Tina Fey: Palin impression cost me ’30 Rock’ viewers

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

Tina Fey‘s new sorta-memoir-sorta-short-vignette book, Bossypants, has hit the shelves recently (if you don’t have it, go get it. It’s not product placement if I like it!), and in it, Tina discusses her now famous Sarah Palin impression, and how it’s cost her show, 30 Rock, some viewers. To be fair, the only people her show lost were probably pretty humorless anyway, so what are the chances they would actually watch a comedy anyway?

Fey, who won an Emmy for her spoof portraying the then-Vice Presidential candidate as a clueless woman more comfortable spouting catch phrases than talking serious political policy, writes in her new book, Bossypants, that rather than helping her Emmy-winning comedy 30 Rock in the ratings, the impression has made it harder for the show to gain traction with audiences.

“Some may argue that exploiting Governor Palin and her family helped bring attention to my low-rated TV show,” Fey writes (via an excerpt in USA Today). “I am proud to say you are wrong. My TV show still enjoys very low ratings. In fact, I think the Palin stuff may have hurt the TV show. Let’s face it, between Alec Baldwin and me there is a certain fifty percent of the population who think we are pinko Commie monsters.” SOURCE

This kinda just makes me sad. I mean for God’s sake, Tina Fey looked EXACTLY like her, could mimic her voice to a T, and let’s face it, Palin has many quirks that can be milked for easy laughs. How can you expect someone not to go for it? Actually, this morning I got an email from a certain “someone” I mocked in one of my posts and believe me, he was not pleased at all. But who cares? I make fun of everyone, not out of some petty vindictive pleasure, but because everyone is inherently ridiculous and no one is above being made fun of. If your delicate sensibilities can’t handle a joke made at your own expense, the Internet may not be for you. But you’re already on here anyway, so you might as well have a little fun, right?

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

About JEREMY FEIST 5002 Articles
Jeremy Feist is an (ahem) entertainer from Toronto, Canada. He writes, acts, and performs on stage, and has been a writer for Popbytes for almost three years now. He lives in Toronto with his boyfriend, his incredibly dumb but cute puppy, and his immortal cat.