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Tina Fey is one of the most influential figures in American comedy. As a head writer for Saturday Night Live, the creator of 30 Rock, and writer of Mean Girls, Fey's had a marked influence on anyone who's jumped into the comedy game in the last decade.
Not only has Fey's awkward, intellectual style had an impact on American comedy, but through her work she has created a new blueprint for the comic writer-actor. She isn’t a stand-up. She was never going to be SNL’s breakout star. Instead of brassy character showcases or caustic stand-up sets, Fey found stardom by rigorously honing her voice. More Woody Allen than Lucille Ball, Fey’s mission to show a different kind of woman in a different kind of comedy has been huge for both humor and culture.
To get a full sense of Fey's impact, it's helpful to take a look at her work as a whole. Here is our Ranking of Everything Tina Fey’s Ever Done.
20. The Colin Quinn Show (2002, Comedy Central)
Role: writer
Obviously, as you'll see above, the Wikipedia page wasn't going to be much help. Next stop, IMDB. User swat611 says, "This wasn't a bad show," while Michael-96 says, "Not wildly funny or incisive." Maybe you don't need to spend too much time searching out dusty video files of this one buried deep on the Internet. There's plenty of other Tina Fey content out there that elicited a reaction beyond "non-plussed."
19. Admission (2013)
Role: actor, "Portia Nathan"
America's middle-aged sweethearts Paul Rudd and Tina Fey weren't enough to make this movie watchable. Fey has had other lackluster film efforts, but what makes this one sting most is that many critics found her to be part of the problem—normally, she shines despite a weak script.
Christopher Orr of The Atlantic said, "What is most distressing about Admission is that it serves as further evidence that Tina Fey, despite her dominance of the small screen, has not yet mastered the big one."
18. Medieval Madness Pinball Game
Role: voice actor
Back in the late '90s, Fey and some of her fellow Chicago comedians (including future 30 Rock co-star Scott Adsit) recorded voices for a pinball game called Medieval Madness. Because the world is sometimes a beautiful place, there's audio of Tina voicing an aged British noblewoman for the pinball game, and you can listen to it here.
See, when it's not generating endless Game of Thrones essays, the Internet can be amazing.
17. Iron Chef America (Food Network)
Role: guest judge
Sometimes life just isn't fair. The Food Network has the Tina Fey episode of Iron Chef: America locked up tighter than Paula Deen's HR files. As soon as an Internet hero posts the footage, they get slapped with the long arm of copyright law.
Great move, Food Network—you wouldn't want lose out on all those DVD sales.
In case you aren't pained enough by your inability to see Fey get her chef judge on, Flavorwire's Margaret Eby wrote of the episode, "This has to be one of our all-time favorite episodes, if only for Fey's enthusiasm over Paula Deen's desserts." Folks, we have just found the most beautiful sentence in the English language.
16. Elmo and the Bookaneers (2009, straight-to-video)
Here's a Tina Fey deep-cut even those of you with UCB shirts on your backs may not know about. As all great American minds eventually do, Fey stopped by Sesame Street. She was handed the role of a lifetime: a "Bookaneer," a pirate who loves to read. The hour-long video is locked up behind a pay wall, but if you want a nice two-minute taste of the "Pirates of the Care-To-Be-Readin,'" here's a taste.
15. Date Night (2010)
Role: actress, "Claire Foster"
Date Night generated sky-high expectations and landed with a resounding "meh." Though the film features two great comedic minds in lead roles, Date Night plays about as stale as an actual parental night out.
The script is sturdy and hits all the right beats, but it does so in the empty way that a karaoke version of a song hits the right notes. Fey and co-star Steve Carell can only do so much in a film that arrives at its comedic moments without inspiration. As The New Yorker's David Denby put it, "Fey, in particular, finds herself in the situation of a prima ballerina unaccountably dancing with the Rockettes."
14. Megamind (2010)
Role: voice actor, "Roxanne Ritchi"
Megamind was yet another reminder that this is Pixar's world and other animation studios are just living in it. The film was a solid but unremarkable DreamWorks production.
As the late Roger Ebert put it, "This set-up is bright and amusing, even if it does feel recycled from bits and pieces of such recent animated landmarks as The Incredibles with its superpowers and Despicable Me with its villain." Ebert called Fey's work in the film "spirited"—at least she went down swinging.
13. American Express Spokeswoman
There may actually be more funny jokes in one of these spots than in some network shows currently on the air, and we're not just talking about Mixology. Fey channels Liz Lemon in these clever, clean spots that provide a nice, quick dose of humor for anyone going through 30 Rock withdrawal.
12. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (2007)
Role: voice actor, "Giant Burrito"
Fans of Aqua Teen Hunger Force know that what makes most sense for the show is that which makes the least sense. Thus, it was only right that in the movie, the characters' mother would be a giant burrito who only had one line voiced by Tina Fey. If you've ever dreamed of hearing Tina say, "Yes Frylock, I am your Mother and I am a Nine Layer Bean Burrito," your dream has come true.
11. "Real Estate," by Childish Gambino (2012)
Role: guest rapper
Tina Fey delivers a hard yet very Fey-like verse on Childish Gambino's "Real Estate," from his 2012 mixtape Royalty. She brings the fire by mixing suburban status symbols with some uncharacteristic profanity. Sample lyrics: "My president is black and my Prius is blue, motherfucker/Royalty all day, we droppin' racks at Nordstrom, son/That's racks on racks, you feel me? You feel me?"
Yes, Tina. As usual, we feel you.
10. Ponyo (2008)
Role: voice actor, "Lisa"
Hayao Miyazaki's animated genius is unparalleled. While Pixar reaches its highest heights through meticulous world-building and emotional lever-pulling, Miyazaki is untouched in his ability to heighten animation to the level of pure magic. Ponyo, like Spirited Away before it, offers the kind of transcendent experience that all artists strive for, but so rarely reach.
9. "The Hidden World of Girls" (NPR)
Role: narrator
NPR x Tina Fey? Hell, yes.
In 2011, Fey lent her voice to "The Hidden World of Girls," a radio journalism project aimed at telling unusual and unknown stories about women all around the world. Produced by the prolific radio team The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva), "The Hidden World of Girls" told compelling and wide-ranging stories about subjects like Afghani women attending school against the Taliban's wishes, elderly Russian women who cover Beatles' songs, and sex educators teaching Nigerian women about birth control.
You can listen to the two Fey-narrated specials here.
8. Her Sarah Palin Impersonation
Impersonations are often the domain of hack comedians and second-rate sketch shows. Sometimes, however, one captures something beyond mere mimicry.
Fey was the perfect person to impersonate Palin. A true female role model was taking on the persona of a woman trying desperately to drag ladies backwards in history in the name of rugged individualism. Fey's take on Palin reminded us that glasses, a power skirt, and ten cent words do not a female role model make.
Sadly, the same culture war is raging now that was underway in 2008 (and really, back in 1988), but we can point to Fey's take on Palin as a decisive blow by the side that's often drowned out by megaphone-amplified noise.
7. Baby Mama (2008)
Role: actress, "Kate Holbrook"
Baby Mama hasn't endured like Mean Girls. It didn't permeate the culture like 30 Rock. But the film isn't a regrettable footnote like Admission, nor does it offer the over-hyped mediocrity of Date Night. Baby Mama was, simply put, pretty good.
It wasn't the dynamo that fans were hoping for when told that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were headlining a film, but it still delivered enough firepower to not disappoint. Years from now, when Fey is in her dotage, collecting lifetime achievement awards and writing that final memoir, Baby Mama will have a moment in her career retrospectives and montages. It just won't receive the enduring admiration and study that will likely be heaped upon her best work.
6. SNL Weekend Update
Role: anchor
Picking the greatest "Weekend Update" anchor of all time is like picking your favorite child, if you had one precocious child who was as snotty and condescending as Dennis Miller. There was something uniquely hilarious about Norm McDonald's deadpan absurdity behind the desk and the Dan Aykroyd/Jane Curtain combo will live on in the cultural consciousness as long as your dad continues to quote, embarrassingly out of context, "Jane, you ignorant slut."
Despite the heavy competition, Tina Fey will likely go down as the GOAT. Fey turned in stellar performances throughout her "Update" reign, whether she shared the desk with Jimmy Fallon or Amy Poehler. She was smart without being condescending, sharp without being mean, and hilarious while avoiding the cornball mugging that most anchors resort to when every third joke flops.
In a chair that has been warmed by over a dozen hall-of-fame comedians, Fey has come the closest to perfection.
5. Golden Globes Co-Host (2013, 2014)
Making us care about the Golden Globes may not be Tina Fey's greatest accomplishment, but it may have been her life's most difficult challenge. Around the office, we lovingly refer to the Golden Globes as "Not the Oscars," "Not the Emmys," and "The guys who named Brooklyn 99 the best comedy on television after three mediocre episodes."
Though the bar for award show hosts has been set as low as "don't offend an entire race or creed of people," Fey and Amy Poehler host the Globes with a speedy charm and grace that hasn't seen since Johnny Carson's heyday. Thanks to Tina and Amy, Golden Globe coverage around the office is no longer decided by who picks the short straw. Ladies, to the blogosphere, you are goddesses.
4. Bossypants (2011; Little, Brown, and Company)
Role: author
"Bosspyants isn't a memoir. It's a spiky blend of humor, introspection, and Nora Ephron-isms for a new generation." The New York Times' Janet Maslin is correct on that point, even that high praise stops short of giving the book its rightful due.
Bossypants is often talked about as a comic feminist rallying cry, and while that is true, that doesn't tell the whole story. It's a love letter to nerds with a dream. The comedy world, the art world, hell, the world as a whole, love Tina Fey largely because she did things the "right way." She started in community theatre, went to a good school but not the traditional Ivy League comedy factories, worked shit jobs in Chicago and kept knocking on the door until they let her in.
Few authors can commiserate and empathize with you as they chronicle their path to success. With Bossypants, Fey takes things one step further: she shows you how the successful version of a person is the same self-conscious, frazzled, worried person who started the journey. The distance between a basement community theatre and 30 Rock is perseverance, dedication, and some funny jokes.
3. Saturday Night Live (NBC, 1998-2006)
Roles: head writer, performer
The exact years of SNL's most recent golden age are in dispute. Chris Farley or Will Ferrell? "Living in a van down by the river?" Or, "If you were a hot dog, would you eat yourself?" Regardless of what years you pick, Fey was probably involved with your favorite season. She wrote her first SNL material for Chris Farley and her last for Amy Poehler. She was a writer for almost a decade, and during most of that time, she was the head writer.
Fey presided over SNL during its smartest and most absurd times. Sketches fail on SNL; that's part of the deal. But what was wonderful about the Fey-driven period was that sketches failed when they sagged under their own conceptual weight (like the cut but beloved "Old Prospector" sketch), not because they were pandering or going back to the well.
The argument about the greatest era of SNL will never be settled. But while the original cast may have that air of rebellion and the early '90s produced the most iconic characters, the madcap absurdity of early 2000s has to be in the conversation.
2. Mean Girls (2004)
Roles: writer; actress, "Ms. Norbury"
The Internet fad of throwing a think-piece parade whenever a beloved piece of art turns 10, 25, or 50 is the worst. Between these anniversaries and celebrity deaths, it seems that half of our online reading time is spent reflecting on yesterday. Unlike many of the cult movies folks memorialize in lists and essays (that'll be a pass on your dissertation about The Sandlot's cultural significance), however, the impact of Mean Girls is still being felt today.
Though the state of the female-driven comedy isn't great these days (what up, The Other Woman?), it's far better than it was pre-Mean Girls. Since that 2004 film, there's been Juno, Bridesmaids, The Heat, In A World..., and several other female-driven comedy break-outs. Mean Girls also demonstrated that the female teen audience had an appetite for something more complex than the standard angel/devil character dynamic.
Cultural relevance aside, though, the script is simply hilarious. Even after seeing the film a dozen times, you can't read the script without laughing out-loud. The relentlessly insightful humor is what will continue to ensure Mean Girls' place in history long after female-driven comedies (hopefully) become as common as high school feuds.
1. 30 Rock (NBC, 2006-2013)
Roles: showrunner; star, "Liz Lemon"
From the first moments of 30 Rock, Fey traces a line from I Love Lucy through The Mary Tyler Moore Show through Murphy Brown to her show; updating the comedic vision of women in the workplace is at the heart of 30 Rock's mission. The central question of the series, "What the hell does it mean to 'have it all?" plays out over and over again through seven glorious seasons.
You may have a preference for the grit of It's Always Sunny or the absurdity of Community, but 30 Rock has something that those shows, and even Arrested Development, lack. Liz Lemon was hilarious, sure, but with her stained shirts and verbal flubs, she also highlighted something at the core of the human condition. There's a bit of Liz Lemon inside all of us, slaying the giants in our lives, all the while wondering in the backs of our minds if that really is mustard on our blouse.