In the current issue of Reader’s Digest, former Saturday Night Live cast member, Tina Fey, takes some shots at The Daily Show and its wildly popular host, Jon Stewart. Fey says Stewart makes audiences clap more than he makes them laugh.
“My friend Seth Meyers coined the term ‘clapter,’ which is when you do a political joke and people go, ‘Woo-hoo.’ It means they sort of approve but didn’t really like it that much. You hear a lot of that on [whispers] ‘The Daily Show.’
A snotty Fey then adds she prefers it when audience members laugh rather than applaud because,
“You can prompt applause with a sign.”
Yeah right, that’s why SNL had to use a laugh track (er, “audience-enhanced track”) when Tina Fey hosted Weekend Update.
And God knows nobody at Saturday Night Live ever played up to the audience for applause. Hell, Chevy Chase’s whole schtick was falling down while impersonating Gerald Ford. And he only INVENTED Weekend Update.
Fey’s comments are disturbing on so many different levels that I’m not even sure where to start. But, let’s start with this: Tina Fey is probably one of the most accomplished female comics in history. Just check the record:
In 2007, Fey was nominated for an Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy for her role in 30 Rock.
In 2008, she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical.
And Fey won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series in January.
Fey is also the current star and creative force behind NBC’s 30 Rock making her one of the most important women in the television industry. The show itself won the 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Unfortunately, all of the awards and acclaim mask one very important fact about Tina Fey. SHE’S NOT FUNNY.
In a decade of watching her on tv I can remember exactly 0 times that she made me laugh. And unlike multitudes of her fellow SNL alum, Fey created exactly 0 memorable characters.
Besides, if Fey wants to use making people laugh as a measure of success, well then she’s NO KIRSTIE ALLEY.
Or Shelley Long.
After all, Fey is part of the current NBC lineup that has taken two generations of Must See TV and turned it into just another Thursday night.
It’s laughable that Tina Fey would give Jon Stewart comedic or anchoring advice when she wasn’t even as good as Dennis Miller.
Hell, Fey was upstaged on a weekly basis by Jimmy Fallon.
And he’s an IMBECILE.
Actually, if you think about it, the Readers Digest comments were probably the funniest lines she EVER delivered.
And just why would the brains behind the moribound and TRULY UNFUNNY 30 Rock (the woman was the 14th best person to do Saturday Night Live Weekend Updates) feel compelled to give advice to anyone. Let alone a guy who’s revolutionized a format that she was a part of?
An entire generation now looks to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as their primary source of news and information. Stewart is featured in Time, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly and People Magazine. Advertisers are clammering, BEGGING to be a part of his show.
All generations find Tina Fey irrelevant.
Fey appeals to the over-60 Hillary Clinton demo that never got around to getting cable and is still stuck watching network tv. The Readers Digest demo if you will.
Tags: 30 Rock, celebrities, Jon Stewart, Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, Tina Fey, tv
April 3, 2008 at 5:25 am |
You speak the truth. I will never understand why Tina Fey gets the sort of acclaim she does.
April 24, 2008 at 7:39 pm |
The head writer for SNL criticizing Stewart on not getting enough laughs is like Microsoft criticizing Apple for being unimaginative when it comes to technology.
I saw a clip of Seth Meyers do a live “improv” show in Amsterdam. Result : snorefest. I think there was like one laugh in a five minute set… Compare that to Jon Stewart live and you got all the answers you need.
I am so sick of these mediocre, *bland* SNL robots. If there is one word I would describe Tina Fey and Seth Meyers with its that : blandness.
September 15, 2008 at 4:41 pm |
Tina Fey is a no talent azz clown that has single handedly drug SNL into the pits of damnation. I can’t believe a show with the history and reputation on SNL would put a nitwit like Tina Fey in charge of it.
Her writing is SOOOOOOOOOOO BAD that I used to get angry when I would watch her SNL skits, especially weekend update.
I refuse to watch any tv show or movie that she is involved with. Furthermore, I close my internet browser the second that she shows up un the Yahoo homepage for some BS headline.
I know there are others that share my utter disgust for this woman, not just becasue she is unfunny, untalented, and unwatchable, but because she thinks that she is the female Dave Chappelle!!
The Truth: She is the worst kind of liberal who thinks any1 who disagrees with her is evil. She tries to push her political views on people by using the (used to be) great SNL as a platform, what a disgrace.
I advise everyone to avoid buying or watching anything that she is involoved with. She is trying to drag American into the pits of damnation and I won’t let it happen.
October 4, 2008 at 6:58 am |
Tina Fey is hilarious, but her take on the Daily Show comes off as elitest and ignorant at the same time. SNL is finally funny again, occasionally, but the Daily Show and the Colbert Report have surpassed it as American Institutions.
Don’t knock her talent though. It makes you look jealous. And stupid. Plus she’s hot.
October 4, 2008 at 6:59 am |
There is no laugh track on SNL.
October 6, 2008 at 8:50 pm |
I noticed that the only ppl that find tina fey hilarious are those stuggling actors that havent gotten their big break and never will. I used to work with two guys that were trying to get into show biz and they really found 30 rock hilarious. I dont see what all the buzz is about. Tina Fey needs a reality check. She is really not funny. I crack a smile here and there on some of her pathetic skits but for the most part she really his kinda dry lame “i want to fit in i think im cool” humor. I hate her. Struggling actors seem like they have that lame sense of humor and those are the ppl that eventually made her get those emmys. How unfunny can they get?? seriously Tina Fey should get over herself shes not great….or even good…or even decent…infact she should just get off the air and retire. its stupid lame high school girl humor. Her 30 rock show only appeals to nitwits that are not funny themselves and is why they cant make it in show biz. Tina fey is lame and so are her fans.
December 25, 2008 at 11:06 pm |
Tina Fey is an overrated snotty untalented condescending bland jack of all trades. She is less than mediocre as an actress, writer, creator, etc. She is and was the reason I stopped watching SNL. The show was elitist, racist and plain NOT FUNNY.
I have nothing against racist elitist humor if it actually is funny.
The only people who think she is talented or funny are those pathetic guys who have eyeglass fetishes, ie, think librarians are sexy.
It worries me that she has been able to get the acclaim and power she has. Entertainment must really be all about connections and ass kissing if someone like her has made it this big. There is a lot of bullshit brainwashing in the media if I am supposed to think she is funny.
January 23, 2009 at 3:16 am |
I totally agree with you my friend. 100%. I wish more people shared our beliefs.
January 30, 2009 at 8:24 pm |
I agree. Fey is overrated, and so are people like Alec Baldwin, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. It probably wouldn’t be such an issue if Big Media didn’t insist on ramming Fey, Baldwin, Branjolena and Oprah down our throats every 17 minutes on TV, radio and the Internet. Fey isn’t funny. Carol Burnett was funny. Gilda Radner was funny. Madeline Kahn was funny. Craig Ferguson is funny. Funny is when that person makes you laugh out loud. I can’t think of anyone, even my friends who adore Tina Fey (blah!), who really, truly laughs out loud at Fey’s work. SNL has used politcs, now more than ever, as a crutch, which has somewhat saved its ratings over the last few years. It has become a show that has left true comedy for cheap political shots, thanks to Tina Fey. I love it how Big Media treats Fey as if she is the only person to write and produce, ever. What about Barbara Streisand? I’m not a fan, but I’ll admit she is more talented than Fey. I sure wouldn’t brag about being the head writer for SNL over the last few years. Really, Will Ferrell was the last, truly great SNL cast member, and he’s been gone for how many years? Heck, the 1984-85 season, with Martin Short, Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal and, for half that season, Harry Shearer, was better than any SNL season in the last 8 or 9 years (or more).
March 30, 2009 at 2:44 am |
Amy wrote: “The show was elitist, racist and plain NOT FUNNY….
I have nothing against racist elitist humor if it actually is funny. ”
This sort of cancels out the ‘racist’ and ‘elitist’ part in the first sentence, it’s really only a matter of ‘funny’ or ‘not funny’. Personally I think racist humor is the resort of the unfunny.
Why gripe about SNL though, people harp on about the John Belushi years and he was about as funny as death (my bad taste pun).