Research shows being short can have a huge impact on everything from a person’s income potential to their social standing, leading to very real consequences for their self-esteem.

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People who were teens in the 90s were lucky in a lot of ways. We didn’t have the pressures of social media, cyber bullying didn’t exist, and it was tough to get addicted to porn on scrambled pay-per-view channels.

But teens from the 90s also experienced a boredom that today’s hyper-stimulated kids will never know. Without Tik Tok, YouTube, and streamable video games, most of us spent an embarrassing amount of time watching really bad sitcoms.

With their weak plot lines, canned laughter, and hammy acting, most of those shows are borderline unwatchable by today’s TV standards. But it’s fun to revisit them just to see how different cultural sensitivities were in those days.

In an era when saying “ass” could get you taken off the air, it’s weird that fat jokes and homophobic plot lines seemed like fair game.

But one sitcom in particular stands head and shoulders above the rest, despite suffering all of those flaws. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air ran for six seasons, spring-boarding Will Smith to a level of celebrity so consecrated that we allowed objectively terrible songs like Wild Wild West to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

And even though the acting on The Fresh Prince was over-the-top and the plots were often silly, the show leaned into those flaws in a way that still seems genuine and heartfelt.

It won hearts for digging deep into real issues like class differences, racial disparities, and parental abandonment. And even though it still plucked low-hanging jokes that would seem woefully un-PC today, the series holds up because of that depth.

That said, when I rewatch it, which I do often, there’s one type of joke that just seems mean by today’s standards.

It’s not the way Will made fun of Uncle Phil’s waistline. Or of Hillary’s promiscuity. It’s how he relentlessly taunted his cousin Carlton, played by five-foot-seven Alfonso Ribeiro, for being short.

And here’s the thing. The short jokes don’t stand out because they’re “unwoke” compared to today’s cultural norms. It’s the exact opposite. Because they’re an example of pure bullying that still seems like perfectly normal behaviour in 2020.

In other words, it’s the fact that they don’t stand out that seems so odd.

Because being short isn’t a behaviour. It’s not something you can correct without painful surgery. And research shows that it can have a huge impact on everything from a person’s income potential to their social standing, leading to very real consequences for their self esteem.

So let’s take a look at why some of those jokes at Carlton’s expense should sting a little more than they do.

First of all, being short is highly associated with career success. While there’s no question Carlton’s character was destined for a high-performing career, studies have shown that men over six feet tall earn $166,000 more over the duration of their careers than men who stand five-foot-four.

That likely has something to do with the fact that taller people are more likely to go into higher education—and that statistic holds even after adjusting for cognitive ability.

And in case your adventures in app-based dating haven’t already made it apparent, tall people tend to have a leg up on love as well. According to research, tall men are more likely to find a long-term partner—and to have a higher number of overall partners.

Combine all of that data, and it’s easy to see why tall people, particularly men, self-report higher levels of happiness and self-esteem and—to get grim for a second—lower levels of suicide.

But it’s not all bad news. There are actually some health benefits to being short.

Shorter people are less likely to suffer from heat stroke, and they suffer from way less lower-back and hip pain. Not that those factors make up for a life of abject loneliness.

So what’s the solution? Well, spreading this information is a start. If more people were aware that the biologically determined, inalterable fact of a person’s height can hold them back in life, they’ll hopefully be more choosy about their words. And less choosy about their partners.

And if any of this struck a chord with you, don’t despair. Your height doesn’t define you, and humans can cultivate a spectacular range of affable attributes and abilities that aren’t limited by biology.

Plus, if you can dance as well as Carlton, you’re already ahead of the game.