On Tuesday night, Tina Fey accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, becoming both the youngest person to win it and the one with the thinnest resume. The Washington Post reports:
In her acceptance speech, Fey touched on her best-known bit — her Palin imitation –and offered some mock hands-across-the-political-divide commentary. The rise of conservative women in politics, she said pointedly, is good for all women, “unless you don’t want to pay for your own rape kit . . . unless you’re a lesbian who wants to get married to your partner of 20 years . . . [or] unless you believe in evolution.”
The lines played first to nervous laughter and then to not much laughter at all.
That doesn’t mean it wasn’t funny, of course. It just means that this particular audience of inbred redneck rubes — who else would attend such an event at the Kennedy Center? — was too stupid to understand how hilarious a litany of liberal canards and debunked talking points is. She was actually satirizing sheltered lefty entertainers who never have to talk to anyone who disagrees with them.
Just kidding! She actually does despise you if you dare to dissent from her view of the world. Which is fine. Haters gonna hate.
Once you’re done snarling “Shut up, you Rethuglican fascist!” at your computer screen, please calm down and watch one of my favorite SNL sketches ever, which Fey wrote:
Tina Fey is often funny. 30 Rock is a good show. Her Palin impression is sharp enough to cut through the lack of physical resemblance. I wish her nothing but the best. And if she wants to alienate entire swaths of her potential viewing audience, that’s her business. It’ll always go over big at Jezebel. Isn’t that the important thing?
P.S. Back in Feb. ’08, Fey said this:
Of course, that was months before she’d ever heard of Sarah Palin. Never mind, America!
P.P.S. AP poll: Palin’s favorable rating highest in almost a year.
P.P.P.S. On the other hand, some critics hate Palin’s new reality show. More specifically, they’re desperate not to be seen as saying anything good about her, however mild. Much like the infamous Going Rogue review that consisted largely of the reviewer bragging about not finishing the book, the point is not to provide a service to the reader, but rather to reinforce the writer’s bona fides.