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Let's be blunt: Without Edie McClurg, there might as well be no movies. Without Edie McClurg, and Stephen Tobolowsky, and Ron Rifkin, and Harris Yulin, and all the other stalwart H!ITG!s, Hollywood should just shut the cameras down.

Because where would Hollywood be in that case? Making a bunch of movies in which pretty people walk around empty towns that have no sheriffs, no mayors, no busybody neighbours, no Hispanic gang members, and no Asian assassins, that's where. And thatıs a pretty boring town. Have fun, pretty people!

Sure, there are lots of H!ITG!s, but Edie McClurg belongs in the Legion of Super H!ITG!s. If H!ITG!s were the Superfriends, she'd be Wonder Woman. You know Edie McClurg, even if you don't know you know her. To a certain generation, she'll always be Herb Tarlek's annoying, busybody wife, Lucille, from WKRP in Cincinnati. To another generation, she's Vice-Principal Rooney's annoying, busybody secretary in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. To another generation, she's the annoying, busybody campus tour guide in National Lampoon's Van Wilder, though that generation really needs to get out to the video store more often.

Edie McClurg is such a good, useful H!ITG! that she's become a meta-H!ITG!. For example, she now only needs to show up onscreen for a second and you automatically register "annoying busybody." She has honed her H!ITG! powers to peak efficiency.

McClurg is thus able to spread her annoying busybodyness far and wide, gracing everything from forgotten, '80s-era sitcoms such as Small Wonder (annoying busybody neighbour) to current box-office cultural landmarks such as Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (annoying busybody neighbour).

Furthermore, in Natural Born Killers, she played Mallory's annoying, busybody mother, in what was intended by Oliver Stone to be a grotesque parody of a sitcom. She was, in effect, the annoying busybody version of an annoying busybody.

In conclusion: Edie McClurg, you are awesome and well-appreciated. May your body always be busy.