Tina Fey, But It’s A Memoir

By: Leslie Tartt

Tina Fey is an "American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and playwright.", but she wasn't always those things. Fey talks about her journey to the top in her memoir ​Bossypants​. In Bossypants​, Fey recalls her life up until 2008 to give others insight on how to be the boss of their own life using personal style and voice, focusing on defining moments in her life, revealing truths about herself to whoever may be reading, and sharing guidance she's acquired over the years. Due to her writing style being so unique, this 275-page personal essay became a bestseller and flew off the shelves when it was released. 

Fey is a comedian, and she shows that clearly in her personal style and voice. She uses humor and sarcasm throughout the whole book. On the back cover, there is a short excerpt that would seem to come directly from the book, but the excerpt is immediately followed by a message from Fey to the reader stating, "... is just a brief example of what you will not find in this book." That is her display of humor before one even begins to read the book. She also has a whole chapter dedicated to responding to messages of hate that she received entitled, 'Dear Internet.' She includes a comment which says, "Tina Fey is an ugly, pear-shaped, bitchy, overrated troll." Fey responds to this by simply saying, "To say I'm an overrated troll, when you have never seen me guard a bridge, is patently unfair" (Fey164). This quote from the book is just one example of her use of sarcasm out of many. She also uses more subtle comical aspects while telling different anecdotes. During the story about her honeymoon, she says, "that for legal reasons," she changed her husband's name to Barry. A few paragraphs later, she calls him Jeff, 

which is his real name, saying, "Damnit, I promised myself I wouldn't use his real name!" (Fey 95). She then said "for legal reasons" she would call her husband Lee for the rest of the story, but she mentions that her husband felt that name was too feminine, and so she changed her husband's name to Rod (for legal reasons). Then one more blunder, she calls him Jeff, then back to Rod as if nothing had happened. The book is filled with low-key satire that makes it painfully obvious that Fey's personal style and voice are based on her sense of humor and use of sarcasm. 

Fey mentions multiple events in her life that she would describe as defining moments that got her to where she is today. On March 17, 1975, during her spring semester of kindergarten, a stranger slashed her five-year-old face with a sharp object in the alley behind her house. She considers this a defining moment in her life because this incident left a scar on her face that people still ask her about today. On June 11, 1987, Tina took her first job at a camp called Summer Stage. This was a defining moment for her because she met friends whom she would hang out with for the rest of her adolescents. She was accepting of people of different lifestyles as these friends were two lesbian girls and one was a gay guy. Tina felt that gay people made superior camaraderie. One of the most life-changing moments in her life happened on January 23, 1993, when she began to take improv classes. This event is one of the biggest moments because the improv classes were the beginning of her future success and affluence in the acting world. There, she met the best friend of her adult life, Amy Poehler. She explains, "Improvisation as a way of working made sense to me" (Fey 82). On July 11, 1997, Fey had an interview with Lorne Michaels, the owner of SNL, to be a writer for the show. She got the job, which subsequently secured her upcoming in the acting world. Moments like getting her development deal for ​30 Rock​, having her daughter, and acting as Sarah Palin on SNL were high points in her life as well, but they do not truly define who she is today because she was hesitant to even participate in the Sarah Palin skit and because she already had the culminated the success we know her for today. She had just worked with Oprah, of all people, the day before the Sarah Palin show, and Oprah doesn't just work with anybody. 

Fey furthermore reveals little truths about herself at every age that shows her personality, from being self-conscious and saying things like, "-another gorgeous white boy who would not have been interested in me" (Fey 58) to being full of confidence and spunk saying things like, "That makes me sound like a jerk, I know. But remember the beginning of the story where I was the underdog? No? Me neither" (Fey 80). She also reveals that she is a feminist, and she realizes this during the summer of 1988 when the girl who her boyfriend started dating after they had broken up tried out for the play, in which Fey worked closely with the director. Fey, who was young and angsty at the time, inveigled the director into not giving the girl the starring role. Fey felt remorseful, saying, "Obviously, as an adult, I realize this is girl-on-girl sabotage is the third worst kind of female behavior, right behind saying "like" all the time and leaving your baby in a dumpster" (Fey 39). Fey, during her career before SNL and even during SNL, had long realized she was working in a man's world. She divulges the actuality that she despised it and couldn't comprehend why men felt women couldn't be funny. She also confesses a little undisclosed information about men she grasped working with them one: men are repulsive, and two, "I realized that there was no "institutionalized sexism" - sometimes they just literally didn't know what we were talking about" (Fey 141). Men liquidate the things they cannot make sense of. 

Fey uses a lot of different elements to portray her story, but the advice that she gives the reader is what is most significant throughout her story. The best advice is things she said herself or things mastered from years of working with so many divergent personalities. This advice includes, "If you retain nothing else, always remember the most important rule of beauty, which is: who cares?" (Fey 114). "When people say, 'You really, really must do something, it means you don't really have to. No one ever says, 'You really, really must deliver the baby during labor.' When it's true, it doesn't need to be said" (Fey 242), and last but not least, "Don't be fooled. You're not in competition with other women. You're in competition with everyone"​(Fey 88). Fey brings this advice into play even today in her life because no matter how idiotic some of the quotes are, those words helped her to be an exceptional boss. She mentions this, saying, "I've learned a lot over the past ten years about what it means to be the boss of people" (Fey 5). 

Fey uses her personal style and voice, defining moments in her life, revealing truths about herself, and the advice she received over the years to display how she, herself, has grown as a woman, but also how the world around her has innovated and grown for the better as well. She also employs those things to encourage readers to be whoever they so choose. She tries to teach others to live exactly how they want and not to let anyone else's opinion stop them from reaching their biggest ambitions. Tina Fey embodied this idea completely in what I feel is the best quote of the whole book: "Don't waste your energy trying to educate or change opinions; go over, under, through, and opinions will change organically when you're the boss or they won't. Who cares? Do your thing and don't care if they like it" (Fey 145).