Last year, actress Kim Rhodes praised Dylan Sprouse for refusing to make “fat jokes” at her expense on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and now Sprouse has opened up about that incident as well. Rhodes told this story back in November on the Back to the Best podcast, and Sprouse was asked about it on Thursday’s episode of Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM radio show, Radio Andy. He said that he doesn’t find that kind of humor very funny, especially the way it was written.
“I just don’t really think fat jokes are funny,” the actor said. “There’s a better joke somewhere else unless you’re talking about yourself. Like, unless it’s self-referential, which I find is fun, but if you’re pointing the finger at people and like talking about how they look, I just don’t tend to find that very funny in general.”
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Sprouse and his real-life twin brother Cole played twin brothers Zack and Cody Martin on the Disney Channel series, while Rhodes played their mother Carey. Last year, she explained that she was pregnant in real life, but her character was not pregnant on the show, which led to a handful of jokes about he weight in the script. She said commended Sprouse on challenging those lines and wielding his power as a star of the show to protect the others on set.
“One of my favorite memories is that Dylan had a line that was a fat joke and he kept skipping over it,” she recalled. “It was in the middle of a chunk of dialogue, so he kept skipping this laugh line and skipping it, and skipping it, and skipping it. Finally, we get in front of the studio audience, and he skips it, and the executive producer screams: ‘Cut!’ He goes: ‘Dylan, say the line.’ And [Dylan] goes, ‘I would not disrespect any woman that way, let alone this woman. You write something funny, and I’ll say it.’”
Rhodes guessed that Sprouse was around 14 or 15 years old at the time, but said that the twins were always like that on set. She said: “That’s my little man. They’re both my little men, they both were very protective of everyone on set.” Cohen brought up that point as well, and Sprouse deflected with another joke.
“You’d be amazed at what having your own show at 11 will do for your confidence,” he said. He added that he felt sensitive about the bodyweight jokes in particular because “I was a huskier young lad who, again, really didn’t come into himself until he was like 18. My dad also kept us very, very grounded.”
