The Biggest Loser to ruin your State Fair experience by calling you fat

Yet another Minnesotan will be competing on the upcoming season of The Biggest Loser (you know, that reality show where severely overweight people undergo dangerously extreme weight-loss regimens in humiliatingly scanty workout clothes in hopes of winning $250,000), hammering home the stereotype that Midwesterners aren’t just “big-boned,” we are blue-ribbon obese.

Maybe that’s why the show’s producers are scouting the Minnesota State Fair for contenders. Yes, The Biggest Loser is looking for adults who are at least 100 pounds overweight at our favorite bacon-wrapped, chicken-fried, corn-fed event of the year. Our reputation has preceded us. You want corpulence? We got your corpulence right here.

But before you go all Jay Leno with the fat jokes, let’s examine this. Being on The Biggest Loser isn’t just about a person’s BMI—it’s about character, drive, and the luxury to take a three-month sabbatical. Followers of the show may remember last season’s Minnesota contestants, O’Neal and Sunshine Hampton, a totally adorable father-daughter team from Richfield who lost an impressive combined total of 273 pounds. This season’s token Minnesotan, 28-year-old St. Paul boy Jesse Atkins, took a leave from his state court clerking job to vie for a spot on the show, and word on the street is it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. These Minnesotans are sending a message that says, “We refuse to let a lifetime of genetics, inactivity, and government-funded processed-food-farming truncate our lives. If we want to be manhandled by celebrity dieticians and personal trainers for 12 hours a day, we will do it.”

Yeah, it’s a little embarrassing that NBC producers have pegged our state for its potential weight-loss champs. (Notice how we didn’t call them “losers”?) But hey, maybe the show can slim down our state’s population, one fairgoer at a time.

Casting call for The Biggest Loser will be held at the KARE 11 Barn on Sept. 4. Wristbands will be distributed starting at 9 a.m.; interviews will take place 11 a.m.-4 p.m.