On Saturday night, Tina Fey made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live. She popped up during the monologue to do a 30 Rock routine for Tracy Morgan, who was hosting the show and making his official return to comedy since his near-fatal accident last year. Fey stuck around to deliver some special commentary on Weekend Update about Playboy's decision to no longer run nude photos of women. Her appearance, though relatively short, was the most powerful "Weekend Update" has seen in a long time.
She discussed how Playboy is "dashing the dreams of many a beautiful young woman who hoped to one day move to Los Angeles and, just by changing every single aspect of her appearance, maybe become Miss February, and then work her way up the company ladder until one day she gets invited to have an early-bird fake five-way with a hundred-year-old sex monster."
Fey also pointed out that perhaps the internet is to blame for the change, as women no longer need the Heff to sell their boobs. "We can all sell our boobs now!" she said. "It's the sharing economy. It's Airbnb for crotch shots!" Before making her exit, Fey joked that she feels sad that she'll never have the chance to pose for the magazine. That's when the bit took an important turn.
She got up on the desk fully clothed and started posing anyway — making fun of how unnatural these photo shoots typically appear. "I was gonna do this one in half an Eagles jersey and tube socks," she said while on all fours.
Not only did Fey's return to Weekend Update break up the boys club of late-night hosts — even the fictional kind — but it seemed, once and for all, to end the argument for having a woman host late-night shows at all.
You see, Fey illustrated that we don't need women behind the desk. We need women on the desk. We need women unapologetically pretending to pose on bales of hay on the desk. We need women shouting about how girls should be learning coding, not unrealistic ideals of body image, on the desk. And when those women have said their peace, they shouldn't just join the men behind the desk. They should jump off the desk and run toward the camera, arms flailing — just as Fey did. Watch the full clip, below.
You see, Fey illustrated that we don't need women behind the desk. We need women on the desk. We need women unapologetically pretending to pose on bales of hay on the desk. We need women shouting about how girls should be learning coding, not unrealistic ideals of body image, on the desk. And when those women have said their peace, they shouldn't just join the men behind the desk. They should jump off the desk and run toward the camera, arms flailing — just as Fey did. Watch the full clip, below.