Bossypants

A coworker lent me Tina Fey’s Bossypants and I was excited to read it on the plane ride to Oregon. I expected a amusing read, but found myself, in chapter five, wondering, “when is it going to get funny?” The book is one 2-inch-long paragraph after the next, every other of which ends in a “funny-one-liner!”, often in the form of a question. For example: “What’s happening to my moral compass?” (p77). “But remember the beginning of the story where I was the underdog? No? Me either.” (p80). “What has your cult done for you lately?” (p82). “What kind of a way is that to live?” (p84). “Whaaa? More on that later.” (p87). Now mind you, those were only the funny question punch-lines at the ends of paragraphs within ten pages of fairly large print type face (size 12, 1.5 spaced? I’m not an expert). There are plenty more question one-liners interspersed between, and many more non-question one-liners at the ends of paragraphs (and of course, interspersed between as well). As I said, the rule of thumb is that every other paragraph ends in a one-liner. If you like "30 Rock" and now have Bossypants on your shelf, please refer to it now. You’ll see that the pattern is nearly a science in Tina Fey’s writing.

Further, her paragraphs jump around from topic to topic too much, and don’t always return to what she was initially talking about nor does it always connect with the title of the chapter, and that bothers me. Especially because, as the writing is so basic, I am not giving the book my full attention (I don’t need to. No one needs to), and “BAM” I suddenly find myself 10 years and two stories away from what I was just reading.

I considered mapping a chapter to prove my point, but I am sure you believe me regardless. Especially if you have the book and are following along.

However, my main reason for writing this particular entry was not to review Tina Fey’s comedic memoir but to express to you my new found distress: I do exactly the same thing! I compose useless nonsense in a very patterned style to entertain, ignoring rules of good writing to make you laugh. The biggest difference is that Tina Fey is famous for other talents and people will read her book.

But overall, I was very disappointed in Bossypants. It reminded me of the time I went to see Baby Mama. I expected to laugh, and was sorely let down. I thought the writing would be as good as "30 Rock", but it wasn’t, and in both cases, I bailed on Tina Fey half-way through.