IT does not surprise me that over weight people are the people most discriminated against according to a recent survey.

Not only by employers but people feel free to criticise large people to their face and think it is funny.

I am a comedian and I am overweight and I only have to say to an audience I feel as light as a feather or any other comment about my weight and it always gets a laugh.

By making these jokes I am as guilty as anyone showing it's OK to mock large people and I should really desist from doing this but when all else fails being fat is something people find funny.

If you have a large belly people have no compunction to start prodding your stomach whilst talking to you - even strangers in lifts.

One guy poked me with an umbrella once and was miffed when I said he was rude. If I haven’t seen someone for a while they often say haven’t you put it on and I reply: “And you’ve aged a lot since we last met.”

They always walk away offended but they do not care that they might have offended me. I have lost count of the times people for a joke ask me when’s it due?

Last summer I was on a beach having a snooze when I heard a group kids shout "let's push it back - in its still breathing".

They need not have done a survey to find out that large people are discriminated against they need only to ask any large person and they would have got all the info they needed.

Paddy Maxwell

Southampton