Born backwards

Anyone watching 30 Rock always knew Tina Fey was playing a fictionalized version of herself, a workaholic comedy writer who also plays one on TV. She’s the boss; Liz Lemon just works here. The big difference between them is Liz’s disastrous love life, yet even when Liz suffers rejection, we know it’s because Fey planned it that way. The losers she dates are really just fodder for her banter with Jack. So much as we love Liz Lemon, we really just love her for resembling Tina Fey.

The genius of Bossypants – and the main way it’s different from 30 Rock – is that it’s about being a young woman in the big city, but it’s not about dating. Talk about an underexploited market strategy. That’s an undeniable reason why the book was a success. Fey has a few teen-dating stories, but once she gets out of college, it’s all work, work, Lorne Michaels, work, Alec Baldwin and work. Then we’re on her honeymoon and we meet her in-laws and yada yada back to work. Genius. She is devoid of victim energy – if she doesn’t feel sorry for herself, nobody else should, and that helps make her insanely charismatic. As she writes, ‘Remember the beginning of the story where I was the underdog? No? Me neither.’

We don’t feel bad for Liz Lemon’s romantic humiliations because we know Liz’s problems are just an excuse for Tina Fey to flex her virtuosity. That’s why her act is impossible to replicate, though people are inevitably going to try as the cultural stakes get too big to ignore.