Sure Amanda Bynes is fucking nuts, as we explained yesterday. But she used to be kinda cool. Think back to her glory days. Girl was tiny, funny, and adorable. No one did it better. And that is why I am sharing with you with some of Amanda’s best moments on television. I mean, why focus on her demise when we could focus on her awesomeness instead (this is totally what she wanted anyway – right? #attention).
The 10 Best Sketches Starring (the-out-of-control) Amanda Bynes:
- Ask Ashley: I remember the first time I saw Amanda on All That. She was this tiny little girl who was definitely MUCH younger than the rest of the cast (Lori Beth Denberg was like in her 20s), but I fell in love with her because she was close to my age. And that’s why I took her advice so seriously. She received letters (which to this day I still think are/were really sent to her) and responded to them by getting very angry. It was awesome.
- I Luv Lucy: Back in the day (yes we are that old), I Love Lucy was a staple in our prime time TV schedule. No I’m not saying we were around in the 50’s… I’m saying that we were around in the 90s. You know – when Nick at Nite was super cool. Instead of airing our favorite childhood shows, Nick at Nite played Happy Days, The Wonder Years, Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, and of course I Love Lucy. We loved the black and white old school show and thought Ricky Ricardo was pretty damn good looking. In this All That sketch Amanda Bynes was obv Lucy. She had a best friend named Ethel and bf/husband (they were pretty young) named Ricky. And of course at their age, Ricky didn’t love Lucy… he luved Lucy. Hence the name of this sketch: I Luv Lucy (143 <3333 xoxo)
- What-Everrr: In this sketch, Amanda and her friend Jessica channeled their inner Kathie Lee’s and Hoda’s and created a The View type show. They talked about everything and anything, using like, whatever, or totally after every other word. It is like soooooo sad what Cher made little girls act like in the 90s. JK, totally love Cher. But only sporadically.
- Judge Trudy & the Dancing Lobsters: Obviously this was a spoof of Judge Judy and boy did Amanda do a fantastic impersonation. If you watch youtube videos now she sounds exactly like JWoww. But seriously. It’s scary. At the end of each of Judge Trudy’s trials she sent in a bunch of dancing lobsters AKA people dressed in red felt lobster costumes. I still don’t understand why this happened. And I don’t think I ever will. WHY, AMANDA, WHY?
- The Girl’s Room: These kids knew comedy. A sketch about what girls do in the bathroom? This is, like, every guys dream. Men never know what we’re doing in there and why we have to go to the bathroom in pacts. But Amanda’s sketch showed boys that the girl’s room is really just a hangout. In ‘the girl’s room’ you could find many different types of girls including a delusional ‘popular’ girl, a mean swirlie-giving girl, a random girl from Tennessee, and Debbie who really likes eggs. This sketch had me saying ‘I like eggs’ in an idiotic tone for a long time… And I’ll say it again… I like eggs.
- Moody’s Point: This was a spoof of our favorite soap opera as pre-teens, Dawson’s Creek. There was no point to Moody’s Point (what a pun)… which I think was the point… but it was okay because at our age we just wanted to watch television without having to think. The only significant thing I remember from this show is when Moody’s dad lost his toe. That was pretty intense.
- Penelope Taynt: Amanda please. Penelope was Amanda’s BIGGEST FAN. She had black hair and in no way looked similar to Amanda Bynes (wait a minute…). She was basically a one-man-band TMZ that followed Amanda Bynes around 24/7 (The Truman Show style). She even had a website (amandaplease.com) that was a legit website created for the show. And you can imagine how cool that was back when websites were still impressive… Oh and I’ll say it again… Amanda please.
- Hillbilly Moment: Lula Mae (Amanda) and Eenis (Drake of Drake and Josh) dressed like… you guessed it… hillbillies. They had bad teeth, bad hair, bad clothes, and bad brains (as in they weren’t smart). They made knock knock jokes and at the end of the joke Amanda would hit Eenis with whatever was ‘knocking at the door.’ For instance, if it was a baseball bat Amanda would say: ‘Ima hit you over the head with a baseball bat’ and she would hit Eenis with a baseball bat. It was soooo redneck.
- Crazy Courtney: Courtney was a freak. She had huge buckteeth, large glasses, and an awkward personality. She often wore weird hats and polka dot shirts and randomly would scream ‘MAH HAH‘ out of no where to others because that was, like, her thing.
- Totally Kyle: This sketch didn’t involve Amanda, but it was on her show so it must have been her creation. Kyle was pretty much a valley boy with NO brain. Like absolutely no sign of any brain ever being there. Kyle began every statement with ‘one time…‘ but never continued that statement with ‘at band camp’ (TG). He was your every day average stoner/surfer boy from California and was actually played by Drake of Drake and Josh. These dudes rose to fame on The Amanda Show. Can you believe it?! No? Me either.
Eventually, The Amanda Show was cancelled in 2002 and we began to get to know Bynes in a different light. She had a TV show, What I Like About You, that wasn’t anything like the SNL-for-kids-type-shows that had consumed her past career. Then she got into ‘film.’ And by ‘film’ I mean she starred in some romantic pre-teen and teen comedies (She’s The Man, What A Girl Wants, Sydney White, etc). As time went on, we started to know her as that semi-okay random movie actress that had chubby cheeks, instead of the hilarious young comedian who was a miniature Tina Fey. But now that Bynes has gone absolutely insane, we’re starting to take a look back into her career and just see how talented she really was. Amanda was FUNNY. Kel Mitchell was fucking insane, but Amanda was actually really really funny. She’s no LiLo or Olsen Twin. She actually has talent and brains… and she’s putting them to waste. Sure, her random outbursts of hitting police cars and talking to trees is comedy for us… but we want the Amanda Bynes from the 90s back. We want her to be comedy to us, her friends and family, and herself again. (Amanda) PLEASE!
