There were such things as obese people in the past, but up until the last century, it wasn't common, save for among the elite. In ancient times, it was seen as a sign of wealth to be fat, because it meant you could have food on the able all the time, as opposed to most people starving or on the verge of starving most of the time. Until the second half of the 20th century, obesity wasn't very common, so it wasn't unusual for people to make fat jokes about the few people who were obese at the time. Nowadays, obesity is so common that the fat jokes aren't okay to do anymore.
In the case of Indiana's youth, his scout friend would have been seen as an anomaly, and I have no doubt he was ostracized because of his weight.
I remember one kid who was kinda heavy in my class around 1970. I just figured he didn't win the genetic lottery like most of the rest of us. Point being, some people are predisposed to be heavy. Problem is, today it's hard to tell anymore who is naturally heavy and who's just fat from their eating habits.
Full disclosure -- I'm not all that young, and I do have a small tummy from enjoying my evening beers and shots. I'm not into the too heavy for my height area, but I'm not exactly svelte either. But maybe 6 decades will do that to you.
I know that there are children who are genetically predisposed to being overweight and obese, but I wouldn't think that it was common exactly. Diet plays a role as well, for no one is fat in a concentration camp. I suppose of course that living in America then made everyone or most people enough well-off to afford food, unlike in Europe.
Maybe the point to the audience was that Indy is compassionate enough to be friends with him. For indeed you would probably be ostracized with that weight, as seen in Stand By Me which is set in the 1950s.
You don't have to be rich here in America to be fat. I don't care how offensive this sounds but I work in a grocery store and the fattest people I see are on food stamps. They buy nothing but unhealthy foods like Pizza, Frenchfries, Hamburgers, and all sorts of Hostess and Little Debbie snacks. Oh and several packs of soda. I kid you not some of them get rid of most of their food to buy soda with their food stamps.
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