stoner and unambitious. Francine is obsessed with looking young and beautiful. She might have a plastic surgery problem one day.
I remember watching this episode in the late 2000s and truly understanding what EDs meant. The choice to take the audience along with Stan’s delusion really drives home how evil anorexia is - and this came out 17 years ago
Amazing how clearly this episode explains how body dysmorphia and suddenly I got how people can be trapped by it. By only showing Stans view of himself at first then the shock reveal of how he was wasting away to skin and bones illustrated it perfectly.
From all the reasons I have to love this episode, I think the main one is that this was the first episode I saw. Thanks to it, now I keep watching the show.😃
Seeing Stan that skinny reminds me of me when I was 11. I wasn't anorexic, but I had a brain tumor that made me sick everyday and I couldn't keep anything down. I only weighed 67 pounds. I could stand to lose a couple pounds now, but it's not like I'm "break the scale" heavy
@@dremorales1177 Well, I can't remember if it was a grade A tumor or benign, but even those can be deadly sometimes. Plus, I _technically_ still have it because they had to leave a little, since it's too close to a ventricle and he didn't want to risk trying to take out. They tried removing it with chemotherapy and radiation treatment once a week for six months, so that was fun. Not to mention, the f*cking thing came back twice. And all those surgeries led to me getting blood clots in my head, so they implanted a cranial shunt. Because of all this, I have to go to my hospital over an hour away once a year and have scans done to make sure everything is working right. *Exaggerated sigh.* Oh well, like my grandma used to say, at least I'm here to bitch about it😅
Man I also have a brain tumor I get light headed a lot also my hair is falling out. I am bloated and I keep getting random scars. I can’t play ps4 because it makes me feel like throwing up. I am currently using medicines to remove it they said it’s like chemotherapy. My boobs are also asymetrical now
this episode was so so hard to watch for me, i’m in recovery from an eating disorder and when i saw this i was just bringing treatment. i really love this episode
I genuinely love how the episode illustrates how the same behaviors that would be very obviously indicative of anorexia nervosa in an underweight person are just weight loss in a fat person
This is one of my favorite American Dad episodes, not only because the story is handled well, but it does speak to me as a former anorexic bordering on bulimic-
Ok, but I totally wasn't expecting that anorexia plot twist when I first saw it. And I thought Francine and Hayley were fattening up his celery out of spite, but no, they're actually trying to help him.
Seeing this as someone who had body dysmorphia, this hits hard. I used to weigh 180lbs at one point, then I went to the gym for about 6 months and dropped to around 130 (5’6 Male) and yet, I was not satisfied and still saw myself as fat and imperfect because I went through years of torment about my weight, especially in school. My family was really worried, you could see my hip bones, rib cage, etc. A couple of years have gone by since then, I’m at a more reasonable weight now and not starving myself, I look back at the pictures I took back then and realized that I had a serious mental issue because I finally saw what my parents were worried about that I didn’t see before, I had virtually no belly...it honestly scared me, looking back.
Weird thing for me is I'm 5'4 I weigh 154 and see myself as scrawny. Its weird it's the opposite I guess I hope you don't take this as mocking but it's weird I sometimes think I'm really scrawny.
I remember watching this years ago, and it surprised me! It's so so good! Him revealed to be skin and bones and Zack being a hallucination was so smart!
I remember being anorexic back in high school, but it wasn’t by choice. My step-mom malnourished me and my dad never did anything to stop her. I remember an incident in the locker room where one guy accidentally hit me on the thigh and went “ow! What was that?!” I told him “bone.” He said “dude, you’re anorexic!” I just thought ‘not by choice...’ Thankfully I moved into my grandmothers in my junior year, gained weight, was MUCH happier, and my life has improved since.
I don’t think that’s anorexia. Your step mother was just starving you I believe anorexia is a state of mind where you think your fat when you’re really not
@@SS-rk7gj na body dysmorphia plays a role, but anorexia is an obsession with weight, calories, the associated numbers, and like a phobia of being fat. Body dysmorphia plays a role in anorexia by convincing the person that they are fat even when they're not
Another hint that Stan wasn’t fat was Director Bullocks insult to stan He was making fun of him as if he was some frail old lady. Not a fat tub of lard.
I love how in the end we realize Francine and Hayley were actually trying to help Stan because he had lost so much weight, not because they wanted to make him fat
That’s why I love American Dad more than Family Guy. Stan isn’t a stupid gag like Peter, he’s a fragile guy with a tough childhood, who tries to become someone by working in the government and being a family dad. That’s why he falls into crack and into anorexy, because he doesn’t accept himself and Steve’s girlfriend reminds him of his childhood lacking of self-acceptance.
This is the first time that we see from what the person with anorexia sees before we see how they really look! In other shows dealing with eating disorders we only see it from everyone else's perspective.
This was an amazing episode. I always thought people who were suffering with anorexica were well stupid. But... with the amazing perspective change it really hit the nail on the head.
starvation affects the brain too. look up the minnesota starvation experiment - it’s wild how much even temporary starvation destroyed otherwise mentally healthy people’s minds
I wondered why Francine and Hayley are being so mean about injecting fat into Stan's veggies when he is struggling so much with losing weight. After the revelation though you realize just how worried everyone is and how desperate they are. And that it wasn't fat that made him run so slow. So sad.
As funny as this was I thought this was BRILLIANT. Like art in motion. I had experience in this and unfortunately it's amazingly true how you see your body in the mirror. You literally see a fat person.
i love how they wrote the episode to where we the viewers didn't know stan was anorexic till the very end where everything starts to click.
Yes, them writing it this way and surprising us near the end made it an even better story. A lesser show wouldve probably showed a main character getting anorexic while showing us his increaingly anorexic body all along, and maybe throwing in his dilusional fat body only now and again, like only when he looked in the mirror or something. And a lessor show would've shown us the excersise instructor being imaginary much sooner than they did. But having done it all that way would've taken away the surprise twist.
Yeah, we were in his POV this whole time until it finally snapped
It really is brilliant, because the majority of the episode is shown through his eyes without it being entirely through his perspective. It is the world his disorder gets him to think exists. You see his misinterpretations and delusions to a point of being entirely absorbed in his reality.
I thought Francine and Hailey were try to ruin Stan's diet by inject the fat oil to the vegetable until I realized Stan have the anorexia issue.
@@ban66a1 same when i was a kid it made me so mad lmao
"Get that away from me! Die calories die!"
As bad as eating disorders are, that part was funny.
😂 Lol that’s funny
It's on point
He's definitely gone off the deep end!
That part was funny and too real to me
When a cartoon by Seth MacFartjoke handles the topic of mental illness better than 13 Reasons Why.
13 reasons why is a joke. All it did was glorify teenage suicide and mental illness. Having shitty actors didn't help either
EVERYTHING is better written than 13 Reasons Why
to be fair american dad has an entirely different writing team than family guy
@@yareyarejose5080 that's why its good
To bad the new seasons of American dad are terrible.
Would you ever expect a Seth Mcfarlane cartoon to handle such a serious issue as anorexia with such tact and such a brilliant twist?
Seth mcfarlane has nothing to do with writing American dad. Only family guy. Completely different writing staff
03:21+03:22+03:23+03:24+03:25+03:26
@@trevor3013 I suggest research. American Dad was created by and stars Seth MacFarlane (Stan and Roger).
@@trevor3013 He only wrote the first episode before Family Guy came back from cancellation. After that he gave the creative freedom to the writers while he’s busy on Family Guy.
@@brukehintsa2207 that's why I love it. He's barely involved besides his voice XD
I thought he was legitimately fat until the end
But still, to bust him out of his delusions, try putting ur hand around his stomach area
@@jaykay8426 Not a bad idea, ill try that when someone i know has that problem.
So did I. I like stories like these, that make you think one thing and then surprise you. And how they didn't just make Stan being fat his own delusion, but made Stan's hard driving trainer who kept calling him fat also his delusion
@@jaykay8426 as long as there’s skin to pinch, it will feel like fat
So do most anorexics
I wonder if one of the writers either suffered from anorexia or knew someone who did because that is spot on for how someone with an eating disorder feels
That or they did heavy research.
anorexia is actually more common than you think, a lot of people just go undiagnosed. i wouldn’t be surprised if some of the team _have_ experienced it
Even the coach?
It’s scary how true this is, this episode is also very insightful especially for me. I remember my mother telling me at one point she could she my cheek bones. I hope anyone else going through this knows there not alone.
That's why I like American Dad more than I like family Guy. They do end up having a message or a very heartfelt message in their episodes at times.
I can see my whole ribcage and my bones in my neck but it doesn't mean I'm anorexic
@@seanpaddy5919
Is it hard for you to gain weight due to high metabolic issues ?
@@ray-0249 no I used to starve myself cause I thought I was overweight, I thought I was a healthy weight but then I sore just how skinny I was I could see every bone and every rib so now I'm trying to bulk up which is sort of going well
@@seanpaddy5919 that’s a good idea.
I have a friend who used to be anorexic, according to her this is basically it. At some points the calorie deficit goes to your brain and you literally can't be rational enough to see your problem. It truly is a weird illness
Year late, but also the fact that people try to force an anorexic to eat when they just can't. It's a mental illness and just forcing them is going to make them avoid it even more
@@laurendaley2503 I mean force feeding through the nose is a thing though. But yeah, forcing it is seldom helpful. Gotta get through them somehow
I had an ex girlfriend who was the same way
@@Umiruame for me, I have 2 friends on San Clemente and Toronto, In San Clemente, About an Actress since in 2015 (8 years later) I have an friend since in 2020, I just say hello to a new friend rachael, also she weights 40-lb and Not enough muscle, and in Toronto, I have a new friend Maddie, and the best thing I subscribe to her on TH-cam when I was at 21.
Honestly this is so fucking well made. I know how stan feels and his storyline here is so. Goddamn. True. For a fucking cartoon comedy this is incredible
holy shit i had anorexia in 7 grade, i lost 20 pounds and my hair started falling out, i had such bad body dysmorphia that even when i weight 110 and was 5 foot 3, i thiught i was obese. this is a great representation.
How did you perceive yourself? Did you genuinely think you were fat even when severely underweight?
@@aliajam6187 you know you’re « skinny » but you feel so big . we feel like we’re as big as a ballon , we feel like we’re knocking down everything on our way , everything feels heavier
@@sarafequiere3442 thank you for telling me.
I knew a girl like that it got bad to the point she stopped having her period
She passed out at school and had to be hospitalized where she thankfully got the help she needed her cycle afterwards was pretty screwed up tho I only know this because I found her in the bathroom crying when it set in she seriously messed up her chance to have kids one day because she got that obsessed with how she looked
@@aliajam6187 it’s not that i think i’m “fat” but that i can do better. when i think of being skinny i see it as an ideal, an achievement; but no matter how i perceive myself i don’t consider myself any of those things so i just keep going lower and lower until i’m satisfied, and i never am.
I know people have shown their love for this episode, but I just want to add that I really enjoyed the way that they switched to his real self after we saw his imagination. It was a small plot twist, but it actually got me when I first watched it, and that perspective really helps you understand what anorexic people go through.
Exactly. For the majority of the episode we see Stan how he sees himself, to a point of it looking like it is the actual reality.
Yep, and we realize Francine and Hayley were actually trying to help him since he had lost so much weight, it wasn't because they wanted to make him fat
@@Andy_0L Yeah, it shows that sometimes people who look like they are hurting you are really just trying their best to help you.
Yeah and I find it interesting how once Stan sees Zack at his own home and isn't actually there, his mind makes him say how he calls fat people tiny ironically, potentially meaning that at the gym he actually calls skinny tiny to try to get them to beef up. Also it's Stan's own delusion of Zack that concinves him that his family is trying to make him fat as a form of sabatoging him, like so many others in mental crisis have that push those closest to them away
@@joshhoffman517 Yeah, it's basically a personified insecurity.
it was mind blowing to me when their sabotaging his diet was entirely justified
In hindsight, no one said Stan was fatter except himself, Bullock just said he had a weight problem, and Zack never interacted with anyone else.
That was a genius twist, putting us in Stan’s head to show how anorexia can warp a persons perception of themselves, why everyone can see the problem but them.
I also liked that for most of the episode Stan was animated the way he saw himself. Another comment mentioned that they might have animated him is skinny and only showed his reflection in the mirror as fat or something. But this way we really see things through his eyes until his family reveals what his problem is. They also made out like Zack really was a person he met at the mall and didn't even imply that he was imaginary until later on; again they could have made it way more obvious by showing Stan talking to air and only having Zack appear some of the time.
Yes and we actually thought he was getting fatter until the plot twist
Zack never interacted with anyone else because he wasn't real.
@@Zoom12002 I know, that was the point.
@@hannahpapernick-yudin2846the fact that Zack showed up to his house and Stan was surprised that he knew where he lived was the first clue he wasn’t real
This was one of the biggest plot twists I've ever witnessed! I definitely remember this episode!
Gotta say this is handled brilliantly. Most shows we would see it from everyone else's perspective but here we see it from Stan's until the end. It really helps see it from the eyes of someone with the disorder
We will NEVER see something like this from the Simpsons or Family Guy. South Park and American Dad always had soul behind its writing
The Simpsons actually did It once, Lisa was bullied into thinking she was fat so she stoped eating and started working out like crazy, though she was conscient about her problem but didn't do anything about it
I don’t know why but when I first saw the reveal it actually scared me like a creepy scene in a horror movie.
This episode is so brilliantly written. Why couldnt these writers be on family guy?
Prophet Muhammad they aren’t
@Prophet Muhammad the end credits
I wish
@Prophet Muhammad they are not. Just google the writing credits
@Prophet Muhammad "proof" family guy has been around since 1999 and American Dad since 2005 how can you be so late 😭
This episode should have been called stanorexia
That would have ruined the surprise tho
@@albozru1e True, haven't thought of it that way
@@ajsimard3938 To be perfectly honest, for a long time, I thought the actual name for this episode WAS Stanorexia. It wasn't until much later that I learned what the actual name for the episode was.
If you're wondering where the mixup came from, or why I believed I had the right name for years after I had first seen this episode, well, if I knew the answer, I would tell you. Seriously, I have no clue where this mixup on my part came from.
That would be spoilers
This is scarily accurate
it hurts my ribs
ikr especially the “sabotage “ part
@@meIatonin yessss, I used to always think that everyone was out to get me
@@gracelynwoods yeah i saw everything as a competition and was constantly paranoid, i had my guard up 24/7. it was to the point where i saw my mom adding oil to *literally cook food* as her trying to secretly add calories in my food to make me gain weight-
@@meIatonin yeah I thought the same. I got too paranoid that I would only eat food prepared by me. And when I cooked food for others I secretly wanted them to eat a lot of it, while I wouldn’t eat any. It was messsd up.
I hope you’re feeling better now.
it’s very accurate how he thinks he got suspended because he was fat but really he was just weak and skinny
All of Bullock’s lines are twice as funny when you imagine Patrick Stewart in the sound booth.
Is that actually him? How the hell do they afford him?
This episode is extremely relatable. I still have issues with seeing myself as a fat person no matter how fit I appear to other people. I was fat throughout my entire childhood up until early adulthood.
My jaw dropped the first time I saw this episode. That reveal was just too good, even going the extra mile and making Bullock mention Stan has a "weight problem" but not emphasizing that it was in the opposite direction Stan believed.
I love how in this episode they managed to tackle serious problem such as eating disorder while also delivering laughs.
There's a girl in my school who it just registered with me is or was anorexic. I have no idea how it took me so long to realize. She's skinnier than me and I have a thyroid issue, and she literally wrote an essay about how scary anorexia is. I really do hope she has recovered. She seems to be at a healthier weight than she was, so I'm going to just hope. Talking to her about it would probably be a bad move.
You could try talking to her about other stuff, offer her friendship and see if she wants to talk to you about it; who knows you may just make a friend
If she asks you to leave her alone do so...
Just my two pennies worth
@@thomasjones6216 In the 6 months since I wrote this, we did start talking, we're friends despite me going to a different high school
@@dysphoria_1.040 ah that's nice to hear
Peace
I know I'm late, but it never hurts to try and talk about it, it's just important to be understanding and listen to them. It helps to know someone is thinking of you, even if the person isn't ready to get help.
I really thought the family sabotage his diet
Me too
😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣
Thats why this episode is so good
They did.
They did though it was for his own good
The way I watch this episode everytime I think about not eating again yup I need therapy
It's funny how Stan's upper body looks like a dorito when he's skinny
why is this the best representation i’ve ever seen of eating disorders LMAO 😭
this is the most relatable anorexia depiction i’ve ever seen and it’s from a comedy adult cartoon
jesus christ the body change at the end genuinely startled me
I remember watching this episode when i was younger and it left a huge impact on me. I was much heavier back then and still feel like this every time i look in the mirror or pictures. It just won't go away...
Yeah this is literally how it is. No matter how much weight I lost I still saw myself as obese. I went from over 220 lbs to lower than 130 in less than a year. Of course eventually when summer came around, people started to notice how much weight I really lost. So I went as far as wearing really oversized clothes in 90 degree weather. Though 90 degrees felt like 50 cause of how much I didn't eat. It was a constant struggle not to pass out infront of my family, because I knew that me starving myself was wrong, even if I didn't realize there was any real effect at the time. I was just terrified of being force fed in a hospital. Gaining weight was the worst thing that could ever happen in my head at the time, even if I lost only a few pounds I would be upset. I'm not going to go into the sick things I did to pull it off, so as to not give anyone currently suffering with anorexia any ideas, but it really does fuck with your head, and honestly I think most people with anorexia will come up with their own twisted ways anyway.
3:10 the obstacle course scene stood out for me because it showed that even his coworkers are worried about him. And he passes out from exhaustion because of how underweight he was, but we didn't know that because we were seeing it through his eyes.
Stan was especially vulnerable to this condition in that family.
He’s incredibly narcissistic, vein and judgmental about appearance.
When he realized he was fat, he freaked out and course corrected in the opposite direction.
Hailey is vein but also a lazy stoner and unambitious.
Francine is obsessed with looking young and beautiful. She might have a plastic surgery problem one day.
I remember watching this episode in the late 2000s and truly understanding what EDs meant. The choice to take the audience along with Stan’s delusion really drives home how evil anorexia is - and this came out 17 years ago
I love how they make us think he's getting fatter and give us the reveal at the same time as stan that was a good touch
Amazing how clearly this episode explains how body dysmorphia and suddenly I got how people can be trapped by it. By only showing Stans view of himself at first then the shock reveal of how he was wasting away to skin and bones illustrated it perfectly.
From all the reasons I have to love this episode, I think the main one is that this was the first episode I saw. Thanks to it, now I keep watching the show.😃
The first time you see this is a massive shock
Agreed just saw it now.
I gotta say, the first time I watched this episode and they showed Zach didn't even existed I legitimately got chills.
Seeing Stan that skinny reminds me of me when I was 11. I wasn't anorexic, but I had a brain tumor that made me sick everyday and I couldn't keep anything down. I only weighed 67 pounds. I could stand to lose a couple pounds now, but it's not like I'm "break the scale" heavy
Holy hell, you beat cancer?
@@dremorales1177 Well, I can't remember if it was a grade A tumor or benign, but even those can be deadly sometimes. Plus, I _technically_ still have it because they had to leave a little, since it's too close to a ventricle and he didn't want to risk trying to take out. They tried removing it with chemotherapy and radiation treatment once a week for six months, so that was fun. Not to mention, the f*cking thing came back twice. And all those surgeries led to me getting blood clots in my head, so they implanted a cranial shunt. Because of all this, I have to go to my hospital over an hour away once a year and have scans done to make sure everything is working right. *Exaggerated sigh.* Oh well, like my grandma used to say, at least I'm here to bitch about it😅
Man I also have a brain tumor I get light headed a lot also my hair is falling out. I am bloated and I keep getting random scars. I can’t play ps4 because it makes me feel like throwing up. I am currently using medicines to remove it they said it’s like chemotherapy. My boobs are also asymetrical now
@@keafka Man, sorry to hear that. Hope it gets better🙏
@@kittenclysm116 thank you are you okay now? And ive heard that tumors change the facial features as well i feel really bad about it
this episode was so so hard to watch for me, i’m in recovery from an eating disorder and when i saw this i was just bringing treatment. i really love this episode
I genuinely love how the episode illustrates how the same behaviors that would be very obviously indicative of anorexia nervosa in an underweight person are just weight loss in a fat person
Even a serious moment ends with honestly a pretty good joke.
Stan looks like the guy from the Stephen King movie Thinner.
Just watched that 2 days ago. At least there’s no gypsy pie involved.
This episode made me terrified of having an eating disorder
This is one of my favorite American Dad episodes, not only because the story is handled well, but it does speak to me as a former anorexic bordering on bulimic-
That’s how literally how an a ed looks like, they wrote the episode so good
I love this so much. It's perfect portraying ana
That tampon joke was to good to be real.
Ok, but I totally wasn't expecting that anorexia plot twist when I first saw it. And I thought Francine and Hayley were fattening up his celery out of spite, but no, they're actually trying to help him.
It's weird that Stan doesn't care that "Zack" can see Roger completely undisguised
as someone struggling with this disease, this is so accurate on how it affects us and how we think
This is just an American dad episode so it’s weird to say this but this video is surprisingly accurate for a random adult cartoon-
I remember watching this episode, and it never left me.
I remember this episode
Yeah, me too
*The song.*
i like american dad so much better than family guy partly because it handles serious topics like these so much better than family guy
"I know! I'm a huge tub of lard!"
LMAO
Honestly the description for the episode had me guessing what was happening
Seeing this as someone who had body dysmorphia, this hits hard. I used to weigh 180lbs at one point, then I went to the gym for about 6 months and dropped to around 130 (5’6 Male) and yet, I was not satisfied and still saw myself as fat and imperfect because I went through years of torment about my weight, especially in school. My family was really worried, you could see my hip bones, rib cage, etc. A couple of years have gone by since then, I’m at a more reasonable weight now and not starving myself, I look back at the pictures I took back then and realized that I had a serious mental issue because I finally saw what my parents were worried about that I didn’t see before, I had virtually no belly...it honestly scared me, looking back.
im glad you was able to fight back :)
I'm 5'7 male and I started 170 lbs and ended up weighting 115 lbs. I looked zombie like and it was scary.
Weird thing for me is I'm 5'4 I weigh 154 and see myself as scrawny. Its weird it's the opposite I guess I hope you don't take this as mocking but it's weird I sometimes think I'm really scrawny.
I remember watching this years ago, and it surprised me! It's so so good! Him revealed to be skin and bones and Zack being a hallucination was so smart!
This was such an awesome plot twist
I remember being anorexic back in high school, but it wasn’t by choice. My step-mom malnourished me and my dad never did anything to stop her.
I remember an incident in the locker room where one guy accidentally hit me on the thigh and went “ow! What was that?!”
I told him “bone.”
He said “dude, you’re anorexic!”
I just thought ‘not by choice...’
Thankfully I moved into my grandmothers in my junior year, gained weight, was MUCH happier, and my life has improved since.
I don’t think that’s anorexia. Your step mother was just starving you
I believe anorexia is a state of mind where you think your fat when you’re really not
@@Lightning-gg5iu that’s an example of body dysmorphia, which pairs with anorexia for sure, but anorexia is when you starve yourself/over exercise.
@@Lightning-gg5iu I cant believe there are parents like that in the world
That's not anorexia, that's neglect
@@SS-rk7gj na body dysmorphia plays a role, but anorexia is an obsession with weight, calories, the associated numbers, and like a phobia of being fat. Body dysmorphia plays a role in anorexia by convincing the person that they are fat even when they're not
TBH, the reveal of what Stan looked like scared the absolute life out of me when I was younger
Yeah. But I couldn't help but crack up at him calling himself a "huge tub of Lard."
My reaction when I saw the reveal of what Stan really looked like was "OMG!" 😢
Another hint that Stan wasn’t fat was Director Bullocks insult to stan
He was making fun of him as if he was some frail old lady.
Not a fat tub of lard.
I love how the obstacle course costs a billion dollars
Looks like you can get all that under a grand
I love how in the end we realize Francine and Hayley were actually trying to help Stan because he had lost so much weight, not because they wanted to make him fat
Stan's exercise regimen reminds me of mom. She does this.
4:32 they should’ve drawn the extra weight again to make us see that it’s his illusion
I like how they do a battle ship story
That’s why I love American Dad more than Family Guy. Stan isn’t a stupid gag like Peter, he’s a fragile guy with a tough childhood, who tries to become someone by working in the government and being a family dad. That’s why he falls into crack and into anorexy, because he doesn’t accept himself and Steve’s girlfriend reminds him of his childhood lacking of self-acceptance.
This is the first time that we see from what the person with anorexia sees before we see how they really look! In other shows dealing with eating disorders we only see it from everyone else's perspective.
This was an amazing episode. I always thought people who were suffering with anorexica were well stupid. But... with the amazing perspective change it really hit the nail on the head.
starvation affects the brain too. look up the minnesota starvation experiment - it’s wild how much even temporary starvation destroyed otherwise mentally healthy people’s minds
Good for Steve, finding a girl who's as nerdy as he is.
Spooked tf out of me when i first watched it
I wondered why Francine and Hayley are being so mean about injecting fat into Stan's veggies when he is struggling so much with losing weight. After the revelation though you realize just how worried everyone is and how desperate they are. And that it wasn't fat that made him run so slow. So sad.
I think this was the first episode of American dad I saw
I've been down to 80 pounds and man, I really know how Stan feels lol. This episode is amazing
He’s got the hour glass figure 🤭 4:26
One of the only episodes of any show I can remember that tackles Male eating disorders.
2:50 what my mom said about me and my ex girlfriend
4:08 *Peter Griffin:* "What a twist!"
0:44 Hitman on a diet
this episode is really sad. I think they portrayed it well
0:44 That's so real of him
A very real episode I’ve been fighting this for many years
"And most dangerous of all... climbing another net!"
I keep this episode in the back of my head while I’m losing weight.
Always stop when you see ab veins. I messed up dieting so many times...
@@AnonYmous-spyonmepls I don't think I'll be getting that far any time soon. But thanks for the tip, anyway.
This is one of my favorite cartoon episodes ever it’s pretty brilliant
Noticed how he never flinched when showing the “trainer” Rodger along with the rest of the family?
0:43 No matter I hated how I look from the camera lens distorting
"I know, I know, but you won't wear make-up." Lol 😂
*She.
As funny as this was I thought this was BRILLIANT. Like art in motion.
I had experience in this and unfortunately it's amazingly true how you see your body in the mirror.
You literally see a fat person.
I hate how he’s not clapping on the snare hit
Deema : it’s worse than we thought 4:24
I know, I’m a huge tub of lard!
@@Auta5tic no you aren’t, you’re just suffering from a delusional state.
"Of course none of this should be a problem, for a FIT agent!"
Title of vid 4:13
Stan’s mind is playing tricks on him 4:22 4:26
*DUN DUNUNUNUNIN DUN DUN DUN, DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN*
3:02 is this part of stan see things
Wow 😯 this is so relatable! I was confused why they were saying he wasn't fat until the end 🥺
I'd question why the machismo driven Bullock would even let Stan be on the exercise program.
To humiliate him.