Review: Kaling & Fey

Even as I sit here, typing up this post, donning deliberately oversized plastic eyewear, drinking stale, room-temperature water out of a mug-- and using only pretentious synonyms for everyday words (including, but not limited to donning, deliberately, oversized, eyewear, stale, pretentious, and synonyms), I can't help but wish that someone was here to take a photo of me. The kind of photo that was candid, of course. And probably instagram'd.

I also can't decide if this is a moment in my life where I will one day look back and feel embarrassed about, or if it will be remembered as one of my finest and proudest moments. Impossible choice.

Anyway, I just finished reading two autobiographies of two funny-ladies. (The reason that there is a hyphen between those two words is because they are to be read as one). Mindy Kaling's "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)" and Tina Fey's "Bossypants." I read them back-to-back, and thoroughly enjoyed them both.

(Note: I originally included a photo of Kaling's book too, but then I removed it because it was so pink).

To make a general statement, I would say that I enjoyed Bossypants more. While Kaling was funny in her writing (I read hers first), I felt that Fey's rendition of "I'm-hilarious-and-sarcastic-and-will-make-fun-of-myself-to-appear-lighthearted-and-fun-so-that-you-forget-to-dislike-me-at-least-a-little-since-I'm-super-famous-and-make-way-more-money-than-you-but-don't-feel-bad-because-I,-too,-once-suffered-from-teenage-acne" was a more mature, refined and even slightly less aggressive one. I felt as if it was evident that she didn't have to try as hard. She is a very cool version of herself. I will also like to take this moment to point out the irony of this paragraph as a whole since I am a 22-year-old sarca myself. I'm obviously just jealous of her. 

Anyway, I would recommend Bossypants to anyone who finds Tina Fey funny. If you don't think she's funny, then you shouldn't read it.

Here are a couple of my favourite excerpts (the ones that made me laugh out loud) from Bossypants:

(Referring to people who approach her and ask about the scar on her face)
"The grossest move is when they say they're only curious because "it's so beautiful." Ugh. Disgusting. They might as well walk up and say, "May I be amazing at you?"

"Every time I reached into the closet to grab a Sunday School dress or my colonial-lady Halloween costume that I sometimes relaxed in after school..."

"I was walking home from middle school past a place called the World's Largest Aquarium-- which, legally, I don't know how they could call it that, because it was obviously an average-sized aquarium."

(Regarding how proud she is that 30 Rock features 'normal human-faces')
"When you watched Sanford and Son, you didn't want to have sex with everybody you saw, just Grady. I've never understood why every character being "hot" was necessary for enjoying a TV show. It's the same reason I don't get Hooters. Why do we need to enjoy chicken wings and boobies at the same time? Yes, they are a natural and beautiful part of the human experience. And so are boobies. But why at the same time?"


Hahahahahaaa.

-bcl.