ABSTRACT
The 2200-year-old Terracotta Army of Chinese Emperor Qin is known as the eighth wonder of the world, and comprises at least 8000 life-size figures molded from clay, each one unique in size, facial features, hair style, clothing, and posture, and each is sculpted in incredible detail. Buried with the Emperor to ensure his continued high status in the afterlife, most of the characters are military: foot soldiers, archers, cavalry, generals, and so on; others are accountants and administrators. Of all the thousands of statues, only one is obese: the entertainer – included to ensure that the Emperor could still enjoy a good laugh at someone else’s expense between battles. The comedic appeal of the obese male has been evident throughout history. Even before a fat man speaks, the audience is already in his thrall, the sight of a rotund abdomen ensuring warmth and mirth. The fact holds true almost universally, throughout the Italian Atellan plays, comedia dell’arte, English mummers plays, and in literature, where roly-poly characters such as Sancho Panza – literally ‘Mr Gut’ – amuse the reader with their buffoonery. Falstaff was a self-confessed ‘goodly portly man, i’faith, and a corpulent, of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage’.
