As many of you know, I’m not a fan of Planet Fitness’s general policies, their insulting commercials, etc. If not familiar with all that, my prior blog, with a few of their commercials and such can be found here: Will comments on Planet Fitness and A Visit To Planet Fitness. People accused me of exaggerating the issue and such, but I knew differently. I thought maybe my cartoon vid on Planet Fitness (see linked blogs) might be a tad exaggerated, and it’s clear it was not! 🙂
The Daily Show with John Stewart did a segment on Planet Fitness which shows them for the company they are. Had I written the script myself for the person they sent to represent the company, I could not have done a better job making them look so ridiculous as Jason Jones does in this (must see!!!) segment of the Daily Show called:
Will Brink is the owner of the Brinkzone Blog. Will has over 30 years experience as a respected author, columnist and consultant, to the supplement, fitness, bodybuilding, and weight loss industry and has been extensively published. Will graduated from Harvard University with a concentration in the natural sciences, and is a consultant to major supplement, dairy, and pharmaceutical companies.
His often ground breaking articles can be found in publications such as Lets Live, Muscle Media 2000, MuscleMag International, The Life Extension Magazine, Muscle n Fitness, Inside Karate, Exercise For Men Only, Body International, Power, Oxygen, Penthouse, Women’s World and The Townsend Letter For Doctors.
He’s also been published in peer reviewed journals.
Will is the author of the popular e-books, both accompanied by private members forum access , Bodybuilding Revealed & Fat Loss Revealed.
You can also buy Will’s other books on Amazon, Apple iBook, and Barnes and Noble.
That was surprisingly excellent. I’m a huge fan of the daily show but I kinda figured that they’d just make fun of the bodybuilding guy – which they did in a friendly way – but then they eviscerated Planet Fitness and their surprisingly incendiary rhetoric. Seriously, if they used that language about just about any of the discrete and insular minorities (stealing from the SC here), then they’d have a discrimination suit the like of which they’ve never seen (though it is a private club).
Yes, they could have gotten a person who was leaner and more articulate, but that wouldn’t have been as funny, and humor is their intent after all. He seemed like a decent enough guy (they could have used some muscle head who came off as a real jerk, etc) and they were surprisingly nice to him, and as you said “eviscerated Planet Fitness.” No one can claim they made PF look bad in editing, or took anything out of context. Their spokes person couldn’t have done a better job of exposing them for what they are had I written the script myself.
Yeah, y’know, I agree they could have found someone leaner and more articulate, but that guy was pretty perfect in terms of being completely relatable and level-headed about it (e.g. he said he now knows what it’s like to be discriminated against – not that he knows what black people have gone through in the 60s, etc.). I mean, I don’t really know how a non-“lunkhead”* audience would take listening to someone who looks and sounds like Tom Venuto (much love to Tom, I’d love to look like that) complain about being discriminated against. It’s kinda hard to feel sympathy for Adonis walking among us – not to say that the discrimination isn’t pernicious and affecting.
You’re absolutely right in that their eviscerating the Planet Fitness people really only amounted to letting that chick say her piece. Kudos to the Daily Show for just showing them for what they are.
*I probably count myself among the lunkheads, though genetically I’m an ectomorph.
Oh that was too funny! But you see that mentality if you go to the chain gyms a lot. No power lifting or things are encouraged. It seems just set up for the spin classes, Zumba and the like with a little weight training sprinkled in. Why can’t se combine it all? I will lift and kettlebell along with kickboxing and spinning… Oh well guess I’m a freak.
Very funny! And amazing to see their chosen representative be that open in her negative commentary. What she didn’t explain is who they DO want to see using their gym and all that equipment. Other than making fistfuls of money duping their customers, I’d like to know what their goals and personal training philosophy really is at this gym.
I work out @ metroflex gym so you can imagine how dumb i think this is lol
That is the funniest thing I’ve seen all week. Kudos to Daily Show for that! I love when they are called out on the judgement free zone.
Thanks for posting this, I’ll be smiling all day about it!
Will:
As re: … Planet Fitness. You’ve got to be kidding ———— not the world I grew up in! If they don’t want to hear the grunting / clanging; they shouldn’t have free weights there.
They don’t want weightlifters they only want posers and their money 🙂 They can have em! Then they will stop playing with the weights I am trying to get to in my gym 🙂
I’ll say this as well, if I’m understanding this right, part of the irony of their Judgment Free Zone nonsense is that it’s founded on the dubious notion that these “lunkheads” are spending most of their time in the gym judging the people who aren’t like them. It’s my experience that “lunkhead” types are usually very friendly and understanding that many things go into people’s exercise routines (time, genetics, different goals, etc.), so they get it when not everyone is like them. Also, they’re too busy actually lifting weights to really think about the other people (thoughts of “who the hell has the 55s?” notwithstanding). Hehe, it’s pretty clear that this issue has got me thinking.
Irony is a concept that appears totally lost on Planet Fitness it appears 🙁
Grrr I can’t view the video because I’m in Australia 🙁
Maybe it’s floating around on the ‘net some other place? Try a google search perhaps. Has to be seen to be believed! 🙂
Lunk alarm? Are you serious? I’ve never been in a PF (live north of the border), but I have a hard time believing they’ve actually got something like that in a fitness facility. R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S!!
In fact, I have a hard time believing that whole interview was real. But it sounds like it was… All those blonde jokes are finally making sense…
God bless chain & tire gyms; if you aren’t grunting, you aren’t lifting hard enough, and if you can’t grunt, you can’t lift hard enough.
– Train hard and eat big, or go home and suit up for ballet practice.
I love the fact that she was inarticulate. She could neither defend her stupid supposition nor could she even state why she was defending it. The only lunk there was the PF manager. Maybe if I said blondes were lunks (unless they were bodybuilders) then she could get the hint.
dumb, duh-, dumb, dumb, dumb
I don’t live in the US, so I can’t verify this, but is this place for real? Or this is this just a joke? Was on a comedy show after all.
That lunk alert can’t be real. Even if they wanted to get rid of people actually exerting themselves, that alarm would ruin the workout for everyone else. How are you supposed to focus with that sound?