Is it safe to argue that Betty White is pretty much one of the few currently living celebrity who is almost universally liked (https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/betty-white-likeable-career) or beloved (https://www.kenneymyers.com/blog/10-reasons-people-love-to-like-betty-white/)? I've heard suggestion that Dolly Parton is probably the next closest at least among women. Like Betty, Dolly has been able to transcend political and gender/sexual orientation/generational (http://www.providermagazine.com/archives/2014_Archives/Pages/0414/The-Strange-Case-Of-Betty-White.aspx) divides and are enormous humanitarians (https://www.thirteen.org/blog-post/betty-white-television-history/). When he was still alive, I wouldn't hesitate to say that Mr. Rogers was like that among male celebrities. Basically, Mr. Rogers was another person who you would really be hard pressed to truly find anything negative to say about him.

I think that a lot of Betty White's popularity (https://www.foodandwine.com/beer/beer-betty-white-poll) is that she's like your sweet (https://www.wbur.org/npr/136053958/betty-white-still-a-hit-with-a-new-generation), kindly grandmother, who can also be spunky (https://mix1041.radio.com/articles/radiocom/6-times-betty-white-won-instagram) and feisty. I think it may also have to do with the fact that Betty is the sole surviving main cast member of The Golden Girls (https://bookandfilmglobe.com/television/why-millennials-love-golden-girls/), so we want to give her increased adulation, while she's still with us.

I suspect that it really took off when she appeared in that the movie The Proposal (http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/betty-whites-big-comeback/all) and that Snickers ad during the Super Bowl, which eventually lead to the push to have her host Saturday Night Live (https://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/betty-white-s-young-fans-give-her-snl-boost-1.1775532).

I agree, I think it was when she hosted SNL that her popularity soared once again, and then doing the Snickers advertisement, which gave her mammoth exposure to a new generation not even born during the runs of Mary Tyler Moore Show or The Golden Girls. Then, of course she did Hot in Cleveland and The Golden Girls started airing endlessly on several cable networks.

Needless to say, she's a national treasure!

Amen to both of you. She's not only my favorite celebrity, she's truly one of my favorite human beings. :loveya: There's something so hilarious about suddenly hearing those bawdy, even mean-spirited punch lines come out of that innocent, sweet, blue-eyed, dimpled face.

Betty's truly an argument for human cloning. :lol:

Towards the end of his life, you can make an argument that Stan Lee was kind of the closest male equivalent to Betty White; a mostly beloved, cool grandparent-like figure who was able to resonant with multi-generational appeal.