Don't Judge a Baby Mama by Its Trailer

 
Tina Fey on NBC's '30 Rock'
NBC

Okay, so I realize that the trailer for Tina Fey’s upcoming Baby Mama leaves a lot to be desired. The clip includes two unfunny racial stereotype jokes from a doorman character who most likely only exists in the film to deliver unfunny racial stereotypical jokes. Then there’s that whole unfortunate chocolate-or-poop bit with Maura Tierney. And the fact that, although the movie announcer guy never actually comes out and says it, you get the feeling that the plot of this movie amounts to little more than “lonely businesswoman hires strapped-for-cash wild woman to carry her child; wackiness ensues”. And if the lonely businesswoman and the wild woman were played by say, Sandra Bullock and Kate Hudson, I probably wouldn’t be so quick to come to its defense. But since the lonely businesswoman is played by Tina Fey (who also wrote the script) and the wild woman is played by her former SNL Weekend Update co-anchor Amy Poehler, I’m going to take it for granted that this trailer is lying to us, or at least just hiding the film’s true genius. Here are three reasons I’m a believer in Baby Mama:

1. There are some truly funny moments in the trailer: I laughed out loud in the opening sequence when it turned out Tina was giving her “I want a baby NOW” monologue to an unsuspecting first date. And after Sigourney Weaver’s snide “It takes longer” reply to Tina's remark that it costs more to have someone born than to kill someone. On her sitcom 30 Rock, Tina has done a brilliant job of mixing snappy zingers with hysterical flights of lunacy. As long as she maintains the same balance in her Baby Mama script, we’ll be laughing instead of groaning when the wackiness ensues.

2. The Chemistry Factor: It was no accident that Tina and Amy became the first all-female team to share the Weekend Update desk at SNL. They were truly the first pair of women in the show's history who were bold enough to pull it off. These women have years of experience playing off each other and always seemed to truly enjoy working together. And after their hilarious SNL reunion last month, who doesn’t want more?

3. Nobody makes women’s issues funnier than Tina Fey: She’s tackled everything from women in politics to the high school social structure to mom jeans. And she’s done it all with a biting sense of satire and, at times, even a warm heart. If anyone’s capable of making a movie that will poke fun at the lengths a single, nearing-middle-age woman will go to in order to have a baby -- while still creating three dimensional characters an audience will root for -- it’s Tina Fey.

So my advice is skip the trailer and wait for the movie. Just remember to close your ears whenever that doorman shows up.

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