Sunday, July 22, 2012

The Funniest Woman Ever?

If you recognize the young lady in the photo to the right, no doubt you watched the early seasons of Nickelodeon's sketch comedy All That.  Lori Beth Denberg was one of the main performers, and she was hilarious.  In a time where bawdy sex comedies sell millions of movie tickets and DVDs, it's wonderful to see hilarious comedy that actually keeps it clean; such innocence is why I watch current Nickelodeon shows, such as iCarly and VICTORiOUS, instead of major trash such as Junk My Dad Says, The Fake Housewives of Sacramento, or Woof! The Real-Life Boba Fett.  I was really enjoying the reruns of old-school Nick shows such as All That and Kenan & Kel during the opening hour of Nick at Nite, but the executives decided to replace that with two episodes of VICTORiOUS, which makes me unhappy.  Yes, I love Victoria's show, but I can watch it on DVD any time I want; however, watching nineties Nick fare makes me wish I hadn't been so insistent back then that Disney Channel was better just because it had daily reruns of Growing Pains.
I know what most of my friends are thinking right now: "Lori Beth is your new celebrity crush, 'Siobhan'!" Um...no.  Here's why: First off, I stopped crushing on classic television stars over a decade ago; when I saw Lizzie McGuire, and fell in love with Hilary Duff, I knew I was done living in the past.  Anne and Victoria made sure I stayed on that path.  Second off, I can't bring myself to have a "crush" on a female celebrity who has faded into obscurity, no matter how well-known she was at one point.  If I were to go around bandying Ms. Denberg's name about, I'd probably get quite a few eye-rolls and strange looks; I've been down that road before, and refuse to get back on it.  In addition, I don't really know that much about Ms. Denberg.  Sure, she starred in the first two seasons of All That and had a cameo in Good Burger...but other than that and trivial details such as her birth date, what's there to know? Who even knows where she currently is and what she is doing now? Lastly, as funny as Lori Beth may be, she still can't compare to Vic and Jennifer Stone.  Victoria Justice has a large body of work--two television shows, at least that many telefilms, numerous songs, commercials, etc.--and I've rarely seen something by her that I didn't at least somewhat like.  Ms. Stone was equally insanely funny as Lori Beth when she (Jen, that is) portrayed crazed Harper Finkle in Wizards of Waverly Place, and Ms. Stone's DCOM Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars is among my favorite movies of all-time.  So, though I like Ms. Denberg, she probably won't become my new profile picture.
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