Here’s to Catherine O’Hara, Life’s Answer to Bogus Claims That Women Aren’t Funny

The award-winning Canadian-American actress was a comedic titan – despite men’s tendency to assert, time and time again, that women aren’t able to dole out the laughs.

Actress Catherine O’Hara was hilarious. This is how we must begin.

Sadly, O’Hara is now gone, having died Friday, January 30 at the age of 71 following a brief bout with an undisclosed illness.

In the hours after learning about her passing, I found myself reflecting upon the numerous conversations I’ve had over my years with men who would imply – or even outright declare – that women aren’t funny. It’s something of a common refrain, a modern-era manifestation of age-old sexism.

Whenever I was confronted with the notion, O’Hara’s name was the first one I would evoke to prove them wrong. And it worked every time – because O’Hara was simply undeniable.

That said, the actress had to grapple with the limitations that notion put in place when she was getting her start as a performer. In a 2019 interview with Vulture, she said the situation for women working in comedy was even worse when she was acting with improv troupe Second City in the mid-1970s. “There are more women being allowed to reach for and achieve their potential now than then,” she noted. But “it still hasn’t changed enough.”

She pushed past the doubts of men in that male-dominated field to build a decades-long legacy of standout performances in both film and television. Among her most beloved roles are larger-than-life matriarchs Delia Deetz in 1988 horror-comedy “Beetlejuice,” Kate McCallister in 1990 family holiday classic “Home Alone” and ​​Moira Rose in beloved Netflix comedy series “Schitt’s Creek.”

Her fellow performers recalled O’Hara fondly as an inspiration, and as a prolific, singular talent, following her death. “What an honor it was to be spoofed by Catherine O’Hara,” actress Brooke Shields wrote. “What an unfathomable loss. Comedy won’t be the same without her.” Rita Wilson described her as “a woman who was authentic and truthful in all she did,” noting that “you saw it in her work, if you knew her you saw it in her life, and you saw it in her family.”

Men of the comedy world also paid tribute to her genius. (As they should.) “I told O’Hara when I first met her I thought she was the funniest person I’d ever had the pleasure of watching on screen,” actor Seth Rogen said. Added comedian Kevin Nealon: “Catherine O’Hara changed how so many of us understand comedy and humanity.”

Part of what made O’Hara so very memorable was her willingness to give herself over to the absurdity of her characters — indeed, no one pulled off “comedic crazy” quite like O’Hara. But as her contemporaries recognized, the main reason O’Hara is so rightly revered is because all of her work thrummed with heart, as well as humor. Her characters were often silly, yes — but she took them seriously. She respected them, as well as her audience.

You could see and hear and feel that deference in, say, the tender lamentation of “Sally’s Song” at the center of her voice-acting work in animated holiday horror film “The Nightmare Before Christmas;” in her palpable distress and real tears amid an otherwise boisterous screwball performance as Sheila Albertson in mockumentary “Waiting for Guffman;” in her sweet encouragement of a friend in “Schitt’s Creek,” a show that typified how love can mold and smooth us for the better, in part by showing Moira Rose’s evolution from self-involved to supportive (in her way).

You could see this spirit in her dramatic work, too – her complex, grief-ridden turn as psychiatrist Gail Lynden on HBO post-apocalyptic drama “The Last of Us” comes to mind. But it’s not simply a matter of her having the range to pull off such a variety of roles. (Though, O’Hara did have impressive range, to be clear.) Rather, she understood that her humanity, and her connection to it, was critical to being an effective performer – and that it’s absolutely critical to being funny.

She got that the best humor, the most lasting laughs, are infused with intelligence, and honesty, and love. That the best examples of comedy didn’t exclude, or punch down – they invite everyone to feel welcome and safe in chuckling along. The laughs O’Hara gave us in her lifetime always felt so good to us, and so vital, because they were always connected to what is good and vital about the human condition.

And, she understood the importance of her work. As she herself once said, “In life, there is nothing better than laughing – especially a laugh when you most need it.”

Never let anyone tell you that laughter can’t be women’s work. Not when we had O’Hara, in all the ways and moments we’ve needed her most.