For reals, I love Tina Fey. I used to feel like a jerk for saying that, because I really only noticed her when she did those Palin sketches on SNL, and then fell in love when I started watching 30 Rock (Liz Lemon is like the best TV character ever). I've been wanting to read this since it came out, but a couple weeks ago I was STILL like #40 on my library's hold list, so when I got a good coupon for Borders, I caved and bought Bossypants. (Seriously though - Little, Brown, & Co publishers - it's criminal that you've priced a hardcover book with less than 300 pages at $27. Are you insane? Good thing I had that 50% off coupon, and my extra 10% membership discount.) So now, having read this book and thoroughly enjoyed it, I feel justified in saying that yeah, Tina Fey rocks.
This is Tina's recollections of childhood, school, awkward dating situations, jobs, and finally her awesome shows and being a mom. She's witty and funny throughout the whole darn thing, while still remaining cool and intelligent. She's one of those famous people that you could totally picture being friends with. And that's saying something for me, because I honestly don't have a lot of female friends.
A couple highlights / my favorite parts:
- "Two peanuts are walking down the street. And one was a salted." (This was just a random joke in the intro - TOTALLY perfect for my corny sense of humor.)
- She dedicates a whole chapter to addressing some of the rude comments she's seen about herself online. And man does she know how to bite back :o)
- She defends the use of Photoshop, pointing out that it's not inherently evil and there's nothing wrong with wanting to look good. And that it's better than plastic surgery.
- While she pokes fun at her single-life encounters with the opposite sex, she's respectful whenever she mentions her husband. She doesn't get vulgar or sexual when she talks about him, it's cool that she respects her married life.
- She talks a bit about sexism she's encountered over the years and voices her feminist stance. I have issues with modern-day feminists - mainly because the ones I meet are too "girls rule and boys drool", and they tend to be really jerky about my desire to be a childless housewife. But Tina writing about how tough it is for female comedians, and talking about how infuriating it is to deal with people who have working-mom issues... it reminded me what feminism is SUPPOSED to be about. Choosing what YOU want to do, and not having to deal with someone else's bullshit, criticizing you because what you want to do goes against the preconceived notions people have for what women are supposed to be like. So props to her for that.
- She talks about the Sarah Palin sketches that brought her so much attention during the last election.
- She talks about her work on SNL & how 30 Rock was created, which I really enjoyed because I love 30 Rock so much.
Overall, this was a great look into Tina Fey's life and psyche. She seems like such a fun person. It gave me a lot of laughs along the way. The only bad thing I can say is that it's too short. And I didn't know she wrote that Mean Girls movie... it kind of makes me want to see it now.
Sarah Says: 4 stars!
