Kirstie Alley’s Dancing Fall Was No Big Deal

The biggest TV story of the day? The brief tumble Kirstie Alley and her partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy took on last night's Dancing with the Stars. Maks appeared on Good Morning America Tuesday, as a loop of the stumble played on screen, to explain himself (it boiled down to a charley horse and, "Oops!").

Everyone loves a good fall, but this one wasn't spectacular. It was more a hiccup followed by Maks gently placing Kirstie on the ground. If you happened to catch something similar on the street, it wouldn't even be worth your time to upload it to YouTube. Perhaps Dancing is a show so routine and popular, that even the slightest deviation from what's expected counts as news.

Read our recap of Monday's episode of Dancing with the Stars

But there's an additional undercurrent of derision aimed at Kirstie in much of the online coverage. A few blog posts have gone as far as snickering at Maks' supposed buckling under Kirstie's weight (as if Maks has ever given any reason to doubt his strength, regardless of his partner's size!). The fat jokes are not only lazy — they're redundant. For years, Kirstie has been open about her fluctuating weight and her battle to stay fit. She's taken part in multiple weight-loss product endorsements and two (two!) shows referencing her size: Fat Actress and Kirstie Alley's Big Life. If Kirstie didn't invent the fat joke, she certainly reclaimed it. She eats its profits; not you.

Watch Maks and ABC's incessant fall loop below: