Entertainment

Tina Fey’s memoir ‘Bossypants’ released

Laura Donovan Contributor
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30 Rock star Tina Fey’s book Bossypants, a reflection on her comedy career, hits bookshelves on Tuesday.

According to NPR, the memoir includes Fey’s stories from The Second City comedy theater in Chicago, Saturday Night Live, and 30 Rock. The SNL veteran, film actress, and Emmy-winner surely has lots of Hollywood memories to share with readers. In addition to scoring the Mark Twain Prize for American humor, Fey has penned screenplays, appeared in blockbuster hits like Mean Girls and Baby Mama, created 30 Rock, and been named Entertainment Weekly‘s Entertainer of the Decade. During the 2008 presidential election cycle, Fey portrayed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, wowing audience members everywhere with her resemblance to the Alaskan governor.

Janeane Garofalo of NPR said Fey was unfairly treated for this impersonation, stating, “Another area of interest to me was Tina’s discussion of what happened when she impersonated Sarah Palin on SNL and became a target of ill-founded wrath. Regrettably, it’s always been easy to marshal cultural hostility toward women. Especially in politics, where double standards and misogyny tend to dominate the conversation… It is something that, as Fey rightly points out, has never happened to Dan Aykroyd, Dana Carvey, or many other men who do political satire.”

The cover shows Fey with hirsute, manly arms, seeming to imply that the actress had to channel her masculine side to be taken seriously in comedy. As Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times put it, “There’s Fey on the cover looking fabulous but not owning it (her airbrushed face is framed by two large and hairy male arms), and the back is filled with fake and self-deprecating quotes regarding her appearance and talent. Pay them no mind; inside lies a collection of autobiographical essays that should (but of course won’t) prove once and for all that pretty is nowhere near as important as funny, and funny doesn’t work without that rare balance of truth and heart.”