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In the movie "The Shawshank Redemption", a scene goes like this:

[Fat Ass] (whimpering) God! I don't belong here!

[Men Yelling] We have a winner!

[Fat Ass] I wanna go home!

[Heywood] And it's fat ass by a nose!

What does "fat ass by a nose" mean here?

Laurel
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Kartik Chauhan
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5 Answers5

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In the scene you are referring to from "The Shawshank Redemption", "fat ass by a nose" is a humorous expression used by the inmates to declare the winner of a bet they had made on a race between two fellow inmates, including Fat Ass.

"Fat ass by a nose" is a reference to a horse race, where the winning horse is determined by the length of its nose. In this context, it means that Fat Ass won the race by a very small margin, possibly just a nose's length.

The expression is used in a humorous way in the movie to emphasize the absurdity of the situation and to lighten the mood of the tense prison environment.

Yu Zhang
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  • It wasn't a bet on a race between two inmates. It was a bet on which of the new inmates would break first. – Legion600 Mar 31 '23 at 06:35
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    @Legion600 You’re talking about the exact same thing. The race they bet on is the race to see who would break first. Just because the racers do not want to “reach the end” (metaphorically) does not mean it can’t be called a race. – Todd Wilcox Mar 31 '23 at 11:22
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    It's not really "humorous". It shows the callousness of the inmates, that they were putting bets on other people's trauma. – Acccumulation Apr 01 '23 at 01:48
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    @ToddWilcox The phrase "bet between ... Fat Ass" means that Fat Ass was one of the people who made a bet, not that the bet was regarding Fat Ass. – Acccumulation Apr 01 '23 at 01:48
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    @Acccumulation (1) you've never heard of gallows humor? (2) IT'S PRISON ffs; of course they put bets on other people's truma. – RonJohn Apr 01 '23 at 09:49
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    Is this a ChatGPT answer? Because it honestly reads like that. – Ilmari Karonen Apr 01 '23 at 11:51
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    "...the winning horse is determined by the length of its nose" This is weird wording, the winning horse is determined by which horse's nose crosses the line first, the "by a nose" part is that the second place horse may be right next to the first horse and cross with its nose just behind the first horse's nose. So the nose is being used as a measure of length, not the other way around. – IllusiveBrian Apr 01 '23 at 12:07
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    @RonJohn Of course in prison, people do things like put bets on other people's trauma. I don't see how that makes it not callous, or how it makes it "humorous", at least not if we're talking out-of-universe. – Acccumulation Apr 01 '23 at 18:13
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    @Acccumulation "I don't see how that makes it not callous, or how it makes it "humorous", Two words: gallows humor. It's a coping technique. – RonJohn Apr 01 '23 at 21:18
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It just means they're picking on him, declaring him the close winner of an 'imaginary' run (survive in this hardest place, escape from jail, be set free/paroled and go home...). Most of them are sentenced to life with no hope to win any race but death in prison.

We have a winner, and it's fat ass by a nose!

"This expression has spread to all different sports as a metaphor for a close contest even though a nose isn't the first body part to cross the finish line in most human competitions. However, a horse's nose is first over the line at the racetrack and is used as the reference for judging the victor. In racing parlance a “nose” also refers to the smallest margin of victory allowed for a horse to be officially declared the winner. Races won by a nose may also have been fought “neck and neck” as the horses ran side by side all the way to the end."

Source : History - horse racing

Here's the part where they laugh and make fun of him because he's desesperate ("I don't belong here!") and breaking down. In a race to survive in this prison, this weak guy has close to zero chance. He's that nag you wouldn't bet anything on, except for breaking down. That's what happens and sadistic corrupt head guard Byron Hadley1 beats him to death.

1. Later, according to Red, Hadley cried like a baby when he was arrested and convicted, most likely because he would be jailed in the same prison and would face retaliation from all the prisoners he abused for years and the murders.

OldPadawan
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    The other inmates were betting on which of the new inmates would break first. There was no imaginary run. – Legion600 Mar 31 '23 at 06:37
  • Well, they always talk about being scr** by an attorney and no hope to go home, so only the tough guys survive. I edited to clarify – OldPadawan Mar 31 '23 at 06:44
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    The examples in your edit are the opposite of what they were betting on. They were betting on who was going to break down crying the first night after realizing they had flushed their whole life away. – Legion600 Mar 31 '23 at 07:20
  • @Legion600 : it's not the opposite -> "survive in this hardest place" (agreed, they said as you mention, but it's not reduced to just that, it's just that the first night is rough when you realize what's going on, and it's for years and years). The bet/cry is just the fuse. – OldPadawan Mar 31 '23 at 07:57
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    This answer is wrong. It doesn’t just mean they are picking on him. The whole point is the bet about which new inmate will cry first. The comment is not directed at Fat Ass, it’s directed at the betting inmates. – Todd Wilcox Mar 31 '23 at 11:23
  • @ToddWilcox : yes, it is, I agree. But how do I miss it? OP is asking about the expression, I give him the signification. Interpretation can be (is?) free. – OldPadawan Mar 31 '23 at 11:27
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    This is the part that is most wrong: “an 'imaginary' run (survive in this hardest place, escape from jail, be set free/paroled and go home...)” The “imaginary run” is about which of the new inmates will cry first. Not anything else. – Todd Wilcox Mar 31 '23 at 12:01
  • well, I don't think I'm wrong (in the idea/meaning : he's too weak for the prison and won't survive) but that's my understanding of english I guess. You expressed your opinion by dv, duly noted :) – OldPadawan Mar 31 '23 at 12:14
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    Imaginary is not the best word here. The contest is real. The "run" is metaphorical. No actual run or noses are involved. But no one is pretending they are. Just using a metaphor to say it was a close contest. – candied_orange Apr 02 '23 at 15:07
  • @OldPadawan - You may not think you are wrong, but you are - very. It reads like an answer from someone who hasn't even watched the film. – SiHa Apr 03 '23 at 09:14
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    I have to agree with the other comments; the mention of "escape from jail, be set free/paroled and go home" makes absolutely no sense... nothing at all about this scene, the bet the prisoners were making, or the expression "by a nose" had anything to do with escaping from jail or going home. – GendoIkari Apr 03 '23 at 19:05
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"Fat Ass" is the nickname given by the other prisoners to the prisoner who broke down and cried. "By a nose" is a common phrase in sporting events which means that the winner of a race or contest just barely won (referring to the idea that the length of a horse's nose is how much they won the race by).

The other inmates were betting on who would break down and cry first, and "Fat Ass" was the first to do so. So the prisoner was saying that Fat Ass "won" the "race" of first to break down and cry.

Separating "Fat Ass" (the character's nickname) from "by a nose" (the expression) is necessary for understanding it correctly; "fat ass by a nose" is not in itself an expression.

GendoIkari
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    "by a nose" literally means that the distance between the first and second place horses is just the length of a nose. – Barmar Apr 02 '23 at 19:40
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    @Barmar indeed, the "horse's nose crossing the finish line before the rest of the horse" is not at all relevant because that is true no matter what the outcome of the race may be. – phoog Apr 04 '23 at 11:11
  • @phoog Unless it runs backwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPyq0dO6tYI – Barmar Apr 04 '23 at 15:59
  • I edited to be more accurate with my description. – GendoIkari Apr 04 '23 at 19:22
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Amazing how many partial/incorrect answers there are here.

The first reference is in response to him saying "I don't belong here", the response "We have a winner" refers to the idea that many people before him have said "I don't belong here", and that this is a "Big Point" answer like in a game show (Family Feud etc.)

The second reference "By a nose" is a reference to Horse Racing, where a pundit may describe one Horse as "winning by a nose" meaning that the margain by which it has won is very small (a nose length). As horse racing pre-dates slow-motion cameras, this was considered a high degree of accuracy/small margain. This is not as clever a reference, but just piling onto the idea that he has won.

Here it is being used as a metaphor to describe "Fat Ass's" breakdown as being the winning breakdown, and his prize is a beating.

Josh
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In horse racing, "nose" is one of several ways to describe a distance shorter than a length, which is the length of a horse. The winner of the race is said to win by a certain distance, which describes the position of the horse in second place when the winning horse reaches the finish line. If the second horse's nose is even with the winning horse's tail, the horse has won "by a length." If the race is closer, the distance could be half a length, a neck, a head, or -- closest of all -- a nose.

An announcer describing a race, for example for a radio broadcast, will describe the horses' positions relative to each other and to the track, often using "and it's..." to indicate the ultimate outcome of the race.

What does "fat ass by a nose" mean here?

As others have noted, it's Fat Ass by a nose means that Fat Ass has won the race, but just barely.

Now I looked for some videos to illustrate this, but had some trouble finding them; I guess that as television broadcasting of races has become more common there has been reduced demand for the announcer to describe the distances. In 1973, however, the word "length" is in full display, along with (uncontracted) "it is...," as Secretariat wins the Preakness.

See also Who Won? (1923) and The 2016 Belmont Stakes - Creator wins by a nose for "by a nose."

phoog
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  • This adds nothing to the accepted answer. – Chenmunka Apr 04 '23 at 12:28
  • The accepted answer doesn't explain that "by a nose" (or by any other measure of length) refers to the distance between the winner and the second place finisher. – phoog Apr 04 '23 at 19:48