Only in Tina Fey’s Bossypants, will you find 275 pages of sheer comedy so intricately woven in tales of excruciating, yet relatable awkwardness.

For the maybe 2 people in the nation who don’t know who Tina Fey is, she is an American comedian and actress, famous mainly for her work in Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, and Mean Girls. Her book recounts the tales of her adolescence, to her start in comedy, and finally her terrifying job as a mother.

Through the series of short, and often ludicrous anecdotes, we readers are treated to a very clear scene-agent ratio in her life.

The first thing that we as readers are exposed to (after some delightful photos from her youth), is a clear description of the atmosphere she grew up in. Growing up just west of Philadelphia, she is portrayed to be anything but sheltered. As she describes, her childhood was filled with Saturday Night Live, Monty Python, and even old Marx Brother films.

Her family members had many friends of various race and religions, she was constantly exposed to different race, religions, and ultimately cultures.

More uniquely, she describes how much exposure she had to the LGBTQ community, detailing how numerous of her best friends, and even ex-boyfriends/one-time-flings/dates-to-various events were gay or lesbian.

This, as well as her blunt diction in describing her community, establishes her character as a realistic, almost “street-smart” type of person - one with a high EQ and awareness of societal influences and norms.

When she describes her family, though, we are able to make that characterization slightly more specific. Specifically in the chapter titled “That’s Don Fey”, where she describes her father, she establishes how cool her father was with his fancy attire, stoic and attractive look, and, as she puts it, “badassness”.

Further, she elaborates on his personality, offering instances of his pride causing his stubbornness. Her characterizations of her family life not only imply that the family she grew up in was well-off, but also that her family was proud - with a respectable social image.

So Fey has thus far established the two key things about her environment. One, that her environment made her incredibly “street-smart”, and two, that her family was proud, respected, and well-off. This influences her logic and view of the world.

Combine these with her claim to fame - comedy - and you will find her successful method of humor - satire, self-deprecation, and mock-conceit. People who are proud, respected, realistic, AND have a sense of humor will often exploit their realistic knowledge and interpretation of social norms and views to crack jokes at others’ or their own expense. Her diction, syntax and path of logic illuminate her personality in the pages of her book.

It begins in the first few pages. In the beginning, she addresses the infamous scar that she has, right there, by the side of her mouth. It’s a scary tale. Imagine being a kindergartener out in the alley behind your house when a stranger comes and slashes you in the face with a knife! Terrifying.

If that wasn’t traumatic enough, it left a scar on her face that drew the attention of everyone she interacted with. But her interpretation all of the attention she received due to her scar is anything but depressing.

She says, quote “What should have shut me down and made me feel ‘less than’ ended up giving me an inflated sense of self. It wasn’t until years later, … that I realized people weren’t making a fuss over me because I was some incredible beauty or genius; they were making a fuss over me to compensate for my being slashed.

“I accepted all the attention at face value and proceeded through life as if I really were extraordinary. I guess what I’m saying is, this has all been a wonderful misunderstanding. And I shall keep these Golden Globes, every last one!”

A result of the proud personality she has due to her family environment, she establishes that she actually rejected the possibility of being pitied or looked down upon for her scar.

Not only do we see that example of how her environment influenced her thinking, but she ends the passage with more self-deprecating humor, this time taking advantage of her misunderstanding of how others saw her situation, and cracking a conceited joke at how it brought her motivation to the fame she received later in life anyway.

Her environment fueled her interpretation of the slashing scenario, as well as her reflection on her misunderstanding - all showing its effect on her pattern of logic.

Another example is found toward the middle of the book, when she describes her first jobs. Fey worked in a low level position at the YMCA for a while, but ultimately began to hate it. The chapter brings quite a bit of attention to her workmate, Donna, who was desperately seeking an office position that had opened up.

Though Tina initially didn’t plan to compete with Donna for the job, once she realized that she hated her current one and the office job would give her more money, she ended up applying and receiving the job over Donna.

She says “Donna would have thrown herself into that office job with deep commitment for the rest of her life. I stayed less than a year and bailed when I got a job with The Second City Touring Company.
“That makes me sound like a jerk, I know. But remember the beginning of the story where I was the underdog? No? Me neither.”

Her realistic outlook on life and proud personality shows clearly when she describes the scene. She is aware of how the scene makes her look - rude and inconsiderate to Donna, who the readers are lead to pity.

She acknowledges it, evidence of her realistic nature, but reveals her mock-conceit through her closing statement. She has never been the underdog. She’s privileged. She gets it. That type of satirical humor, bordering on self-deprecation, is a result of her environment.

Finally, when she illuminates her tales as a mother in the end, she relays one of her biggest struggles - telling the babysitter that she was cutting Fey’s child’s nails too short. She absolutely did not want to hurt the babysitter’s feelings, because of all the work she had done for Fey.

She says, “… I will happily tell a joke about Osama bin Laden or the Ku Klux Klan on live television; but I could not talk to the babysitter about the fingernail clipping. I’ll bet you Margaret Thatcher would say the same thing if she were alive today*.”

She continues in a footnote. “*Apparently Margaret Thatcher is alive and says of course she would have told the nanny directly about the problem and she thinks I am a complete chickenshit.”

Her self-deprecation shines through in this example. She recognizes that she exhibits cowardice in being unable to simply mention a concern to the babysitter, and jokes about herself in order to show it, and her response to her own feelings is once again fueled from the environmental influences that shaped her logic and way of humor.

Overall, through the way that Fey characterizes the background she came from and how it affected her type of humor, we are able to make a few inferences about human nature as a result. Her form of humor is popular - that’s what makes her so famous, after all! We understand why she would be self-deprecating. We enjoy her bashing on her own awkward adolescence.

Her jokes and anecdotes are clear to the audience because we can either relate to or empathize with her. The implication this makes on the human condition is that most people have similar, if not the same, effects of environmental influences in their lives. They must hold the same sort of realism or pride in their own lives, making it possible for them to relate or understand enough to empathize with Fey’s humor and stories.

Either way, it was a fantastic read, and one I would recommend to anyone.