Why Tina Fey Still Isn’t On Twitter Or Instagram
Tina Fey is not on Twitter or Instagram because she says there isn't enough time in the day and she thinks she should be able to show her nipples
Have you tried looking up Tina Fey on Twitter? Or how about Tina Fey on Instagram? If so, you surely have been disappointed. Although Fey is one of the undersung architects of the modern sense of comedy on television and elsewhere, she is strangely absent from social media.
Before you might start Googling “Tina Fey canceled” or “Tina Fey Twitter ban” or even “Tina Fey TikTok dance,” it does not appear for any reason other than the co-creator of 30 Rock and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt simply…does not want to be.
Perhaps it just feels strange that someone that has been so famous for so long, behind the scenes and on screen, does not want to participate in current culture (such as it is) on Twitter and Instagram and well, any other service that we generally expect a celebrity to be on.
In a world where a former President of the United States came to their greatest social impact for their sheer volume of Tweets and somehow Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson can be dethroned as the highest-paid influencer on Instagram, it can feel odd that a famous person should not always want to be up in everyone’s feed. But Tina Fey is apparently living evidence.
TINA FEY SAYS SHE’LL JOIN INSTAGRAM OR TWITTER WHEN SHE CAN SHOW HER NIPPLES
While it has never been exactly pinned down in any serious way, there seems to be a lot of thought floating around about why Tina Fey is not on Twitter or Instagram or (probably) Goodreads.
In a joint interview with longtime collaborator and friend Amy Poehler, Fey most likely facetiously claimed that she was waiting to be able to show her nipples on social media, and that she would not have any part of social media until she could.
She could be making a good political point about the bizarre social double standard of male vs female nipple baring on social media (which has been discussed in as rarefied a venue as the New York Times), she is a comedian, after all. So that’s probably not it.
In another interview, this time with The Hollywood Reporter, Twitter was brought up by no less a personage than legendary late-night talk show host David Letterman. There, she obliquely let her feelings about social media known by describing then President-Elect Donald Trump being in a Twitter feud with her 30 Rock co-star Alec Baldwin as making her “sick for the world.” Strong words, but at the risk of editorializing, not wrong.
Still, Tina Fey’s aversion to Twitter, Instagram, and ClubHouse seem to go further than her disappointment at the presumptive leader of the Western World being embroiled in an argument with the star of the 1994 film The Shadow.
TINA FEY SAY PEOPLE SHOULD NEED A LICENSE TO TWEET
In a since-deleted video on NBC, Fey apparently went off at length about the nature of Twitter and (presumably) joked that people should be required to need a license to Tweet. As this open letter from Eric Mack says, this might been a bit of an over-correction. Perhaps not. But it might be actor/singer/professional awesome person Titus Burgess who put it best why Tina Fey is not on Twitter.
In an interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers, he explained he had once asked his boss at The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt why she was not on Twitter. Her answer? “Why would I give my jokes away for free?”
It is hard to argue with that. While Twitter may be improved with Tina Fey, it is clear that Tina Fey does not want Twitter. Nor does it seem that she might need it. After all, she already came up in comedy the hard way. After schooling at Chicago’s Second City, she also started at the Improv Olympic (now iO Theater).
While performing at Second City, no less than future Anchorman director Adam McKay asked her to submit scripts to Saturday Night Live, where he was head writer at the time.
She was hired as a writer in 1997. In 1999, she became the legendary sketch show’s first-ever head writer. A year later, she became co-anchor of Weekend Update with Jimmy Fallon. Then she developed the Lindsay Lohan-starring Mean Girls. Then 30 Rock. Then The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Then a series of other films, Netflix projects, and television projects including producing Girls5eva and appearing on Only Murders in the Building. So really the question is: why would Tina Fey need to be on Twitter?
TINA FEY SAYS THERE AREN’T ENOUGH HOURS IN THE DAY FOR SOCIAL MEDIA
At this point, and unless Instagram capitulates and allows Tina Fey to “free the nipples,” we will most likely never see her on social media. Fey made her statement over seven years ago and to her word, has not joined the social media frenzy.
While there have been fan accounts made in her name, she has never taken the time to create one for herself. There have also been fan accounts such as TinAmy (since removed), this one combining the talents of Tina Fey and her best pal in comedy, Amy Poehler.
At the time, Fey explained to Entertainment Tonight simply that “There’s just not enough hours in the day for it really,” for her to sit online and post about her every moment. Then she hit ET with the popular caveat, “I’m just waiting to be able to show my nipples,” Fey proudly stated. “If I can’t show my nipples, I don’t want any part of it.” Since Instagram hasn’t changed its mind, neither has Tina Fey.
Tina Fey’s appearances in front of the camera over the past few years have slowed tremendously. Since 2019 she has been in one feature film (Wine Country) with the rest of her appearances either on TV series’ or by Fey using her vocal skills on projects such as the animated Disney film Soul or a bit vocal part on the Ryan Reynolds comedy, Free Guy.
Her biggest project in the past three years has been the Steve Martin/Martin Short/Selena Gomez Hulu mystery comedy Only Murders in the Building. In it, Fey plays Cinda Canning, a rival true crime podcaster.
For the most part, though, Fey has kept herself behind the camera. A prolific comedy writer, she has kept busy as a writer on shows like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (which she also created), Mr. Mayor (another of her creations), and now she is working on Mean Girls the Musical which is based on the 2004 film, Mean Girls, which Tina Fey also wrote the screenplay for.
We may never see Tina Fey on social media, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t care. She is just one busy lady. On top of all her behind-the-camera stuff, she actually does have one more in-front-of-the-camera project lined up. It’s a feature called Maggie Moore(s) and tells the story of a sleepy town where nothing happens that finds itself in the middle of a murder mystery of two women with the same name.
