Michelle Buteau’s ‘Survival of the Thickest’ Is A “Love Letter to the Oddy Bodies and the Fatty Baddies”

Michelle Buteau has been the moment for a while, but now, she’s ready to get up close and personal with her new Netflix series Survival of the Thickest. The comedy is a hilarious romp based on her memoir of the same name. Buteau plays Mavis Beaumont, a newly single and struggling stylist who sets on a journey to reinvent her life. Over the course of eight episodes, Buteau, who also co-wrote and executive produced, manages to convey a story that’s funny, genuine and rooted in female empowerment, and it’s a lifetime in the making.

The memoir, which was released in 2020, consists of personal essays detailing Buteau’s young adulthood. She opens up about her experience leaving bad jobs and toxic relationships, and navigating life as a curvy Black woman, which are themes that also find their way into her new show, but in a new, contemporary fashion as it takes place in present-day New York City. 

While speaking with Decider over the phone, Buteau explained, “It was really fun to figure out how to modernize [those themes] because my stories in my book are from my life, especially my 20s and my 30s, and that core 20 years of adulting. So, what does it look like?”

As an award-winning stand-up comedian, seen on Comedy Central and Netflix, Buteau is accustomed to juggling an array of responsibilities, so wearing multiple hats on set wasn’t a challenge. She thinks of herself as a “multi-hyphenate,” adding that in the early days of her career, she was doing “a lot of multi-hyphenate things for no money.” Painting a picture of her experience, Buteau told us, “You’re running the free sketch that everyone’s doing in the back of this bodega, and you’re paying people in bananas and egg-and-cheese sandwiches. You’re out here doing it. That’s why I love a slow-simmer because by the time you get the opportunity, you know exactly what it is. It’s good, no surprises, and that’s a great thing I don’t think a lot of people appreciate. They want it hard and fast, but sometimes low and slow is the way to go about it.”

For Survival of the Thickest, Buteau also found herself paired with a good showrunner, Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, who she compared to the pioneering paralegal Erin Brockovich, portrayed by Julia Roberts in Steven Soderbergh’s 2000 flick. Emphasizing the importance of showrunners, Buteau said, “They make all your dreams come true. They’re like the Willy Wonka of storytelling. They take the biggest thing you want to do and figure out how to break it down and do it.” Also, on her squad was a “laundry list of amazing Black, Brown and queer people” that she has worked with in the past or have admired from afar, one of which is Nicole Byer, who makes an appearance in the second half of the season.

For years, Buteau and Byer have felt the need to work something together, in a realm apart from stand-up comedy, and the Netflix show was the perfect fit. “We were figuring out Mavis and how she’s at the point in her career where she’s dealing with a boss that is toxic… And I’m like, ‘But what if the person she’s going to work for is this amazing, big-booty bitch?'” From there, Buteau said “it just clicked” for Byer to play the role. Additional guest appearances include RuPaul’s Drag Race runner-up Peppermint and Michelle Visage, the latter of which “flew in for the day, did her thing, and then flew away.”

In all, this collaborative and female-forward environment helped shape the new series into everything Buteau was striving for, which felt heightened due to the current political state. “I really wanted to, especially in this day and age, use my platform. There’s a lot of hate speech wrapped up in so-called entertainment. I don’t even want to get into the Supreme Court and the fact that everybody’s getting their rights taken away. It’s just like, ‘Man, do we live in a crazy world?’ So, if we’re gonna watch something, let’s get away from the news, and feel happy.”

When viewers first meet Mavis, she’s recently found out that her long-time partner Jacque (Taylor Selé) has been cheating on her, which forces her to reevaluate everything they have built together and share, like their apartment and their jobs. But, almost immediately, Buteau makes it clear that Mavis’s situation is not the end times for the 38-year-old, who has the healthy support of her two friends Kahill (Tone Bell) and Marley (Tasha Smith), and a world full of opportunities in the Big Apple. “The times I’ve been cheated on, there has always been a moment where I’m like, ‘Okay, girl, what are you gonna do? You gonna stay on his couch?’ To me, that’s the moment of figuring out who you’re gonna be and keeping it moving,” Buteau reflected.

While putting all of these moving pieces together, Buteau found herself returning to the same advice that her friend, Phoebe Robinson, gave her while she was writing her memoir. Derived from acclaimed novelist Joe Lansdale, the advice was to write the book like everyone she knows is dead. “If this is the only time I’m going to have a chance to do eight episodes, this is important. This is a love letter to the oddy bodies and the fatty baddies, and the people who feel rejected and not seen, heard, loved, or beautiful. Fuck that. You are fucking beautiful,” said Buteau. “I don’t care how old you are. I don’t care how big or small. We’re gonna be out here.”

To channel this energy, Buteau was set on ethically showcasing diverse bodies. The comedian hired queer people to play queer people and non-binary folks to play non-binary folks, and made sure to fill her cast with thick bodies. She was also dedicated to not being a “resume snob.” Buteau said, “Give somebody the opportunity to get to the next level. I’m no Joy Anne Reid but generational wealth creates generational help. Take care of each other.”

She dedicated herself to that ethos of taking care of her cast, from lead performers to background stars. “Even down to the itty-bitty, newbie drag queens who had to come here with their makeup ready. I was like, ‘If they’re coming hair and makeup ready, we have to find money in the budget to get Ubers for them home.’ I won’t let anybody be accosted on my fucking watch, that will not happen,” Buteau said. “If we think outside of ourselves for five whole minutes and take care of each other, people will show up and the morale is good.”

To do this, the comedian reflected on her past experience from being on set and compared it to going to multiple Thanksgiving dinners. “You learn from the good and the bad. The bad is not personal. You don’t have to bring your trauma to the next set. Just figure out how to fix it.”

So, she did and continues to do so, extending to whether she’s thinking ahead to a Season 2. Buteau opened up about her hopes for the future of the series and shared that she’s happy to table the conversations about a renewal to support the Writers Guild of America strike, which has been ongoing since May 2, 2023 and sees television and movie writers fighting for basic protections from streamers and studios. “I would love nothing more for a Season 2 and to talk about it, but I think it’s most important to acknowledge that the WGA is in a very crazy negotiation phase. [They’re] trying to get what they need, which is the basic of the basics,” Buteau shared. “I don’t even want to really think about a Season 2 until I feel like everyone is good and taken care of, and they have a contract that they feel good about.”

The frequent Netflix collaborator went on to say that there’s nothing worse than writers having to work multiple jobs at once to support themselves and that basic needs — like “health insurance, residuals and better paychecks” — should be the standard within the industry. “We’ll get to Season 2 when we want to and when we need to,” she concluded.

Through Buteau’s years of experience, her comedy specials and memoir, many may feel as though they already understand her — but she’s made one thing clear: To really get to the nitty-gritty of it all, you have to tune into Survival of the Thickest, as both on-screen and behind, the show shines a bright light on all of Buteau’s life lessons… and the many more to come.

Survival of the Thickest is currently streaming on Netflix.