Okay, so I like Tina Fey. She’s a funny lady and some of her writing is pretty good. The whole Sarah Palin bit was brilliant. Props. Yet, there has always been something about her humor that’s bothered me in a way I can’t quite explain.
I remember feeling a vague disappointment that the best schtick the first female writer of Saturday Night Live could come up with was ‘Old French Whore’. There was a thinly veiled hostility to it, definitely gendered, and worse yet it wasn’t funny. It is one of those skits that make SNL terrible between political seasons.
I’ve seen most of Baby Mama. It was okay, if a little formulaic. Seriously, just change babies for weddings and it is sort of 27 Dresses (and thank you HBO for taking away 90 minutes of my life I will never get back with that one). I suppose a big Hollywood comedy couldn’t end any other way, but of course the barren career women movie could only end with her paired up in a nice nuclear family…like you’re supposed to.
Maybe that is part of it. Despite Fey’s work being progressive, there can be a judgey and subtle conservative undercurrent to it. Oddly, Slate seems to understand; they have an interesting piece up on 30 Rock.
