Phyllis Diller died today at age 95. The Los Angeles Times remembers:
“When I realized I looked like Olive Oyl and wanted to look like Jean Harlow, I knew something had to be done,” she once said. “From 12 on, the only way to handle the terror of social situations was comedy — break the ice, make everybody laugh. I did it to make people feel more relaxed, including myself.”
There a so many amazing videos of Diller on YouTube, but here’s one that is particularly close to home. Watch her roast Ronald Reagan before he was president.
“If you ever get to be president, and I think you may, and there’s a depression. Try not to have it at a bad time, like when everybody’s out of work,” she told the then-governor.