Wiki Article Apparently a thing in Germany too.   In Goslar, Germany, a crier was employed to remind the local populace not to urinate or defecate in the river the day before water was drawn for brewing beer.[1]  It's not a requirement to be fat, but it's the sort of pointless and attention-seeking activity that fats are drawn to. Also, they need a loud voice, and fats believe their huge bulk contributes (like with huge opera singers ...). A distressing development in recent years is the "town crier competition" where criers and wannabees from all over the country congregrate in one unfortunate town. A lot of the pictures in the album are from one of those. My town throws them, I stay away from the town centre whilst they are on. My town also has a regular town crier. One time I was standing waiting for a taxi, and the fat git stood right next to me and started ringing his bell and yelling "Oyez Oyez". And me being very noise sensitive and unable to move away, it firmly cemented my hatred of criers. In fact I told him to fuck off, I might even have called him a cunt.