Fat Chicks in Party Hats
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fat Chicks in Party Hats is a humor website purportedly run by a 14-year-old Mexican American named Miguel Roya.
It consists mainly of pictures of overweight women that Miguel has found on the Internet, to which he often adds demeaning captions. Part of the site's character arises from Miguel's broken English, e.g. "oh what will you name the baby!!! he did kick!!!! i am not pregnent. i am only a fatty."
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[edit] History
The website began in obscurity as a simple page on GeoCities containing pictures taken from other sites with captions such as "Psst i am made of ham!" Supposedly, Miguel's brother Ernie assisted in writing the HTML code.
The website gained notoriety when reviewed by internet humor writer Seanbaby. Soon, Portal of Evil, the company hosting Seanbaby's website, began hosting Fat Chicks in Party Hats as well. Seanbaby began taking over the design while strongly emphasizing that Miguel was still writing the content. Ernie and Seanbaby were said to have written a single caption each, leading to a popular hunt among the community of fans.
[edit] Hate mail
People have found out that their own pictures were on this site, and there is a rather large hate mail section. This began shortly after the surge in popularity caused by Seanbaby's acclamations. Miguel's response was to post the emails in a new section and to write a personal response there as well.
There were multiple threats of lawsuits against both Miguel and the company behind Portal of Evil by individuals whose images had been taken from their personal sites and used without their consent. This action led to a hot debate among some netizens about the rights of individuals who post content to the public domain. Likewise, the conflict led to the question of whether companies who host server space for controversial material are responsible for that material. Portal of Evil obtained legal advice and continued to support the site in spite of the cost in time and money. No actions went to court and the site was generally understood to be legal.
The result of this legal controversy has been an increase in the awareness of the existence of communities such as BBW, fat acceptance, fat fetishism, and fat admirers, as some of the unwilling models for the site are members of or advocates for these groups. Internet discussions of Fat Chicks in Party Hats have invariably led to arguments on the issues of political correctness, censorship, and basic courtesy.
[edit] Who is Miguel?
Miguel may not be whom he claims. Many consider his English grammar to be atypical of Mexican Americans. In particular, these individuals point out that Miguel's use of English scarcely improved during the time the website was being constructed. Some believe he is actually a brainchild of Seanbaby. Others think he may be another anonymous individual who has fooled even Seanbaby.
[edit] Reviews and references in popular culture
- Premium Magazine conducted an interview of Miguel.
- Fat Chicks in Party Hats was referenced on the cover of Maxim.
- Bizarre Magazine posted a brief review and a comparison with a parody of Oxford University.
- The New York Post posted a brief review of the site in 2001.
- Entertainment Weekly mentioned the site briefly.
