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Anne Beatts

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Author

The Resume

    (February 25, 1947-April 7, 2021)
    Born in Buffalo, New York
    Wrote for the National Lampoon (1970-75) and Saturday Night Live (1975-79)
    Created the TV series Square Pegs
    Wrote the book for the jukebox musical ‘Leader of the Pack’ (1985)
    Produced the first season of A Different World
    Co-editor of ‘Titters: The First Collection of Humor by Women’ (1976)

Why she might be annoying:

    She got her breakthrough at the National Lampoon because she was dating one of the writers, Michel Choquette: ‘You needed a guy to get into the room.’
    A fake ad she co-created – showing a VW Beetle floating on a lake with the caption ‘If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he’d be President today’ – resulted in the car company suing for defamation and the Lampoon agreeing to remove the mock ad from their ‘Encyclopedia of Humor.’
    She was initially reluctant to work at SNL, calling television ‘just a lava lamp with sound.’
    For SNL, she created ‘Uncle Roy,’ a pedophilic babysitter portrayed by Buck Henry. (‘It was the lighter side of child molestation.’)
    She said about trying to fit in the writers’ rooms at the Lampoon and SNL, ‘Essentially, you find out that if you try to be one of the guys, you just end up being a slightly defective guy.’

Why she might not be annoying:

    She became the first female editor of the National Lampoon.
    A few months into her tenure at SNL, NBC executives tried to cut her salary, saying that paying her the same amount as the male writers had been a ‘mistake.’ (The execs backed down after she protested to Lorne Michaels.)
    Other SNL characters she created included Dan Aykroyd’s Irwin Mainway and Fred Garvin: Male Prostitute and Bill Murray and Gilda Radner’s Nerds (Todd DiLaMuca and Lisa Loopner).
    P.J. O’Rourke said, ‘Anne was Tina Fey when Tina Fey was making fun of the stuffed animals in her crib.’
    ’People’ magazine wrote about her ability to create ‘Square Pegs’ without a male production partner, ‘Mary Tyler Moore had Grant Tinker, Carol Burnett had Joe Hamilton and Lucy had Desi; Anne Beatts has chutzpah.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 25 Votes: 44.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 26 Votes: 26.92% Annoying