5 Times The Amanda Show Holds Up Today (& 5 Times Where It Hasn’t Aged Well)

“A-manda, manda, manda, manda, manda show!” 90s Nickelodeon fans know this theme song well. Amanda Bynes got started on All That and kept the laughs going on The Amanda Show. The half-hour program was like a kids’ version of The Carol Burnett Show. Amanda Bynes would perform comedy sketches with co-stars like Drake Bell and Josh Peck. These kids were able to showcase their acting skills in a variety of clever roles.

Even though The Amanda Show is well-loved, not every joke or sketch holds up today. Here are five times where the show is just as good now as it was back then, and five times where it hasn’t aged so well.

10 Aged Well: Moody’s Point

The “Moody’s Point” sketch is still good because it satirizes soapy teen dramas of the time, namely, Dawson’s Creek. Moody is having a tough time. Her father loses a toe, and her mother is off somewhere in a hot air balloon. The funny thing is, this sketch might not have made much sense to an elementary or middle school kid back in the late 90s and early 2000s, but it’s easy to appreciate as an adult.

9 Hasn’t Aged Well: The Girls’ Room

The problem with “The Girls’ Room” is quite clear. Even though it was meant as a joke, the sketch placed the four girls into pretty rigid stereotypes. Furthermore, the skit actually made some kids latch onto cliques even more.

Sure, some girls spend way too much time talking in the bathroom at school, but do we really need to see it on TV when we get home, too?

8 Aged Well: Penelope

The irony of Penelope Taynt was and is one of the most brilliant things about The Amanda Show. Penelope is obviously played by Amanda, but the character is Amanda’s biggest fan in the universe. Somehow, Penelope always misses Amanda. This is a great metaphor for the fact that celebrity is elusive, and honestly, fandom is just as real in 2020 as it was in 2000.

7 Hasn’t Aged Well: Hillbilly Moment

Amanda and Drake certainly made kids laugh with “Hillbilly Moment.” The problem is, the entire sketch hyperbolizes and mocks one specific group of people. The sketch surely draws inspiration from the vintage sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, but that doesn’t make it okay for the joke to continue. Now is the time to respect the cultures of others, and this sketch isn’t a testament to that.

6 Aged Well: Bring out the Dancing Lobsters!

Everybody loved when Amanda Bynes would take the stage and yell, “Bring out the dancing lobsters!” And lo and behold, dancing lobsters would descend into the theater. It didn’t have to make sense; it was just good, clean fun. Watching Amanda work the crowd and dance with the lobsters is, oddly, a comforting memory.

5 Hasn’t Aged Well: Blockblister

As much as millennials have nostalgia for Blockbuster, The Amanda Show’s “Blockblister” sketch just doesn’t capture it. It’s sad that video rental stores are few and far between, but that’s not why the sketch hasn’t aged well. The old clips of “Blockblister” don’t hold up because of the imitated foreign accents. While the parodic movie titles can be funny, the accents are offensive to many people.

4 Aged Well: Judge Trudy

This is another sketch that adults might just appreciate more than kids. Another good place for the lobsters to dance, “Judge Trudy” very obviously pokes fun at shows like Judge Judy. Gary Anthony Williams is funny as the Baliff, and Amanda shows how versatile she is as a comedian with every silly case that Trudy hears.

3 Hasn’t Aged Well: Mah-Hah

You might not remember her name, but you certainly remember her trademark. Courtney is another character Bynes would play, usually sitting somewhere in the audience. The girl was always dressed outlandishly and sported some crooked teeth.

She would say, “Mah-hah!” when angry, and she’d find ways to wreak havoc on those in her path. Courtney’s outer appearance clearly makes fun of the quote-unquote “nerd.” Though this still happens on TV sometimes, many people are starting to recognize that it’s not cool to make fun of others this way anymore (and really wasn’t ever).

2 Aged Well: Amanda, Please!

Astonishingly, Penelope’s old website in honor of Amanda still works (sort of). It functions as more of a screen capture than anything else, but it’s still cool to be able to revisit it. The website was so important to fans back in the day because the show aired for the first generation of Internet kids. Viewers were able to interact quite a bit on the site. Today, many of us are hungry for that visual dose of nostalgia and childhood. Well, here it is.

1 Hasn’t Aged Well: When…Attack

“When…Attack” is a parody of “When Animals Attack.” The ellipses stand in for a number of entities. There are attacks from cheerleaders, The Brady Bunch, school mascots, and more. The parody scenes even showed sketch characters wounded and bruised after such attacks. Some viewers and parents must have been upset by this twenty years ago. It certainly is not acceptable and would not fly today.

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