Five Reasons We Love Tina Fey

Confession time: I may love Tina Fey more than the average person. I don’t think the average fan would spend an hour on a Sunday night frantically trying to get through to Comedy Central’s Night of Too Many Stars donation hotline just because there was a glimmer of hope that she might answer the phone. Or who considered picketing with the WGA in hopes of meeting Tina on the picket line? Or who would remain constantly on the lookout for the perfect pair of fake glasses to complete next year’s Liz Lemon Halloween costume? Or who would defend her for starring in a movie called Baby Mama?

Yeah, the lengths of my admiration for Tina Fey might seem stalker-like to you. But after reading these five reasons to love her, I think you’ll start to see things my way. Just don’t steal my Halloween costume.

1. Because bitch is the new black.
When the WGA strike finally came to an end, Fey, one of the WGA’s biggest and most vocal supporters bravely returned to the air to host the first post-strike episode of SNL and proved that her talent for topical wit hadn’t grown rusty during the time off. No matter what your politics are, her acid-tongued "Weekend Update" rant was the comedic highlight of the primary season, and gave Hilary Clinton a hilarious unofficial campaign slogan.

2. Because she has bad eyesight.
When Tina first took to the "Weekend Update" desk at SNL in the late '90s in her power suits and signature dainty glasses, she single-handedly squashed the old stereotype that “men don’t make passes at women who wear glasses,” making her an icon to a generation of women wanting to be seen as both sexy and smart.

3. Because she was the real queen bee of Mean Girls.
A Lindsay Lohan vehicle about how hard it is to be a pretty, popular teenage girl? No one above the age of 16 would have seen the movie if we hadn’t known the fearless Tina Fey was behind the script, ready to show us with brutal honesty just how vile teenage girls can really be.

4. Because of all that female empowerment stuff.
In the early days of SNL, female writers had to let their male counterparts take credit for some of their sketches, or else John Belushi wouldn’t even read them. Unfortunately, his attitude wasn’t that uncommon. It took twenty years for SNL to anoint Tina fey as the show’s first female head writer. She then went on to become half of the first all-female team (with buddy Amy Poehler) to anchor "Weekend Update."

When she left SNL, it was to produce and star in her own critically acclaimed sitcom, 30 Rock, for which she has won, (and this is hardly an all-inclusive list of her awards), an Emmy, a Golden Globe, a SAG, and the prestigious Peabody award. And when Baby Mama opens this weekend, she will officially become a movie star. Plus, she recently landed a role in British comedian Ricky Gervais’ first feature film without even auditioning and she received the good news that 30 Rock will return for a third season next year. When she recently posed with Poehler and Sarah Silverman for the cover of Vanity Fair under the headline “Who Says Women Aren’t Funny?” most people just shrugged and said, “Not me!"

5. Because she’d argue with most of what I’ve written here.
Fey’s self-effacing nature is a big part of what makes her such an effective straight (wo)man in her roles in 30 Rock and Baby Mama. At this year’s SAG Awards, when accepting her award for Best Actress in a Television Comedy, she refused to accept any of the credit for her performance, calling herself the hat rack that starts to look like a good dancer when paired up with (her 30 Rock costar) Alec Baldwin’s Fred Astaire. Everyone knew she was being too modest. But even if she is a hat rack, she’s the one that everyone wants to dance with.

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