Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Sofie Hagen has built Fat Jokes around a series of voice messages sent by an obsessive fan, deconstructed to offer a way into the show’s many themes. For example, the comic is quick to challenge the implication that being fat and being beautiful are mutually exclusive and is clearly baffled by the idea that having a Danish accent can be attractive. 

Identifying as non-binary and queer, and currently tending towards ‘them/they’, Hagen has fun with the smugness felt in using preferred pronouns correctly, especially if someone else is failing to do so. 

A central section addresses fatphobia and the everyday discrimination that is all too common. The inadequacy of chair provision leads to a lengthy tale of Hagen’s experience at the hands of a boutique owner who thinks they are treating everyone the same by ‘not seeing size’. Would this person also ‘not see disability’? A series of statistics on public attitudes to size is a truly shocking moment, and Hagen presents this without commentary or reaction, letting the numbers speak for themselves. 

There’s a smart joke about how strange it is for people to treat comedy as a homogeneous genre when the same doesn’t apply to music. And while Hagen talks passionately about their love for comedy as a force for good, they call out those who do not do the same, cataloguing the hypocrisy of some male comedians in their attitudes and behaviour. 

While the individual elements of Fat Jokes work well, there’s not a strong enough narrative arc, and it never feels more than the sum of its parts. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of love in the room for the comic, heightened by the fact they are struggling with losing their voice. Although this is not their finest hour, there’s enough to satisfy fans.

• Sofie Hagen: Fat Jokes is on at Monkey Barrel Comedy at 4.15pm

Review date: 22 Aug 2022
Reviewed by: Matt Carwardine-Palmer
Reviewed at: Monkey Barrel Comedy Club