''The Fat Slags'' is a British
comic strip appearing in the
alternative
Alternative or alternate may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki''
* ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film
* ''The Alternative ...
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
comic ''
Viz''. The characters made their debut in 1989, their first appearance being in issue 36. The eponymous
slags are Sandra Burke and Tracey Tunstall, known to other characters as San and Tray. They are depicted as overweight, eating large amounts of food, mainly chips, while also having a lot of
casual sex
Casual sex is sexual activity that takes place outside a romantic relationship and implies an absence of commitment, emotional attachment, or familiarity between sexual partners. Examples are sexual activity while casually dating, one-night ...
. As with other ''Viz'' strips, the strip's authors use a brash writing style. "Slag" is a British English word for "
slut
''Slut (archaic: slattern)'' is an English-language term for a person, usually a woman or girl, who is considered to have loose sexual morals or who is sexually promiscuous. It is usually used as an insult, sexual slur or offensive term of d ...
", or loose woman.
Activities
The Slags' eating frequently follows a night of
binge drinking, and the circumstances of the sex or the partner in question are rarely an issue - they have been known to leap on delivery men or workmen for gratification, with the targeted man rarely given an opportunity to resist or escape. Both slags regularly enjoy carnal relations with Baz (full name Barry Askwith, seemingly as a nod to the actor
Robin Askwith
Robin Mark Askwith (born 12 October 1950) is an English actor and singer who has appeared in a number of film, television and stage productions.
Making his film debut as Keating in the film '' if....'' (1968), a role he would reprise in ''Brita ...
), a local jobless dropout who divides his time between drinking, committing crime, and having sex with San and Tray. Baz's good-natured wife, Thelma Haystacks-Askwith (daughter of Horace Haystacks), often finds out that Baz is cheating on her, but invariably forgives him. The other major character in the strip is Baz's slightly more successful friend, Dave, who works as a
refuse collector but obtains most of his income through
benefit fraud.
Whilst most ''Viz'' characters are recognisably from
North East England, with the comic largely written in
Geordie dialect, the Fat Slags and their friends converse with a
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
accent. This originates with the characters' creator Graham Dury who, unlike the Geordie founder of ''Viz'', is originally from that area.
Both characters are noticeably warm-hearted and easy-going, and their friendship is never undermined by their conquests. Although both of the Slags are somewhat stupid - albeit good-natured -
nymphomaniacs, Tray is marginally more intelligent and literate than San, who is marginally more nymphomaniacal than Tray. These factors, combined with Tray's more dominant personality, make Tray the leader and San the follower in their adventures. One strip parodying the ''Batman'' films featured Tray as Batslag and San as Nobbin. In another strip, San got pregnant and brought the baby to term, tearfully vowing that she was prepared to make any sacrifice for her daughter's happiness. In the very next panel, realising that motherhood would conflict with her pub-crawling, she gave up the baby for adoption.
Tray normally wears tight-fitting Capri pants whilst San normally wears a too-small skirt; since the latter garment has more potential for jokes, San tends to get involved in more slapstick than Tray does. Although neither Slag has ever refused alcoholic refreshment in any setting, their favourite place to tipple is the "Dog and Hammer" pub, somewhere in Fulchester. Their run-down home - with its floor-level collection of alcohol cans, takeaway containers and cigarette butts - is at 22, Shit Street, Fulchester, which once featured as a porcelain model marketed by Viz in parody of products such as those of Franklin Mint.
A
running gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are no ...
is that the Slags will accuse any men unwilling to sleep with them of being homosexuals and/or having small penises, and many other women of being unattractive and overweight, even when they are quite clearly far prettier and thinner than our heroines themselves.
Social context
Their excessive lifestyle is a parody of British
ladette
Lad culture (also the new lad, laddism) was a media-driven, principally British and Irish subculture of the 1990s and early 2000s. The image of the "lad"—or "new lad"—was that of a generally middle class figure espousing attitudes typically at ...
culture. ''Viz'' creator
Chris Donald
Chris Donald (born 25 April 1960 in Newcastle, England) is the founder of, and one of the principal contributors to, the British comic magazine '' Viz''.
Biography
Donald attended West Jesmond Primary School,http://www.communitychannel.org/c ...
refers to this in his book, where he also mentions that the portrayal of the Slags was criticised by feminists writing in the ''
Guardian'' newspaper. At the time of these criticisms the Fat Slags had not appeared in the comic for more than a year, but as a direct response to the criticism they were immediately resurrected for the next issue, in which they had a humorous run-in with the feminist
Millie Tant. Donald later questioned why the ''Guardian'' had slated the portrayals of the Slags, but had not mentioned that the two male characters were portrayed as a cheating layabout and a fraudster, and that the strip's only "well-behaved" character, Thelma, was a woman.
Tunnel Boring Machines to construct the Jubilee underground line in London ("fat slugs") were named after the Fat Slags.
Merchandise
In 1992, a Fat Slags
single was released, a
cover
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of co ...
of the 1963
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...
hit "
Summer Holiday". The
b-side was a track called "Dance of the Handbags (Oh Lordy! It's The Fat Slags)". Both tracks were produced by
Mike Stock and
Pete Waterman
Peter Alan Waterman, (born 15 January 1947) is an English record producer, songwriter, radio and club DJ, television presenter, president of Coventry Bears rugby league club and a keen railway enthusiast. As a member of the Stock Aitken Water ...
, two of the producers of
Stock Aitken Waterman
Stock Aitken Waterman (abbreviated as SAW) are an English songwriting and record production trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman. The trio had great success from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s. SAW is considere ...
. The single failed to enter the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
.
The characters once appeared in a UK television advert for energy drink
Lucozade
Lucozade is a British brand of soft drink manufactured and marketed by the Japanese company Suntory. Created as "Glucozade" in the UK in 1927 by a Newcastle pharmacist, William Walker Hunter (trading as W. Owen & Son), it was acquired by the B ...
, saying "Get it out of our fridge!" in unison.
Animated version
In 1992,
stop motion
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
animated shorts were produced for PolyGram Video, with Jo Unwin voicing Tracey,
Kathy Burke
Katherine Lucy Bridget Burke (born 13 June 1964) is an English actress, comedian, writer, producer, and director. She achieved fame with her appearances on sketch shows such as ''French and Saunders'' (1988–1999) and her recurring role as Mag ...
as Sandra, and
Simon Day
Simon William Day (born 7 June 1962) is an English comedian and actor known for his roles in the sketch show '' The Fast Show'' and the sitcom ''Grass''.
Career
Day was born in Blackheath, London, and rose to fame as a stand-up comic, winning ...
as Baz. The episodes, "Slags at Large", "Working Girls", and "Dirty Weekend", were first released on VHS in November 1992 and were later compiled on DVD in 2004 as ''Oh Lordy! It's The Fat Slags''. 1994 saw the release of ''Return of the Fat Slags in Blue Honeymoon'', this time with
Jenny Eclair
Jenny Eclair (born Jenny Clare Hargreaves; 16 March 1960) is an English comedian, novelist, and actress, best known for her roles in ''Grumpy Old Women'' between 2004 and 2007 and in ''Loose Women'' in 2011 and 2012.
Early life
Eclair was born ...
voicing Tracey.
''Fat Slags: The Film''
In 2004,
Entertainment Film Distributors
Entertainment Film Distributors, Ltd. is a British distributor of independent films in the UK and Ireland for various production companies, founded by Michael L. Green and currently run by his son Nigel Green.
Michael L. Green was a veteran pro ...
released a film adaptation of the comic strip. It included cameo appearances from numerous well-known personalities, including
Geri Halliwell
Geraldine Estelle Horner (née Halliwell; born 6 August 1972) is an English singer, songwriter, author, and actress. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls. With over 100 million records ...
(as Paige),
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. She began her career at the age of 15, and established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the past four decades. Cam ...
(sales assistant),
Angus Deayton (Maurice the hotel receptionist) and
Dolph Lundgren
Hans Lundgren (, ; born 3 November 1957), better known as Dolph Lundgren, is a Swedish actor, filmmaker and martial artist. His breakthrough came in 1985, when he starred in '' Rocky IV'' as the imposing Soviet boxer Ivan Drago. Since then, Lu ...
(Randy).
It was reported that the strip's artist,
Graham Dury
Graham Dury (born 1962 in Clifton, Nottingham) is a British cartoonist. He is known for his work with '' Viz'', having contributed to the magazine from its early years. He co-conceived and personally created ''The Fat Slags'', one of the magaz ...
, was so demoralised by the treatment of his creations that he announced that he was dropping them from the comic altogether.
This was actually a misquote by an over-enthusiastic press officer and there was no intention of dropping the characters. Dury did not watch the film.
References
External links
*
BBC News Online
BBC News Online is the website of BBC News, the division of the BBC responsible for newsgathering and production. It is one of the most popular news websites, with 1.2 billion website visits in April 2021, as well as being used by 60% of the U ...
R.I.P. The Fat Slags*
Chubby Datingof the first Fat Slags strip
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fat Slags
British comics
British underground comics
Comics about women
1989 comics debuts
Comics characters introduced in 1989
Viz characters
Comic strip duos
Female characters in comics
Fictional English people
Comics adapted into animated series
Comics adapted into television series
British comics adapted into films