Tina Fey: Don’t Ask Me to Explain My Jokes
If you’ve followed Tina Fey over the past few years, you know she’s no fan of the Internet — despite the fact that the Internet really, really loves her. On talk show interviews she’s rolled her eyes at blogging culture, and the need to regurgitate stories over and over again. In The Advocate in November, she turned up her nose at the web: “I don’t worry about what the Internet says. Getting in trouble with the Internet is not real. The Internet is not a force you have to obey.” And now, in a new interview with a Net-a-Porter, she attacks again, saying “Steer clear of the Internet and you’ll live forever.”
That statement followed a discussion about a couple episodes and characters on her Netflix sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt that some deemed racially insensitive. “We did an … episode and the Internet was in a whirlwind, calling it ‘racist,’ she told the magazine.
She’s talking about an episode in which it was revealed that Jane Krakowski‘s character — a snotty socialite from the Upper East Side — was born Native American and how she spent the better part of her adult life denying that culture. There was also backlash about Titus Burgess’s character, Titus Andromedon, who some say plays too much into gay stereotypes.
To the folks who find it offensive, Fey pretty much says they’re taking it too seriously. And if they can’t get the jokes, well, then maybe her comedy isn’t for them. “My new goal is not to explain jokes,” she continued to Net-a-Porter. “I feel like we put so much effort into writing and crafting everything, they need to speak for themselves. There’s a real culture of demanding apologies, and I’m opting out of that.”
The Upper Darby gal isn’t taking any crap — and we’re totally eating it up.
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