"Today the world has lost a true creative genius and a special man," the filmmaker's brother said in a statement. "I am so proud to have worked together with him."
  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    85·
    23 days ago

    His documentaries, especially his TV show, were a bit on the questionable side, but I’m sorry he died so young.

      • mindlight
        39·
        23 days ago

        Most likely it was alcohol. It’s known to cause some types of cancer.

      • CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.netEnglish
        11·
        22 days ago

        His insinuation that McDonald’s caused liver damage in his documentary was pretty questionable especially when it came out that he’d failed to mention his severe alcoholism.

    • cm0002@lemmy.world
      2567·
      23 days ago

      I will never forgive this guy for at the very least being a major contributing factor in having the supersize fries taken off the menu >:(

      • danc4498@lemmy.worldEnglish
        861·
        23 days ago

        I’d say he single handedly killed the supersize option at McDonald’s. Though I don’t think this was the point of his documentary, I still think it’s a massive accomplishment by a single person.

        • cm0002@lemmy.world
          41·
          23 days ago

          Well it’s debatable just how much influence it had, officially McDonald’s says that the documentary had no effect on their decision.

          Buttttt they took it off the menu and started highlighting their healthy options just 6 weeks after it’s release, which is a pretty standard corporate timeline to react to something sooo yea

          • OldWoodFrame
            342·
            23 days ago

            Admitting a negative documentary impacted your decision making just invites more to be made. Obviously it was the reason. Obviously they’ll never say that.

        • frankpsy
          3·
          22 days ago

          Would have to say very much so and ended the trend of bigger and bigger food and beverage options. I remember there being a coffee chain that was competing with Starbucks at the time that introduced a full 44oz frappucino-type drink, and convenience stores starting to introduce 52oz sodas. Seemed like the sky was the limit back then but all those super-sized options disappeared within about a year after Super Size Me.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        507·
        23 days ago

        His TV show had the absolute worst argument in favor of raising minimum wage that I have ever seen, which really pissed me off because he could have made a legitimate argument. But no, he challenged he and his girlfriend to live on the equivalent of minimum wage at the time for 30 days. His girlfriend insisted they continue their organic vegan lifestyle, so they blew through their food budget, and then one of them got a not especially serious cold and they went to the ER over it.

        If you’re going to live like you’re on minimum wage, show how hard it is just to survive on that. Don’t do that first world middle class problems bullshit.

        • snooggums@midwest.socialEnglish
          27·
          23 days ago

          By blowing through the budget they showed that choosing to eat healthy food is not an option on minimum wage. Surviving is too low a bar to get the point across.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            303·
            23 days ago

            If you’re trying to show that to a general audience, don’t insist you eat a diet that most of them wouldn’t eat whether or not it was affordable. All it makes you look like is someone who grew up in privilege and doesn’t understand poverty or the need to make sacrifices because of it.

            • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
              81·
              23 days ago

              First, I’ll agree it wasn’t a completely objective approach to trying to live on minimum wage.

              All it makes you look like is someone who grew up in privilege and doesn’t understand poverty or the need to make sacrifices because of it.

              I think that was also part of the point. He was reflecting much of his audience showing just how incompatible a privileged lifestyle is with the majority of the working poor. His conclusion wasn’t “this is the way to do this” but instead “Look how bad I screwed this up trying to live even partially like I normally did”.

              It was an imperfect episode, but is one of the few videoed storytelling of someone with means trying to experience a lower standard of living than they are used to. To-date its the only one I can think of that showed some of the in-the-trenches difficulty of trying to find housing, a job, transportation to the job, food budgeting, and uninsured healthcare interactions and costs. For a 45 minute runtime with explanation of the premise to conclusion, it had some value.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                2·
                23 days ago

                I just don’t agree. I think people looked at that and said that it proved that it’s easy to live on minimum wage as long as you don’t insist on eating things like organic food.

                What it needed to prove is that it isn’t possible to live on minimum wage.

                • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                  1·
                  22 days ago

                  I just don’t agree. I think people looked at that and said that it proved that it’s easy to live on minimum wage as long as you don’t insist on eating things like organic food.

                  i think this is more of a cope than anything, even if you presented these people with a fair and balanced take they would just start making shit up anyway “oh they probably do drugs” “oh they probably buy designer clothes” “oh they probably have a nicer car” etc. etc. etc.

                • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  23 days ago

                  I just don’t agree. I think people looked at that and said that it proved that it’s easy to live on minimum wage as long as you don’t insist on eating things like organic food.

                  They (he and his wife) were barely scraping by before the organic food thing, which was one single purchase. If anyone came away thinking it was just that one purchase that sent them off the rails then I’m not sure they’d be convinced anyway about the difficulties and dangers of minimum wage income to support oneself.

                  What it needed to prove is that it isn’t possible to live on minimum wage.

                  I believe we agree already its not possible to live on minimum wage. I’m not sure its fair to lay the blame of this not being fully acknowledge in society at the feet of a 45 minute reality TV show.

            • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              1·
              22 days ago

              All it makes you look like is someone who grew up in privilege and doesn’t understand poverty or the need to make sacrifices because of it.

              but you could also flip this on its head, start eating dumpster food, and saving as much money as possible, living as frugally as possible, only to demonstrate that actually “minimum wage isn’t that bad” which would further worsen the issue, so, i guess a balance here is needed.

        • WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world
          5·
          22 days ago

          His show had an episode with a mom trying to drink like her college daughter. The mom starts going out most nights, eating like shit and feeling bad during the day. The part that has stayed with me for almost 20 years is how the mom was definitely having a good time towards the middle of the month. When I first saw it I was a little younger than the daughter and now I am a little younger than the mom was at filming. When I question if I should start drinking more again, I think of that lady and say “Maybe.”

        • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          22 days ago

          i mean even then, i think it’s still fair. It shows problems of the more privileged sure, but if the more privileged people are skill issued this hard, imagine what poor people are dealing with.

      • ctkatz@lemmy.ml
        136·
        23 days ago

        turns out that he felt shitty not because of the food but because he was alcohol detoxing at the same time of his mcd experiment.

        I will agree fast food isn’t good for you, but at the same time it’s also not going to do what spurlock portrayed. just take a look at the workers who have been at a place for more than a few years.

          • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
            16·
            23 days ago

            In order to maintain his health, he doesn’t eat french fries and walks six miles a day.

            “… And takes a massive amount of undisclosed statins and BP meds,” probably lol. Seriously, I have to wonder though if people like this are bankrolled in some way by fast food to offset the negative publicity they get. Then they (under privacy laws) must offset this stuff privately with their doctor.

            Came up with a new song, Nights in white statinnnnn. Needs some work, though.

        • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
          21·
          23 days ago

          I’ve known people who were vegetarian/vegan for a while and then ate meat and got sick from it. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

      • ganksy@lemmy.world
        31·
        23 days ago

        I guess while I’m on my righteous health craze, I’ll skip the booze.

        All that just to have your legacy be sensationalism. Sometimes I’m glad I’m an introvert.

      • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
        3·
        23 days ago

        It’s really not a hard thing to cut out… Especially with how much I’ve heard they cost these days, for the exact same shitty product.

        I used to go once in a while to get their shitty cheap breakfast burritos (thinking about it makes my mouth water), 2 for 2 Dollars.

        Last time I went I was out almost 5 dollars for the exact same shitty tiny breakfast burritos.

        I can get a giant hand made breakfast burrito for less than twice that. Or a carton of beaten eggs, Mexican cheese tortillas and sausage for the same price

        • Juvyn00b@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          22 days ago

          Worked at McDonald’s. Many many eons ago. Used to open on the weekends for them. That meant I had to change the grease out of the fryer vets. The management there only gave us a quarter per hour for break, so during my dumping of the oil I would swipe a few of those burritos and jam on them in the back. Very fond memories of those.

      • Agrivar@lemmy.world
        11·
        22 days ago

        I haven’t eaten that garbage in over two decades - is it really that hard to believe someone could stop eating McD’s?

  • kandoh@reddthat.com
    620·
    23 days ago

    He’s a good lesson in why you can’t take a documentary as 100% truth, no matter how good it is or how much the message confirms your biases.

      • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        3·
        22 days ago

        Because he was a massive alcoholic and was experiencing the effects of detox and passing it off as what he was doing for the documentary

        They said “he is” not “here is”