20 Weird Facts About Tina Fey That Prove We Never Really Knew Her True Self
From helming the Weekend Update desk at Saturday Night Live to running her sitcom 30 Rock, and every other comedy achievement in between, Tina Fey earned her status as a bonafide legend. She's left her silly and satirical mark on every corner of the industry, usually playing a version of herself. But is the spectacled, night-cheese-loving, straight-talking Tina that we see the real thing, or just another well-crafted comedy character? There's another side of the sly force that is TIna Fey.
Comedy Obsession
Fey's comedy obsession blossomed in middle school. The only comedic source of information her school library had was a tad outdated. The book — Joe Franklin's Encyclopedia Of Comedians — only covered the greats up until the 1950s. But as Fey devoured the jokes and bits of old-school legends, something clicked in her brain.
Childhood Favorites
Studying older comedy helped Fey in the long run. After all, she grew up with the golden age of TV sitcoms. She loved watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Honeymooners and remembered her father sneaking her in to see Young Frankenstein. Childhood Tina was eager to get the laughs, even if she bombed in the process.
Squashed Humor
In high school, Tina Fey was the editor for the school newspaper. More specifically, she wrote columns under the pseudonym “the Colonel.” She told The New Yorker, "I remember I got busted because I was trying to say that something would ‘go down in the annals of history,’ but it was a double-entendre with ‘anal’ and I didn’t get away with it."
Writing For Herself
In high school and college, Fey started writing as well as performing. She explained to A.V. Club in 2006, "When I went to Chicago, and I got to be an improviser and do Second City, that was the best blending of the two, because I was creating my own material and then performing it." Still, Fey's creative freedom was sourly balanced by a job she couldn't stand.
