TOW #12 Bossypants (IRB)

Never before did I think it was possible to genuinely laugh out loud at a book. I thought that words in the form of a book were not capable of striking me as funny. However, reading Bossypants by Tina Fey completely changed my mind. My sense of humor is more on the sarcastic side. Cliché jokes are more of an annoyance to me than an enjoyment. It’s not only the humor that caught me in this book but also the skill of her rhetoric. She weaves in meaning through all of her anecdotes and illustration. All of chapters have a reoccurring theme of feminism, which plays into Feys overall purpose. Her purpose was to show women that they are beautiful even if they are not like the girls in Hollywood. She does this by making the reader have a humorous attitude towards her own life and weaving in light-hearted stories with lessons. Fey creates a humorous story through anecdotes and an informal tone. The whole book is bursting with Fey’s personal experiences. From someone stealing her boyfriend to stealing her job, she is more then willing to laugh at herself, which makes the read ten times more enjoyable. For example, in the middle of a story about her wishes for her daughter she says that you could “be able to pick me out of a sea of highlighted blonde women with fake tans because I’m the one with the thick ponytail and the greenish undertones in my skin” (Fey 23). She also has an apparent informal tone. it gave the feeling that she was there with you and that she is one of your friends. The specific diction as well as the overall picture of the stories she includes creates an intimate setting between Fey and her audience. Every line of this story is comedic gold and I read it with a broad smile across my face. Not only did I learn to think of myself as beautiful but also important life lessons. For example, whoever has the best your mama joke wins. It is a fair and easy way to settle an argument.