Due the rising fears and conspiracies surrounding Fat Hippos during the 1980s, a Weightwatchers scheme was set up by the governments of the world. It enjoyed brief success, but crashed and burned in 1998 when a Hippo was photographed pooing on a cuter animal, which generated a lot of hatred for the hippos. The Fat Hippo Weightwatching scheme is now just a fond memory in the minds of all those involved.

Is naming a restaurant Fat Hippo a good idea or a bad idea? Other restaurants with cute animal names -- like Spotted Pig and Fatty Crab -- have done well. But there's something about Fat Hippo that invites fat jokes, such as my self-deprecating friend who claimed the name described her "spot-on" (not true) when we made plans to check it out. Ten Vong's whimsical, comfort food menu looked heavy -- would we feel like fat hippos after dinner? New York Observer film critic Rex Reed (who we've profiled here before) famously called Melissa McCarthy "tractor-sized," a "female hippo," and a "screeching, humongous creep" in his review of Identity Thief.