What gives Betty White such staying power even with stylistic changes and years, when peers of hers have fallen fast and hard off the radar, especially to younger generations? How is it that the biggest stars in the world are struggling to keep even a trailing second place margain to her universality? What breaks the cultural barrier that gives way to her generation-spanning career and allows her to stay fresh among all these different and varied audiences, especially the most tricky of all, pop culture?
I'll tell you. My past thoughts I've forgotten and I'd give you my future thoughts, but I am a mere mortal (and a silly drummer at that) so just take it.
First of all, it's always funny when old people swear. This isn't WHY she's so popular, or even what makes her worth anything. It's just a major stepping stone into connecting age brackets that might otherwise be lost at some of her earlier material, which, regardless of that sad fact, is fantastic. To me, at least, generationally, I'm not used to the movies my parents/grandparents grew up with being "bad". Sure, "bad" stuff was always in there, just hidden to me at that age, and, for the most part, was dropped subtly in general. Watching the elderly use naughty language in general has always elicited a response from youngsters (at least up until our early-20's when pretty much anything is normal in a movie) so, though Betty White is totally gut-explodingly hilarious without being controversial at all, when she uses anatomical slang (a la Lake Placid, but we won't post that here), or probably-not-real profanities from her homeland (a la Golden Girls), it becomes that much more cool and less boring to hear, then repeat. (Because children don't just hear dirty things from other children, to all the parents who hate their kids' friends....). One of the first words I remember being obsessed with but still most likely am not correctly spelling is was "tubenburbel." No questions, please...
Secondly, she's kind of the homie. Everything from her spunkiness, her enthusiasm to get out of bed every day and go to work when she doesn’t have to, the humor in her (very real, or at least not marred by a difficult life) naivete, her famous love of animals, her self-deprecation, etc. She's just been a trooper for longer than most people. And she looks like she loves it. If anyone can find her giving a negative or depressing interview anywhere, show it to me, and together we will destroy the miserable forgery.
Betty always seems excited to love and be loved, which I believe is something too many actors feign in order to not be looked down upon or shamed, which is exactly the way society is now, no matter who you are or what you stand for. She's a genuine role model for the ages, a timeless humanitarian and comedienne who never ceases to astound, electrify and cause week-long ribcage pain in her many adoring fans world-wide. Stay "Golden", B-dawg.
