A Broke-Ass Salute to Catherine O’Hara

A few months or weeks or years or something ago, I wrote a post about some funny ladies of comedy who just don’t get the love they deserve.  At the time I knew, knew, that there was someone amazing, brilliant and hilarious times infinity million that I was forgetting about.  That woman was Catherine O’Hara.

If, like me, you cut your teeth during Reagen’s first term, you were probably first introduced to O’Hara as no-nonsense Mrs.McAllister in what is widely considered to be the United States’ most important contribution to the medium of film: Home Alone.

Later when I saw Beetlejuice, I was vaguely like 'œI know that lady' but couldn’t remember where from, and was in the meantime distracted by Winona Ryder’s totally amazing style, the décor of the house and those sandworms.

Fast forward to High School where my obsession with Party Girl and all things Parker Posey related, leads me to rent for the first time what may well be the United States’ second most important contribution to the medium of film, Waiting for Guffman.  There for the first time, in my parents beige-on-tan-on-taupe family room was I exposed to the comedic genius that is Catherine O’Hara.  Behold.

But Catherine didn’t stop there.  No fucking way would she stop there.

Watch day’0 – catherine o hara in Entertainment |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

And maybe other stuff where she was funny?

I’m sure I’m missing tons of awesome stuff of hers that I don’t even know about, but these are just the main pieces of her genius that I’ve been exposed to.  Age hasn’t gotten my girl down either. She recently played Marty Funkhauser’s insane/sex crazed sister Bam Bam in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Catherine O’Hara wasn’t just the cute foil for a bumbling guy, or the hot girl who falls down although she was indubitably pretty bangin’ in her heyday.  She acted like a lunatic, didn’t mind looking a mess and slipped into the skin of her perfectly nuanced characters so utterly that it was easy to forget that she was the same woman yelling at Kevin to sleep in the pullout couch with his bedwetting cousin.
That’s a rare breed of actress today but was even rarer back when she was starting out.  So from the bottom of my idolizing heart, Catherine, I salute you!