Diet Episode

"So I'm on a diet... Big deal. You know what a "diet" is, don't you? It's "die" with a "T," that's what it is!"

A character is sneaking out to the kitchen for a midnight snack. He is careful not to wake up his wife or else he'll get caught. The minute he opens the refrigerator, he suddenly hears footsteps, so he turns around just in time to see his wife standing behind him with a stern expression on her face. The wife then promptly puts her husband on a diet for trying to raid the refrigerator at night. Cue twenty minutes of him complaining about the "rabbit food" she's serving him (a man's gotta have his meat and potatoes!) and him trying to cheat.

Another variation is a character (usually female, but men aren't immune) realizing they've gained a few pounds or feeling insecure when someone comments about their appetite or body size. After one person says "well, you could lose a few", they'll spent the rest of the episode eating celery, jogging, and using a dress they fit into twenty years ago as the baseline for how successful they were.

This is a type of episode that shows up in almost every form of media. When a character is caught trying to eat more than he usually does, he will promptly be put on a diet, or the character decides to go on a diet himself. Expect the dieting character to sit at a table where everyone's eating meat and potatoes or other delicious but fattening food while they miserably pick at their plate of steamed vegetables and brown rice.

Becoming a Dead Horse Trope as the obese become Less Acceptable Targets.

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Anime and Manga

• There is one in Kamen no Maid Guy, where Naeka and Fubuki want to lose weight and enlist Kogarashi aka the titular Maid Guy to help them. Hilarity Ensues.
• Azumanga Daioh's Yomi is seemingly always on a diet. Her Day in The Limelight episodes often feature her trying several unsuccessful diets.
• Usagi tried to go on a diet but failed in an early episode of the first Sailor Moon anime. . . which involved the villains taking energy from girls who were obsessed with getting thin.
• There is also a Yes! Pretty Cure 5 episode where Coco goes on a diet because he got fat (although you never really see the difference in his human form) from eating too many cream puffs.
• Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt has one in which, thanks to a Ghost, Stocking finds herself gaining weight (something that never happened before, considering all the fat she consumes goes to her breasts) and starting a DIETO.
• Taken Up to Eleven in a season 2 episode of Gintama where most of the major female characters became obese within the same time period and were enrolled into a fat camp. They all go back to normal at the end of the episode after eating laxitive-laced chips.
• In Aikatsu! Ichigo gains a lot of weight over New Year's. After a bit of prodding by her friends she loses the extra weight, but becomes overly obsessed with staying skinny (e.g. getting worried when she gains 100 grams (about 3.5 oz) of weight). At the end of the episode she learns not to overly obsessed, after Mizuki (the school's top idol) tells her that even she let's herself go occasionally
• In Magical Idol Pastel Yumi the title character puts herself on a diet.
• Two of these in The Adventures of the Little Koala:
  • A Very Special Episode has Pamie Penguin starving herself after one of the bullies teases her about her weight. She ends up fainting and learning a lesson about accepting herself.
  • Subverted in the episode "Papa on Stilts." While the intended goal is for Papa to lose weight, more emphasis is placed on him getting more exercise. It's because he doesn't go on a diet and eat less that he's gained weight at the end of the episode.

Newspaper Comics

• Numerous Garfield strips had Garfield get put on a diet by Jon, and sometimes by Liz.

Literature

• The Dursley portion of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire involves Dudley being put on a diet.
• Jelly Belly fits the bill for its first half complete with protagonist Ned sneaking treats and feeling left out of family dinners, subverting the trope once Ned gets serious about losing weight for health reasons and realizes cutting out junk food isn't as torturous as he thinks it is.

Live-Action TV

• One not played for humor was a series of episodes of Roseanne in which Dan is put on a diet following his heart attack. It eventually leads to the largest fight Dan and Roseanne ever had on the show.
  • An episode earlier in the series did play it for laughs, with Roseanne trying to get the whole family to diet because she couldn't fit into a pair of pants. Dan tried to dissuade her by telling her she was beautiful and the kids didn't take it seriously, with Darlene even lampshading how every time Roseanne tried to diet in the past, they "ate roast chicken for a few nights before she came to her senses." Roseanne does manage to stick with it, though (with some difficulty), and does lose enough weight for the pants to fit.
• A major plot arc in Frasier, as Daphne started gaining weight after she got together with Niles. She was put on a regimen and eventually sent to some sort of fat camp. This storyline was a clever trick used by the writers to mask the fact that Jane Leeves was actually pregnant.
• In one episode of The Partridge Family Danny is teased for being fat, goes on a diet, and loses like 10 pounds, all without being noticibly slimmer. According to Danny Bonaduce's biography, it was not a pleasant episode to film.
• In an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, Marie decides that everyone needs to eat healthier. Unfortunately, it was the Thanksgiving Special...
• Glee had an episode where Sue made Mercedes go on a diet in order to remain on The Cheerios. Sadly, this so-called "diet" resulted in Mercedes obsessing over her weight and starving herself, prompting Quinn to intervene.
• Played With on Babylon 5: Garibaldi is ordered by Dr. Franklin to go on a restricted diet (or rather... a food plan) because of various problems his body is suffering due to the after effects of being shot In the Back by The Mole in an earlier season. Meanwhile, Captain Sheridan is ordered to eat what he considers "Rabbit Food" because he has gained ten pounds since his previous exam. Commander Ivanova is ordered to eat more because she is suffering nutrition deficiencies because she doesn't eat enough healthy food.
  • Justified, of course. None of the officers eat healthy due to the stress of their jobs, and two out of three of them suffered injuries recently that their bodies were still recovering from.
  • At one point, the three officers, realizing that each of them is being forced to eat something one of the others prefers, trade their lunches. This is, of course, when Doctor Franklin shows up.
• An episode of That 70s Show had Red, after his heart attack, trying to sneak around his diet. After he gets busted, he says "This isn't food! This is what food eats!".
• In the 3rd Rock from the Sun episode "Moby Dick", Dick goes on a diet after he starts overeating to deal with the stress of his break-up from Mary. Later we find out Mary is also stress eating.
• In an early episode of Family Matters, Carl went on a strict diet to look good for his high school reunion. His family pulled out all the stops to keep him from cheating, to the point where he snuck baby food out of desperation. Irony sets in when he meets his old bandmates and they've put on even more weight than he has.
  • In the first episode, Carl's mother said she wanted to get him on a diet almost as soon as she walked in. Nothing came of it, though, as it was just one part of her bossy nature and Carl ended up having a talk with her about it.
• Played for drama in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Philip was put on a diet and bribed Will into sneaking him junk food, only to end up having a heart attack.
• I Love Lucy had Lucy go on a diet to be able to play Sally Sweet in one of Ricky's show numbers. 1950s science's idea of "dieting" really shows in how she's denied herself the steak dinner everyone else is having and eating celery, when today she would be told to eat as much protein as possible and just avoid the carbs like potatoes and biscuits.
• On The Cosby Show, Clair was always trying to make Cliff diet and eat healthy, giving him a hard time about his oversized sub sandwiches and needling him anytime she found him hiding ice cream in the freezer.

Western Animation

• Tummi Gummi got put on a diet after sneaking a midnight snack in the Gummi Bears episode "The Oracle".
• At least one episode of The Flintstones had Fred being shamed into dieting.
• The Goofy short "Tomorrow We Diet".
• One episode of Tiny Toon Adventures had Hampton try to go on a diet, only to be constantly tempted by a chocolate cake.

Cake: (in a deep voice) Eat meee... Eat meee...

• Doug had two:
  • The Nickelodeon version had "Doug Tips the Scales", involving the title character
  • The Disney version had "Doug's Chubby Buddy", which was a Very Special Episode involving Patti
• The Simpsons had several of these for Homer.
  • Bart got one after he gained so much weight from pigging out on vending machine junk that he had a heart attack. It ends with him smashing the machines open and taking the money to pay for his very expensive weight loss camp...and for Homer to attend, too.
• Family Guy:
  • "He's Too Sexy For His Fat" started on Chris going on a diet, which was moderately successful, but that plot took a back seat to Peter getting multiple plastic surgeries. It also had a B-plot of Stewie overeating to mock Chris, which inevitably makes him grossly overweight.
  • In "Amish Guy", Peter briefly tried going on a diet so he could meet the weight limit for a roller coaster at Six Flags. However, he soon gives up and resorts to using a corset to make himself look thinner. The results are predictable; the ride can't handle his real weight and ends up crashing, killing several passengers.

• The Critic has an episode where Jay and Marty decides to enroll in a high-class Fat Camp due to both of them having trouble with people mocking them for their weight. Jay only loses about 2 pounds (which he is elated over, calling it his "college weight"), but Marty drops a substantial amount of weight and becomes quite handsome and popular in school. However, he begins to buckle under the pressure of popularity, as well as the stress of playing Peter Pan in the school play. By the end, he's gained his original weight back from a massive ice cream binge, and is about to get beaten up for ruining the play, only to immediately slide back into popularity when the building engineer reveals that Marty damaged the school roof and the school has to close for a month of repairs.
• The Smurfs (1981) episode "Gormandizing Greedy" is about putting Greedy on a diet after the Smurfs find out he has a weight problem.
• Martha Speaks has "Too Much Martha" where Martha is put on a diet and "Martha's Dirty Habit" which has a subplot of Daniel Lorraine (the dad of the family that owns Martha) giving up between-meal snacks for no real reason other than the fact that Martha was giving something up (digging) and he wanted to give something up too so she wouldn't feel alone.
• Hey Arnold! had the episode "Weighing Harold", where Harold wants to go on a diet after a few of the characters make fun of him for being fat. He goes on a special cruise ship for kids to lose weight, only to come back even bigger than he was before. With Arnold's help, he goes back to his original weight at the end.
• Bad Dog had an episode where Vern goes on a diet.
• Rocko's Modern Life had the episode "Frog's Best Friend", where Ed Bighead is put on a diet, while Bev gives her newly adopted stray dog Earl better treatment than him.
• Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats had the episode "Lard Times" where Heathcliff puts himself on a diet. Hector, Wordsworth and Mungo force him into a grueling exercise program in an effort to make him so tired that they can take over his neighborhood. In the same episode, Grandpa is ordered by the doctor to also lose a few pounds.
• The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! had an episode where Mario and his friends helped an out of shape Greek hero lose weight to fight Koopa.
• Monterey Jack went on a diet on an episode of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, the twist being that he did so voluntarily as he was eager to get in shape after his weight caused some problems on a mission, while the other Rangers tagged alongside him for support. It was the other Rangers who had the most trouble keeping with the program. He eventually relents after realizing he's been pushing the others too hard.
• Oggy and the Cockroaches has had two episodes: "Oggy's Diet" and "Dee Dee's Diet". In Oggy's episode, it was so he could catch the cockroaches easier, for Dee Dee, it was so he could avoid being caught. Dee Dee actually managed to shed the pounds... only to gain them back in the end.
• An episode of South Park has Eric Cartman being sent to Fat Camp to get his weight under control, and returns a few weeks later substantially slimmed down. It turns out however that this is an impostor that the real Eric sent back to South Park to steal junk food for him to smuggle to the other campers for money. The real Eric hasn't lost a pound, and on top of that is ruining the progress of the other campers with his scam.
• American Dad! has a Played for Drama version where Stan goes on a diet after his family points out that he's put on weight since his prime (as a response to him being a huge jerk to Steve's pudgy girlfriend). Stan ends up developing serious anorexia and is reduced to skin and bones, to the point where he has to be hospitalized.
• CatDog: "Dog Ate It" has Cat putting Dog on a diet in preparation for them entering a dance contest.
• The 90s Mr. Men cartoon episode "Little Miss Greedy, Belle of the Ball" involved Little Miss Greedy being put on a diet plan by Dr. Makeyouwell when her ball gown doesn't fit her due to her eating habit.
• The Biker Mice from Mars episode "Pitfall" had main villain Lawrence Limburger forced to go easy on indulging in slime worms because his superior Lord Camembert has ordered him to go on a diet for the next week.
• In Garfield and Friends, Jon decides to go on a diet after putting on some weight, and ends up falling for a crooked diet program with overpriced, poor quality food served in absurdly small portions.
  • In one of the Garfield Specials, On one of their trips to the vet, Liz orders Jon to put Garfield on a diet, which he, obviously, was already upset about, but to make matters worse, it was right before Thanksgiving.
• "Arthur Weighs in" has an Aesop about obesity, in which Arthur has gained enough weight that he now has to wear husky clothing even though he is the exact same size he has always been. He cuts the junk food from his diet and gets back to his normal weight.
• During the production of the second season of the Animaniacs reboot, Wakko had to lose all of his body fat in order to film his own episode about sitpopping beach balls to avoid embarrassing Caidin Johnson, the president of Paramount Family Entertainment.
• Deputy Dawg is forced to go on a diet in The Deputy Dawg Show episode "Physical Fatness".
• The Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling episode "Captain Lou's Crash Diet" has Captain Lou Albano attempting to lose forty pounds in ten days or else he will be out of wrestling.
• In the Dennis the Menace episode, "Mr. Wilson's Diet", Mrs. Wilson decides to put Mr. Wilson on a diet when he starts getting too big for his clothes despite his objections. Mr. Wilson tries multiple occasions to cheat on it until Mrs. Wilson gives up and decides to go out and buy some bigger clothes. By the end of the episode, however, their doctor informs them that they both need to lose some weight, and so the diet is back on.
• Sabrina: The Animated Series like its live action counterpart featured such an episode. This time Sabrina wants to fit into a pair of jeans that the Alpha Bitch is sporting. She and her friend Chloe use a magical set of scales that ends up backfiring and shrinking them down to the size of fleas.
• Jackie Chan Adventures the episode "Weight and See" features Tohru on a diet, with Jade pushing him to do harsh exercise and eat a strict diet. He cracks and enjoys a late night helping of pork fried rice. But the chopsticks he used to eat with were possessed by the chi of gluttonous mountain demon Po Kong, resulting in Tohru being corrupted by the chi and binging on everything in sight, including the city of San Francisco.
• The Pink Panther short "Dietetic Pink" is one borne of a mistake. The Panther uses a public scale, but a passing pedestrian happens to put his suitcase down next to Pink, making his weight come out to 220 pounds (the correct weight is revealed to be around 75). Pink spends the rest of the short deliriously avoiding food but seeing that Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere until the mistake is corrected at the end.
• TaleSpin: "Gruel and Unusual Punishment" combines this with Prison Episode; Baloo decides to visit a weight loss clinic so he can lose enough weight to escort Rebecca to the Pilot's Ball in a slimming tuxedo. However, due to having mistaken a guacamole stain on the map for the location, he ends up in a Thembrian prison, which he mistakes for the weight loss clinic.