But for all her office-gal kvetching, Denise is a people person. When someone shows up in the waiting room with fear or confusion — having died too young or too soon — it's Denise who's there to scoop them up in a hug and show them all of heaven's silver linings.
And for the TikTokers watching along, she has become a tool for thinking through the afterlife — and for grieving those who've already made their way there.
The real Denise is a 26-year-old pageant queen
Though arguably just as poignant as The Good Place or Field of Dreams, the world of heaven's reception is a low-fi, short-form experience. And like most TikTok series, it's the imaginings of one person alone: Taryn Delanie Smith.
The 26-year-old, better known as @taryntino21, considers herself first and foremost a content creator — she has gained 1.2 million TikTok followers in two years of posting. But she's an offline celebrity in her own right as well, having been crowned 2022's Miss New York and runner-up in the Miss America competition.
But before Smith had any sort of platform, she herself was a receptionist, working long hours to pay her way through a master's degree in international communication. It's that experience that she pulls from to inform Denise's character.
"I got promoted to the call center eventually, which was definitely not the promotion I thought it'd be," Smith said in an interview with NPR.
Even heaven's receptionist has to go through the same mundane daily dramas as any earthly office worker.
There's the slew of entitled folks who think they deserve the Angel Premium Plus package but are short on the cost: 7,899 good deeds. But then there's the creepy resident with red eyes who keeps abusing a downstairs pass to terrorize a suburban family.
"I got promoted to the call center eventually, which was definitely not the promotion I thought it'd be," Smith said in an interview with NPR.
Even heaven's receptionist has to go through the same mundane daily dramas as any earthly office worker.
There's the slew of entitled folks who think they deserve the Angel Premium Plus package but are short on the cost: 7,899 good deeds. But then there's the creepy resident with red eyes who keeps abusing a downstairs pass to terrorize a suburban family.
"Why can't we just let women do it all?"
It's these types of creative, world-building details that keep Smith's audience so hooked. But like all great ideas, Denise's character was born in the least grandiose of ways — as a stray thought in the shower.
"I was standing there thinking, 'If I die in a chicken suit, then I have to wear the chicken suit forever.' Can you imagine a ghost coming to you in a chicken suit?" Smith said. "And I just couldn't stop giggling."
She hopped out of the shower and into a robe and towel, found the first stock image of heaven that came up on Google and made what she thought would be the stupidest video on the internet.
Today, the heaven's receptionist videos have been viewed over 37 million times on Smith's TikTok page, and at least 22 million times on other platforms. Smith gets recognized on the street as Denise more often than she does as Miss New York.
It's these types of creative, world-building details that keep Smith's audience so hooked. But like all great ideas, Denise's character was born in the least grandiose of ways — as a stray thought in the shower.
"I was standing there thinking, 'If I die in a chicken suit, then I have to wear the chicken suit forever.' Can you imagine a ghost coming to you in a chicken suit?" Smith said. "And I just couldn't stop giggling."
She hopped out of the shower and into a robe and towel, found the first stock image of heaven that came up on Google and made what she thought would be the stupidest video on the internet.
Today, the heaven's receptionist videos have been viewed over 37 million times on Smith's TikTok page, and at least 22 million times on other platforms. Smith gets recognized on the street as Denise more often than she does as Miss New York.
by Emily Olson, NPR | Read more:
Image: Screenshot by NPR/TikTok @taryntino21[ed. I wish I could embed her TikTok videos here, but alas...nope. Anyway, click on the NPR link for some examples, or her TikTok page (The Heaven Receptionist). Funny. For something completely different (but still TikTok-y), see also: Lemon8 Is for the (Hot, Rich) Girlies (PW):]
"Our timelines are populated with raw posts from unextraordinary people with a few diamonds mixed into the rough.
Lemon8 is different. It’s all diamond, no rough. Even the upper crust of TikTok finds it intimidating:"
"Our timelines are populated with raw posts from unextraordinary people with a few diamonds mixed into the rough.
Lemon8 is different. It’s all diamond, no rough. Even the upper crust of TikTok finds it intimidating:"
