I have no idea what Aubrey Plaza’s 30th birthday plans are, but I’m guessing it involves something along the lines of getting drunk and telling her friends and family they’ve got a stupid face. But in a loving and quirky way, of course.
Even after years of Parks and Rec and movies like Scott Pilgrim, I’m still thrown by her incredibly weird, yet oddly charming and bat sh*t crazy personality. If it’s all an act, then kudos to her for never breaking character. That being said, weird rules the internet and Aubrey Plaza is incredibly entertaining, so let’s celebrate her birthday with some of her finer internet culture moments.
1. Anytime she’s on a talk show ever.
If you see Aubrey Plaza is a scheduled guest on a talk show, watch it. What unfolds every time is an uncomfortable exchange between a TV host and a beautiful, talented, and possibly deranged individual. I could have chosen any of her talk show appearances as an example, but I feel her appearance on Late Night really delivers on all levels of “what the hell is going on here?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNTHAx5zty8
2. Making a surprise sax cameo in an indie music video.
I’m not familiar with Philadelphia-based band Cassorla, but they’re obviously doing something right if Ms. Plaza agreed to provide a sax cameo in their video. Paddle boats — check. Comedy actress with eye-rolling game that nobody can touch — check. Those are really the only two elements that are needed for an indie video these days. Well, that and some bizarre dancing by a white guy.
3. A Twitter feed that reads like a diary of insanity.
Few Twitter feeds boast as much evil and charm as @evilhag. There are your standard tweets of hanging out with co-stars and shoutouts to John Goodman, but then there are also straight bouts of weird in 140 character or less.
4. Attempting to pull a Kanye on Will Ferrell.
Kanye West has been an innovator in so many ways, from wearing vision impairing sunglasses to stealing awards. The man obviously was an influence on Aubrey Plaza last year when she attempted to steal an MTV award from Will Ferrell. (The stronger influence of course was copious amounts of alcohol.) Plaza’s only 5’6 and Ferrell is 6’3, so she wasn’t able to pull off the trophy mugging and got booted from the awards show, but Ferrell did comment that she had “hot liquor breath.” Come to think of it, this really isn’t a winning moment at all.
5. Trolling the paparazzi.
You know the paparazzi/internet/planet Earth is all about co-star-on-co-star action. A couple of stars from some CW young adult drama going at it off-set is a solid flashbulb moment, but two actresses from a hit NBC Thursday night comedy? Umm, cha-ching, cha-ching! Plaza seems to enjoy trolling everyone from GQ writers to the L.A. paparazzi, and in the process her and Amy Poehler gave us a GIF to treasure forever — or at bare minimum 20 seconds.
6. Her contributions to GIF culture.
Next to Andy or maybe Tom, nobody on Parks and Rec seems to regularly produce as many instantly GIFable scenes as April Ludgate. (I still close all my professional emails with the GIF of April chugging wine while spinning in her chair.) Even her non-April Ludgate GIFs have washed over the internet. Something as deep and profound as the GIF below surely deserves to be enjoyed on a loop.
Happy birthday and shine on you crazy diamond.
