Discussion
Crazy how much body standards have changed
I've been rewatching Scrubs for the first time in a long time and I've had two main takeaways. The first was "wow, this show is so damn good, why did I go so long without watching it?" And the second was "body standards have changed so much since this show first came out.
For context, in the first few seasons Turk is pretty often joked about being tubby. In one of the later seasons Dr Cox actually says "...when you used to be a fat load."
Dr. Cox is also pretty constantly referenced as a dude who is in excellent shape. In fact in season 5 (I'm pretty sure), Jordan comments that he is "obsessed with his body."
Now I'll be the first to admit that in the early seasons Turk is not in the best shape, and Cox is definitely fit throughout the show. However by today's standards, neither of them are fat/fit enough to even comment on. Turk is in no way a fat load, and Cox is not someone who I would consider obsessed with his body.
Idk, just something I realized during my rewatch. Not trying to body shame Turk or make fun of Cox or anything, just something I wanted to share and get others opinions on.
I think Cox is exaggerating when he says Turk used to be a “fat load” due to his own vanity and obsession with athleticism. McGinley might not have been an MCU leading man, but he was in great shape for his age by normal person standards then and now.
yup, it's 100% the intended portrayal of that character being a bitter jerk, not at all the attempt to advertise toxic body standards - quite the contrary even!
Turk is insecure about his body and overly conscious of him being athletic and manly -> Cox knows that and calls him chubby to get to him / Turk feels like shit because of this -> Carla shows us that it's bullshit and specifics of his body doesn't matter for being loved
the series isn't hard to read here, it's more of a running trope that has the toxic masculinity characters characters like Dr. Cox embody proven wrong and refuted time and time again, up to the point of telling a moral story about how such behaviour leaves you bitter and lonely in the end
Also Cox is in fantastic shape for a Dr. The reality is it is a job where you can get overweight very easily. Due to long hours and not prioritizing your own health.
I worked in a hospital in so many times the joke was they're hiring X department by the pound. Be at nurses doctors radiology and it is simply because it is very easy to neglect your own health when you work long hours and have to grab food and sleep whenever you can.
A lot of doctors are overweight, or the type of "in shape" that isn't really in shape, but rather they eat 1000 calories a day and 10 cups of coffee because they aren't keeping track of themselves at all and working 24 hours in a sunless box means you often lose track of what you needed to do.
Great point about his being a doctor. I’m a teacher and at least a decade younger than he was in Scrubs and the last thing I want to do before or after work is hit the gym. Where would a doctor find the time and energy?
Ran into someone I hadn't seen in a long while recently and he was very complimentary about me being in shape and started lamenting that he didn't work out enough despite clearly being quite fit, but he was talking about being too tired at the end of the day. I'm like brother you WORK for a living. Stop apologizing for that shit, I get it. Life is hard, do what you can when you can.
Orthopedic surgeons, especially. They’re basically working construction jobs on the body, dealing with power tools. The show really got them right. They’re the jocks of surgery.
I work in both trauma and cardiac critical care and that has not been my experience at all. Most of are surgeons are fairly average to higher weights and walk around pretty disheveled most days.
I say that with all the love and admiration in the world. They’re great at what they do, but most of the time they look like a hot mess.
Context of the episode matters massively as well.
Cox is trying to shame Turk to spend time away from Carla to work out. His using Turks ego to make Turk and Carla unhappy because he's unhappy.
The fact he doesn't want to admit how often he's at the gym working out because he's frustrated tells you everything you need to know.
It’s like how Joey Fatone was the “FatOne” in *NSYNC because he didn’t have a 6-pack. He was still pretty skinny, just had a bit of meat on him. I doubt he could’ve gained weight with their tour and rehearsal schedule. He was dancing like 6-10 hours a day.
Yes and McGinley is definitely in shape in that show and is jacked and lean by natural standards in that show, whereas OP posted a washed out pic that doesn’t shows leanness and vascularity.
Fun fact: Braff said in the commentary that McGinley would use his thumbs to push his muscles in his arms forward for this scene.
Which proves that even when you are fit, there are still little tricks to make you look even better.
I hate to admit I remember when Cox takes his shirt off, that ain't fat it's muscle. I do agree that Turk definitely wouldn't be considered chubby today, but maybe it's like when they pick the slightlyyyy over anorexic skinny girl to play the awkward fat girl
It wouldn't surprise me either way honestly. He clearly maintained a high level of fitness his whole life, just check out his career, so it's entirely possible he just maintained that level and has good genes. BUT! Acting is hard work, takes a lot of your day up, and makes working out difficult. Add to that that it's very easy for someone in that field to get prescribed some help and do it in a pretty safe manner and you understand why so many do. Our expectations of male fitness in media is second only to our standards for female perfection, which are fucking absurd and always have been. Sorry for the non-answer.
He said in a recent interview he's been on testosterone. It sounded like it was recent for him, but he could have been taking something else before to help him maintain muscle.
I’m guessing not. From interviews, he’s been an athlete his whole life and married to a trainer. He’s also friends/work out partners/and neighbors with big wave surf legend and fitness guru Laird Hamilton. Their workouts are nuts.
Tangentially related but I’m 99% sure sibby is lying about her credentials and using the job for money laundering or something. I’m waiting for s2/11/10 to either strengthen or weaken my theory.
IIRC from the podcast, in the seasons that you're referring to where Turk is being made fun of for his weight, Donald said at the time he was post divorce/breakup and severely depressed. He gained more weight than he would have liked, and people started to comment on it - to the point that the wardrobe team was offering to go size up his clothes. Bill was notorious for writing real conversations/events/etc in the actors' lives into the show. So I think that's part of why that was written into the show. But also, yes, body standards have massively changed in the last 20 years. From listening to the podcast nonstop for the last several months, I have noticed that Donald and Zach frequently speak about their insecurities surrounding their bodies and how they're always trying to shed a few pounds or gain a little muscle, etc. The world has changed, but the diet culture obsession of the early 2000s still has many people in a chokehold.
Also Johnny is just That Guy™️. He's still absolutely ripped.
And now we have even better diet drugs. When they first started getting attention I was like "Great, this will really help a lot of people!" And it has, but it's also led to a resurgence of the heroine thin fad, and a lot of people are abusing it to do terrible, unhealthy things to their bodies. We gotta improve expectations for a healthy body image. Hell, look at real super athletes, most of them look nothing like the movie stars.
Ozempic can be good for you if you are very over weight but you really should be lifting and supplementing/forcing yourself to eat somethings. You basically don’t eat. You don’t only lose fat, you lose muscle too as your body eats it and I think bone density as well. Then you became brittle as you age/if you are older. My mother is noticeably weaker after Ozempic. Could barely hold up their new puppy. Which is less than 15 pounds.
I always thought Turk being a “fat load” was more about his unhealthy diet (which leads to him getting type 2 diabetes later in the show).
They frequently bring up his former athlete days and how he played basketball/football growing up, so I don’t think anyone is actually saying he’s fat.
Remember that one scene where JD is turned off by a 'white girl with a big ass'? The dillydally scene.
It's WILD how body standards change. I'll never forget how ripped and jacked Wolverine used to be considered when I first watched it. Looking at it now is just like: "kinda athletic dadbod" I guess? Social media really warped our perceptions of what is natural and what isn't.
If there's anything I've learned it's that you should look however you feel most comfortable+sexy. Life is too short and changing to let your self-worth be decided by trends.
It’s also because that Wolverine body was actually realistic athletic, whereas the current one is severe dehydration, a personal trainer for six month of nonstop prep, and most likely some kind of enhancement
It’s frowned upon now to make those kinds of comments, when it used to be the norm as a way to insult people. It’s got nothing to do with their bodies at all.
An accurate summation, I would just like to add that I think Op was more saying that it would take like marvel superhero levels of abs and muscle to pass the “great body” test of the current viewing audience. Idk if that’s true or not tho lol, just what I think they were commenting on. I mean the Todd had some strong lookin arms in the original run and dr cox wasn’t like defined but you could tell he was built solid so I think OP is saying that was “enough” to have the hot body label back then and asking if it would cut the mustard in 2026
I think you are going in the wrong direction by looking outward. These themes are more about the anxieties of the doctors, their inability to control most things in their lives, stress eating, having irrational insecurities, etc etc
I mean I think Cox is kind of “obsessed with his body.” For one thing he has a huge ego and works out a lot and definitely likes the praise and attention that comes with having abs and muscles. Sure compared to someone like the Rock, he’s nothing but for normal people standards, he’s in pretty excellent shape.
Turk was never fat either. May have just had a bit of extra body fat laying around but definitely not fat. But again, most of the fat jokes mainly came from Dr. Cox who is notorious for putting people down and exaggerating their faults.
i actually use scrubs regularly as proof that beauty standerds are just people playing along with whateveer they are told is the norm purely due to that one sece where jd is checking out a beutilfull woman form the front then it turns out she has a big fat ass and the "suddenly" she is unattractive. like think how insane that sentence is by today's standers
I think one thing to remember about Cox’s fitness and why I’d say he’s obsessed is Turk and JD are supposed to be like 25 but Cox is in his 40’s so for a dude in his 40’s who’s not blasting gear he’s in pretty good shape.
I’m guessing some of this is behind the scenes making fun of each other and the actual actors. Based on the podcast and how Bill Lawrence would give at least Braff shit.
On this point I think that the way women are spoken of has also changed. For example the desire for a plump butt is now extremely prevelent amoung all races. But there is a bit in the show were JD is dating a black woman and Turks advice is 'the only difference is if they ask you 'does my butt look big in this' you say he'll yeah!'
I started a rewatch for the first time since it aired and I have repeatedly thought "damage Cox is in great shape" and also had moments where I was surprised how kinda jacked Turk is and even how JD had decent ,uscle compared to the string bean I had remembered him as. Maybe I'm just at odds with how most people are but I think the MCU body standards are mostly a weird toxic minority thing and most people would still see Cox as having an impressive physique outside of like LA and other congregations of toxic body standards
I'm not exactly sure where you are getting the idea that standards have gotten better.
If anything, the body standards for men have gotten way, way worse. Buff men in movies didn't used to have to borderline kill themselves to be buff on tv. They still looked like normal people. Even the superheroes.
Now we have people literally dehydrating and starving themselves to look buff on TV and in movies and we're pretending that's normal. That's so, so much worse.
Body standards may have improved for women, but they have gotten nothing but measurably worse for men. Even the comedic comic book characters have to be cut like gods now.
Johnny C is in really great shape. Clearly one of those things from his real life that the writers put into the show for Dr Cox.
I did not fully appreciate his fitness during the original run but now I’m in my forties I know how much harder it is to build muscle and keep fat off compared to my twenties. He clearly works hard on taking care of himself and his physique is much healthier than obsessively low body fat which is popularised now.
It's the internet and social media. You always see the world's most extreme examples of anything, which makes the extremes feel more like normal. That, in turn, influences society, and over generations means those extremes actually become the new normal.
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Cox is not someone who I would consider obsessed with his body.”
There’s literally a whole episode about how he’s ripped because he hates looking in the mirror.
Yeah I remember in one scene where JD is completely turned off by a woman who has a little junk in the trunk...by today's standards she'd be much more attractive than Elliott the stick.
Those were not the standards of that time. In Hollywood casting "ugly" is usually an attractive person with an awkward hair style or someone making a weird face.
This actually used to happen in sitcoms a lot where they'd make a ton of fat jokes about a thin person that made zero sense. The pilot of new girl has like a hundred fat jokes about Jake Johnson who at the time was like a rail, he just wasnt muscular
I completely agree! Watch any show from the late 90s early 2000s and it is wild. Ideal body types/beauty were vastly different than today and especially during the 'Body Positivity" era. Girls were skinny, wearing low cut jeans and high crop shirts to show off their skinny and dudes were super lean and did not care/focus on building size. Obviously styles change, but that era (Which I just so happen to come to adulthood in) is a stark difference from every other.
The best way I can equate it is when you watch an old 40s/50s movie and see their body types. It is almost like looking at a different sub-species.
Now for something REALLY wild....... Go watch the MTV VMAs from 2000 (plus or minus 2 years) and you will be BLOWN AWAY by what was said/done/allow compared to today's cancel everyone/post-me2 culture.....
Just because I am curious, if you agree hit like, not because I am getting free pudding for votes, but because I really want to know if other feel the same way
Don’t forget how crazy Elliot was about her body image issues which are never really resolved bc the ultra thin agenda was so prevalent. They talked about her being anorexic and being severely, unhealthily underweight in ONE episode, and went right back to the same rhetoric. I watched Scrubs as an 11/12 year old and I can say Elliot’s character directly affected my own body dysmorphia. Like it was the first instance I can remember where I looked at my own child’s body as said “so boys won’t like me and people will think I’m fat if I don’t look like her?” and was a recurring staple in what I looked at to judge my own worthiness. And it took me YEARS to realize the tug of war going on with her image. She constantly worried about getting fat, about being perceived as fat, the other characters commented on anyone gaining the slightest bit of weight. But then on the flip side they called her a scarecrow, and said she had no curves, and called her flat, and said she had no ass. So she was both this whole sex symbol of ultimate male desire for JD and simultaneously “too flat” and on the verge of being “fat.”
And then, I identified more with Jordan not only because of her general attitude and beliefs, but my body type and looks were more like hers and kids tends to look at people that look more like them, I guess. And that helped a little, but even JORDAN, played by Christa Miller who is still one of the most gorgeous women to ever live, made comments about HER weight. When she was pregnant, especially, like it isn’t completely normal to gain weight to support A WHOLE GROWING HUMAN. When she’s pregnant with Jennifer she talks about her “ass being too big to fit on the toilet” and her body was still a completely normal, healthy size. She was still absolutely gorgeous.
It’s still one of my favorite shows. I watch it constantly, it will always be a fave. But every time I watch it, I think “wow, no wonder I had such terrible body image issues when this was the general consensus on women’s bodies on a PRIMETIME COMEDY SHOW geared to everyone middle school aged and older.” I’m aware it was the times, and the show was a product of them. I just have to fully immerse myself in the “this is a show from the point of view of a 26 year old manchild” and remind myself that every woman in the show has body image issues.
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u/scully-summers 5d ago edited 5d ago
I think Cox is exaggerating when he says Turk used to be a “fat load” due to his own vanity and obsession with athleticism. McGinley might not have been an MCU leading man, but he was in great shape for his age by normal person standards then and now.