Want to learn the ideas in Bossypants better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of Bossypants by Tina Fey here.
Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.
Video Summaries of Bossypants
We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on Bossypants, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by Tina Fey.
1-Page Summary of Bossypants
Overall Summary
Tina Fey’s book Bossypants is a humorous memoir about her life in show business. She describes growing up as an awkward, smart-mouthed girl and traces the process by which she enters show business. She talks about working at a theater camp, taking night improv classes, writing for Saturday Night Live (SNL), and finally creating 30 Rock. Throughout her career, she has faced discrimination and double standards because of her gender. In order to succeed in this industry, women must overcome the urge to surrender to convention or please people who are impossible to please.
Fey’s mother is forty years old when Fey is born, and she learns that her parents are older. When she’s in kindergarten, a stranger attacks her and leaves a scar on her face. She carries the scar to this day, and it tells others about who she is. As she enters her teen years, she realizes that women are judged for their bodies and no body seems capable of satisfying the ideal.
After 11th grade, Fey worked at Summer Showtime. It was a theater group that became her safe haven after she broke up with her boyfriend. She also learned valuable lessons about friendship during this time.
After high school, Fey attended the University of Virginia. She failed to find love there and went on to a job at the YMCA in Chicago. There she worked long hours with an eclectic group of people and felt disillusioned by the power structure that kept incompetent men employed while women were promoted based on their looks. To unwind from her stressful job, Fey took improv classes at night. Eventually she was promoted to a desk job where she left because it wasn’t as much fun as working for The Second City theater company.
Fey works in a touring company of The Second City. She travels all over the country and performs sketches with her colleagues. She loves her job, but she is frustrated by sexism that exists within the company. Producers believe women are incapable of producing as much material as men and don’t think audiences want to see sketches with more women.
In 1997, Fey joins the writing staff of Saturday Night Live. She and Lorne Michaels develop a close bond that will help her when she leads her own show, 30 Rock. During this time, she works with Jimmy Fallon on “Weekend Update” and stars in other sketches as well. In 2001, she gets married to Jeff Richmond (a composer for SNL) and has a nightmare honeymoon cruise.
As Fey continues working in show business, she learns more about the process of photo shoots and how to deal with online criticism. After eight years on Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels encourages her to develop an idea for a TV show. It’s difficult and stressful, but NBC eventually picks up 30 Rock (a comedy series). Although it has relatively low viewership, it is a critical success because of its characters’ humanness.
In 2005, Fey gives birth to her daughter. In 2008, when Sarah Palin becomes John McCain’s running mate in the presidential race, Fey returns to SNL (Saturday Night Live) and plays Palin alongside Poehler as Clinton or Couric. She is criticized by conservatives for being impolite and also by male media pundits who criticize her for it.
The final chapters of Fey’s book discuss what it means to be a woman, specifically a working mother. She writes about the condescension and judgment imposed on women who decide to work instead of staying home with their children. This leads them to feel like failures even when they’re not doing anything wrong, which is an example of how people are forced into conventions that don’t fit for everyone. By the end of the chapter she hasn’t decided whether or not she wants another baby but has come to understand that everything will be fine regardless because improvisation is her life and her worldview.
