Happy Birthday Forever, Big Ang

As of today, I am the Entertainment Editor at PAPER. This means I get to do whatever I want, like wishing all the best to PAPER’s patron saint, whose brief time in the public eye fundamentally shifted culture forward, prophesying not only the inevitable return of trashy chic, but further widening the possibilities for the sorts of women we look up to in the world.

Best known for her time on Mob Wives, Big Ang made her big break on the internet with her own spin-off series, Big Ang, which featured her famous proclamation: “Money! Diamonds!” Back when GIFs were relevant forms of social communication, she was up there with NeNe Leakes and Tiffany Pollard as the most memed women on the internet.

To remember Big Ang is to remember her laugh, and the way it felt like she was always encased in a thin veil of cigarette smoke wherever she went. Friends and family describe her as warm and generous, despite the larger-than-life personality, her spirit never damaged by the association with the “wise guys” in the mob she grew up around. Her fashion sense was eclectic, even pioneering. She was always in some cheetah print wrap dress and too-big earrings, even bigger sunglasses, lipgloss smudged just so from the aforementioned cigarettes.

More than anything, Big Ang feels like the pillar of my memories on a time in pop culture that has since passed. A golden era, maybe, when Wendy Williams was on television delivering a truly gut-wrenching eulogy to everyone’s crazy aunt. I kept that episode of The Wendy Williams Show on my DVR, recorded on cable, until DVRs and cable television no longer existed. It sat next to the episode from the day after Joan Rivers died. The two felt spiritually connected to me, and each other, in their own ways.

On Instagram, friend and cast member Renee Graziano wrote this, of Ang: “You are so deeply missed. Not a day goes by without someone sliding into my DMs to say how much they miss you, how you made them laugh, how you brought light to their day. You made an impact in the world and you will never be forgotten.”

Photos via Getty Images