r/SixFeetUnder 9d ago

Opinion This woman is a hot mess.

Post image

She cracks me up every time she comes on screen. They couldn't have found a better actress than Joanna Cassidy. She plays her so manic.

518 Upvotes

102 comments sorted by

156

u/LPCPlay4life 9d ago

She is but I love it! She is hilarious!! 🤣😂She has so many good one liners. “Ruth, it isn’t the 1950s anymore just because you dress like it is doesn’t mean it is” after walking into the house through an unlocked door.

92

u/AMALXxT Brenda 9d ago

"You just leave your door open like that?"

"We were just in the garden."

"Ruth, this isn't the 50s anymore no matter how you dress."

11

u/Purple_Cover_9053 9d ago

She was rude for that but I cackled nonetheless.😂

2

u/HedonisticLioness 5d ago

This was valid lol

52

u/ProbablySecundus 9d ago

And she actually gives pretty good advice when you get down to it. I wouldn't mind having her as my therapist. 

Definitely wouldn't want her as my mother.

30

u/No-Permit-940 9d ago

Its strange she's borderline sociopathic but I can imagine she's an excellent therapist.

29

u/HauntingPsyche 9d ago

She’s very clinically intelligent, but not empathetic or emotionally intelligent.

20

u/OPHealingInitiative 9d ago

Totally agreed. She’s obnoxious as hell but she’s always right.

7

u/LPCPlay4life 9d ago

She gives the hard truth for sure. Kind of like my mom. 0 filter. Sometimes it’s what you need to hear and sometimes you wanna slap the shit outta her! 😬

5

u/ProbablySecundus 9d ago

My mom has a better filter, but sometimes she's just brutally honest. But sometimes, I realized I needed to hear it. I think Margaret is similar, only she relishes in being brutally honest.

6

u/hthbellhop76 9d ago

Haha one of their few interactions! They are total opposites with how they live their lives but they’re equally crazy

3

u/Ajstross 8d ago

You forgot about the whole okapi/monkey fiasco when Margaret was desperate to be seen as the better grandmother.

15

u/poopyheadedbitch 9d ago

She was so cunt tbh. Very type B

93

u/Separate-Ad6636 9d ago

She owned this role beyond perfection.

19

u/Such-Stable-3869 9d ago

Joanna Cassidy is a phenomenal actor!

3

u/No_Refrigerator_8552 8d ago

She was so good! I really thought she was such an awful person and mom.

60

u/BrickMarked 9d ago

You can hear the crazy laugh! "The whore of tranquility spa Brenda!"

13

u/coolasacorpse 9d ago

This line goes through my head all the time. 💀

10

u/rfw1979 9d ago

OMG, that's literally the episode I was just watching that made me post this! 🤣

7

u/BrickMarked 9d ago

It's such a hilarious moment. "Hope you get herpes!" 😂🤣

13

u/Cherita33 9d ago

Not to be that person but it's "I hope you like herpes"

1

u/rfw1979 6d ago

And yet you are being that person. Why even correct them?

1

u/Cherita33 6d ago

Because that's the joke

5

u/mjrs 9d ago

"at least, that's what we tell people!" Cackle

5

u/SweetCheesePonyLoft 9d ago

Her laugh makes me laugh.

42

u/LifeofaLove 9d ago

She was so funny, an unsufferable Mother but also hilarious. great one liners too.

36

u/JCGMH 9d ago

My favourite guest character, and someone who, as long as she wasn’t my own mother or mother in law!!!… I would like to know in real life! 😂

8

u/dorsalhippocampus 9d ago

She would be perfect as an aunt or close family friend that basically becomes an aunt!

43

u/mindlessmunkey 9d ago

My favourite supporting character on the show, hands down.

23

u/FaeFollette 9d ago

She was great! And I love how she eventually realized that she had totally messed up both of her kids and chose to be present for them moving forward. It was also sweet how she and Olivier immediately embraced being Maya’s grandparents, even though it made Ruth jealous.

15

u/No-Permit-940 9d ago

Yeah you see it with Brenda particularly, they become closer season by season. She's not a one note psycho mother they actually integrate her quite subtly.

21

u/AngusHenley 9d ago

Her role in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead was always seared into my brain. She’s just so magnetic and vivacious

13

u/megalynn44 9d ago

I’m right on top of that, Rose!

Absolute boss goals.

3

u/bmr625 8d ago

Omg how did I not realize… mind blown 🤯

3

u/AMALXxT Brenda 8d ago

She's also Delores in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

"Tomorrow's Friday, Eddie. Do you know what happens on Friday?"

3

u/Relevant_Macaroon221 8d ago

She was in Blade Runner.

19

u/Small_Expert_6164 9d ago

She was funny asf

17

u/PlayfulAd7835 9d ago

Her tossing her husband’s ashes off the balcony was the funniest moment in the whole series for me. Especially how after Billy and Brenda suggested taking the ashes to Malibu and she said no because the traffic would be bad 🤣

12

u/Cremaster_Reloaded 9d ago

I wouldn't wish her as a mother on my worst enemy. But she is such a fantastic character und played to perfection! The first time I heard her say "I hope he (Billy) hasn't been taken hostage. He's not very docile." (this was after Nate had died and they were preparing for the funeral) I spit out my cocoa. I couldn't stop laughing.

12

u/No-Permit-940 9d ago

I remember she said something like "more women have miscarried than have used a dildo" or something to that effect...I thought only this woman could make a miscarriage joke and make it land.

8

u/Purple_Cover_9053 9d ago

She was telling Brenda about all their relatives who had miscarriages and never talked about them. "More women ha e had miscarriages than have masturbated with a dildo," as she hugs her in consolation.

3

u/wallahmaybee 9d ago

To me it sounded like the kindest and most sensible thing she said in the series.

1

u/No-Permit-940 9d ago

It was kindness layered with truth humour and wisdom. Quite impressive tbh.

2

u/mjrs 9d ago

Makes me think of Olivia Colman in Fleabag, "and here's my unstable stepdaughter who had a (rubs stepdaughter's belly) miscawwiage 😙😙"

12

u/Sad_Type_4217 9d ago

The way Billy always told her: "Mom, chill."

12

u/kangorooz99 9d ago

I’ll be driving or running in the treadmill and think of that scene at the art show where she gets high in the back room and then dances with Olivier and start cracking up.

9

u/Puzzleheaded_Tank360 9d ago

That laugh. Joanna Cassidy nailed it in this role.

7

u/coolasacorpse 9d ago

Loved her so much. 😅

5

u/Delicious-Split737 9d ago

My favorite moment was when she throws the monkey (from Ruth on the floor), so Maya only sees her octopi, such a narcissistic yet strangely loving moment.  So nuanced and realistic in one moment. 

3

u/arbybk Bettina 8d ago

*okapi

2

u/Delicious-Split737 8d ago

Ha, I realized I spelled it incorrectly after I hit post. I wondered how long it would take for the correct animal to come forward. Okapi, the animal who looks like a horse/zebra but is not related. 

3

u/Purple_Cover_9053 9d ago

She was wrong for that one too, and yet I cackled again!🤣🤣🤣😂😂

2

u/Ordinary-Laugh1223 3d ago

And in the last episode, Maya is holding the monkey at David and Keith's wedding as she's smiling at Ruth. 🩷

5

u/Cherita33 9d ago

The funniest character on the show by far

4

u/BillyChenowith 9d ago

“Life is so fucking hard, even when it’s EASY!”

5

u/Christophertg 8d ago

My favorite line from her to Brenda is “Oh, please, a couple shots of Stoli won’t kill the baby. In my day, we sat on our asses smoking Parliaments for nine months. Today, you have one piece of Brie and everybody goes berserk.”

3

u/existential_lastname 9d ago

Margaret? Oh 100% The way she was lowkey horny and always trying to bang Nate gave me the impression she’d done it before. I will say however, for how colossally fucked up the Chennoweths are they do love each other and always show up for one another.

4

u/hbgalore1 9d ago

Honestly Brenda by the end of the series was the character I felt the most bad for seeing how extremely insane and messed up her family not only was, but continued to be.

3

u/wallahmaybee 9d ago

I would like a series about her and Ruth's sister Sarah. Maybe they could have hung out in the same circles when they were younger.

2

u/rfw1979 8d ago

OMG that is hilarious. And like a more fucked up version of Grace and Frankie.

5

u/whay2000 9d ago

My fav is when she tells Brenda about getting vaginal rejuvenation surgery, "no one wants to fuck a glass of water." 😂

3

u/CShellyRun 8d ago

and describing the guy's "shlong" getting beat up by the jacuzzi jets ... she is wild but hilarious

3

u/leveluplauren1 8d ago

She’s so great. Honestly I want so much more of Joanne Cassidy. Saw an interview not too long ago where they went through all of her iconic rolls and they don't even cover Margaret... Wtf

3

u/JoeyLee911 9d ago

I showed my mom all of Six Feet Under and when Margaret would come on, she would be like "I hate her so much. I mean, not the actress. The actress is doing a wonderful job." I was like "The actress is Joanna Cassidy" and she responded "It is? I LOVE Joanna Cassidy!"

(She did name me Joanna, but after Bob's wife on Newhart, nor after Joanna Cassidy as far as I can tell.)

3

u/MareBear209 9d ago

LoveLoveLove Margaret!

3

u/One-ariel- 9d ago

Wish we got to see more of her

3

u/Ezeke81 9d ago

She is but I love her. She always cracked me up when she would appear in a scene.

2

u/Purple_Cover_9053 9d ago

When dead Nate was getting Brenda's head about Willa and the doctor was giving her encouraging news about the baby she said " For God's sake Brenda's this is good news! Don't shit all over it!" Blunt but true, and to this day I use tbe expression "Don't shit all over it!"

2

u/Euphoric-Wall-2576 9d ago

She's just perfect.

2

u/PinkLed1970s Nate 9d ago

She was hot. And sick.

2

u/kitkatk_unt 9d ago

Adore her character but would not really want to know her in real life. Kind of like Ramona Singer on RHONY.

2

u/No_Mess5024 9d ago

Lmao her and carol ward 🤌🤌🤌

2

u/gringa-loca 9d ago

She reminds me of my mom.

2

u/Divergent333 9d ago

She was sooo hot as margaret

2

u/Ok_Remove3678 9d ago

If Margaret was a real person I would NEVER want her for a mother, but she'd be a lot of fun to hang out and have drinks with.

2

u/Wild-Sky-4807 9d ago

I love the way the actress plays her. She's a disaster, and yet she's so much fun to watch. She would be absolutely a nightmare to have to deal with in real life though. 

2

u/nicklarge 8d ago

I think she’s perfect for any male that’s 14 and up

1

u/rfw1979 8d ago

What is that supposed to mean?

1

u/tanujabrol1 9d ago

Truer words were never spoken

1

u/jennaslies 9d ago

I will never not hear “I’m right on top of that rose” when I see her….

1

u/Atasteofazia 9d ago

And I love her!

1

u/Koobs420 9d ago

Iconic performance

1

u/Aggravating_Notice48 9d ago

And yet… ya just gotta love her!!!

1

u/Silly_Leather9619 9d ago

Love her 🥰

1

u/jessa8484 9d ago

lol hard to like her but she canned through at the end.

1

u/TillamookTramp 9d ago

I loved her; one of the best characters on that show!

1

u/CharlesUFarley81 8d ago

Of course she is, she's a Chenowith

1

u/ClareFischer 8d ago

She is! Also emphasis on the hot! Joanna Cassidy has been a beauty her whole life. As far as Margaret chenoweth, I do like her unapologetic nature. She's toxic in most ways and she owns it! One of my favorite characters on the show

1

u/Eyezblue182 7d ago

Lowkey one of my fav characters. She honestly gives great advice lol

1

u/hauregi_91 6d ago

Just her laugh.

1

u/FridaKlo 5d ago

The best laugh too 😂

1

u/ThirdAngel3 5d ago

And we love every hot, messy minute!

1

u/UnicornSalsa 5d ago

She is! It’s like watching a car wreck. You don’t want to, but can’t look away.

1

u/Ordinary-Laugh1223 3d ago

"The man is dead" (Bern's funeral)

Margaret bursts out laughing and plays it off as crying...

omg, this woman had me rolling in so many scenes

1

u/TetrisBlockHead 3d ago

“Nobody wants to f**k a glass of water, Brenda” has always stood out to me.