# The Ass Was Fat 'The Ass Was Fat / Arthur Sees A Fat Ass' began with a disturbing 4chan request on February 7, 2012, when an anonymous poster asked for pornographic drawings of characters from the PBS children's show Arthur and repeatedly justified his tastes with the phrase. One day later a screencap of the thread hit r/WTF, and Quickmeme users made an image macro series out of the Arthur Read character peeking around a doorway, wide-eyed. ## Origin On February 7, 2012, an anonymous user on 4chan started a thread asking for pornographic drawings of Arthur Read and Sue Ellen Armstrong from the PBS Kids series Arthur[3]. In the thread, the poster described Sue Ellen and another character named Molly in graphic sexual detail, returning again and again to the phrase 'the ass was fat' as justification for his fixation[1]. Reactions split between disgusted users reading the request as sincere and others taking it as a joke, and the phrase was echoed back by other posters in the same thread[1]. The first Arthur peeking-around-the-corner image macros were made inside that thread before it was archived[3]. - **Platform:** 4chan (origin), Reddit and Quickmeme (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2012 ## Overview Each macro in the series combines a shot of Arthur Read mid-tiptoe, head poking into a room, with a two-line caption[1]. The top line describes some unflattering trait of an unseen person, and the bottom line absolves the character's gawking with 'but the ass was fat.' Comic effect comes from the contrast between a wholesome children's show character and the dismissive horny one-liner being put in his mouth[1]. Later edits omit Arthur entirely and apply the phrase as a reaction caption on photographs of other subjects, where naming a flaw followed by 'but the ass was fat' does the comedic work on its own[3]. Quickmeme hosts a page cataloguing dozens of these variants under the 'Arthur Sees A Fat Ass' label[2]. ## How to Use Posts in the format typically combine the still of Arthur peering around a doorway with a two-line caption. The first line names some unattractive or odd trait of a hypothetical woman, and the second line concedes 'but the ass was fat' as the overriding factor[2]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is The Ass Was Fat? 'The Ass Was Fat / Arthur Sees A Fat Ass' is a 2012 catchphrase and image macro series in which the Arthur Read character peeks into a room while a two-line caption lists a woman's flaw and then concedes 'but the ass was fat' as the excuse[3]. ### Where did The Ass Was Fat come from? It comes from a 4chan thread posted on February 7, 2012, in which an anonymous user asked for pornographic drawings of characters from the Arthur TV show and repeatedly used 'the ass was fat' to justify his requests[1]. ### What does The Ass Was Fat mean? In the macro, 'but the ass was fat' is used as a dismissive justification for lusting after a person whose other traits the speaker has just called out as unattractive[2]. ### How do you use The Ass Was Fat? Users typically combine the Arthur peeking shot with a top-line description of some flaw and a bottom-line punchline reading 'but the ass was fat,' though later edits also apply the phrase to non-Arthur reaction photos[2]. ### Is The Ass Was Fat still popular? Peak attention came in February 2012 after the thread was crossposted to r/WTF[1] and image macros appeared on Quickmeme[2]; it sits in the catalog of early-2010s 4chan-era image macros today. ## References 1. [https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/phkuu/the_ass_was_fat_xpost_from_r4chan/]() 2. [http://www.quickmeme.com/Arthur-Sees-A-Fat-Ass/?upcoming]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-ass-was-fat-arthur-sees-a-fat-ass]() 4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/search?q=ass+was+fat&sort=relevance]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/the-ass-was-fat-arthur-sees-a-fat-ass Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library