Me and B saw Baby Mama this weekend, which inspired me to troll for Tina Fey clips on SNL. This is the best, and appropriate for mother’s day.
So Baby Mama was really funny – Amy Poehler was brilliant, Steve Martin stole the whole movie as a ponytail-sporting hippie guru/entrepreneur. It was a semi-spoof on the upper class working woman impulse to have a kid at any cost (in this case, $100,000 for a surrogate, which Tina Fey’s character, a VP at a Whole Foods-like organic food company, didn’t blink an eye at). All the obvs feminist issues came up – her doctor regarded her with skepticism (“I don’t like your uterus!”) because of her advanced age (37), her singledom, her lack of fertility, her lack of a man, etc etc etc etc. Then Amy Poehler comes along as the hip-hop loving “white trash” young STefani type (it was set in Philly so I kept imagining the screenwriter totally modeled her after Amanda Blank). Amy is her surrogate, which sets off all sorts of class issues for both of them, the central conceit of it all, and honestly, I think if it hadn’t had such an amazing cast, who understand the importance of pulling off the subtlety of the humor, it might have been super offensive. But coming into it knowing it’s a feminist film, it worked. Also it was fucking hilarious.
I also hope I am never in the situation where I am 37 and single and desperately want a baby. Not because there’s anything wrong with single adoption, but having grown up with a single mom, I know how hard that shit is, even when you’re rich like Fey’s character (um, we weren’t). I’m not tryna do that shit dolo, no fuckin way. And I want my kids to have a dad. A cool dad. With a job. And an arsenal of witty bon mots.
I do not want kids for a long, long, long time! I AM TOO DEEP IN THE CLUBS!