Tina Fey Rocks

I just have to say something about Tina Fey. I admire her so much. She is so funny and clever and brave, from writing and performing on Saturday Night Live, to her outstanding creating and performing on NBC's 30 Rock.

Beautiful and confident, she doesn't fit the stereotypical image of a woman in movies, or Hollywood. As the fake breasts get bigger, the hair gets blonder and the plastic surgery gets shinier, Tina has not let the large scar on her lower face slow her down. It is reported she was slashed by a stranger in her own front yard at the age of five. To have not let that get in her way of writing comedy and performing on stage is inspirational.

Now pregnant with her second child, she hosted SNL last weekend. I watched most of it on the Internet this week, and I love her understated, underhanded wit. Too soft-spoken to be abrasive, one can see the political brilliance of this - the message is more digestible when one is laughing while swallowing. A lot of male comedians have said in the past most women aren't as good at being funny as men are. Have we gotten over that? Are any of them intimidated by Tina? Try saying those last three words fast. I stumbled even trying to spell it.

I've read her pieces for The New Yorker. Her writing stands well alone, which shows her versatility in the world of comedy. What makes her performances work is not so much her physical comedy, but the writing behind it. Yet, she is fearless about making herself look silly or whatever it takes to pull of a gag. Her new book is on the best-seller list, and I'm sure it would be a quick-paced and hilarious, insightful read.

Look what she's done for the career of Alec Baldwin. If you heard him gush about the credit he gave her when he accepted his Emmy a few years ago, you would understand. Their boss-employee relationship on 30 Rock is one of my favorite things on network TV. To make fun of their own industry - he would have been president of GE (sigh) but he's been sidetracked as a programming vice-president of a network swallowed up by Cablevision. Brilliant biting of the hands that feed them. You have to love the United States and what a free media can do.

The recent episode of SNL with Tina Fey was interesting, in part because they dared try use comedy in reflecting on the extinguishing of bin Laden, and managed to do so pretty well. On the Weekend Update - "somewhere out there must be 72, pretty bummed -out, virgins." And Tina as a hot, red-headed Ariel the Mermaid - when a shrouded corpse floats down through the water. That doesn't sound funny here; you probably should just see the whole skit for yourself. Friends of Qaddafi dressing up like Navy Seals to scare him - "don't sneak up on me like that!" Funny, yet ominous. It's why I admire comedians so much. So complex, so able to help us transcend. Some of the best communicators. It's a fine line; not easy at all to do. The subtlety, the timing. Bless you, Tina Fey. May more of our daughters model themselves after you.

And thank you to Weekend Update on SNL. My favorite joke of the show may have been the one Seth Rogan made about the recent conspiracy theory. He said because of it, President Obama may be the first black person in U.S. history to have to try and prove he killed someone. Clever, clever.