Admit it, you’ve dreamed about what it would be like to be best friends with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. Now stifle that excited squealing, because for at least three hours on Jan. 13, 2013, we’ll all have a little taste of what that delicious reality must be like.
The funny ladies and real-life amigos have just been tapped to co-host the 2013 Golden Globe Awards on NBC, a fitting choice since the actresses have sitcoms—30 Rock and Parks and Recreation—airing on that channel … and because they are, you know, hilarious, charming, beloved, and beautiful. “Having both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on board to host this year’s festivities is a major coup,” NBC exec Paul Telegedy, hitherto known as Captain Obvious, said while announcing the big news.
So what’s in store when Fey and Poehler hit the stage in January (so far away!)? Take the occasion—as if you ever needed one—to walk down memory lane with this roundup of the pair’s funniest moments together.
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2013 Golden Globes
“I haven’t really be following the controversy over Zero Dark Thirty. But when it comes to torture, I trust the lady who spent three years married to James Cameron.” With one joke, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler solidify their status as the most successful hosts of any awards show in the past ten years. Their opening monologue to last year’s ceremony was goofy and fun, and tinged with just enough danger to make the Golden Globes live up to its reputation as the cool people’s awards show. They even threw shade at Taylor Swift and remained infallibly charming in the process.
Heckling at the 2013 Emmy Awards
Even when they’re not hosting, Amy and Tina manage to wring out the most memorable laughs at an awards show. After Neil Patrick Harris refuses their request that they twerk at this year’s Emmy Awards because he finds it “degrading,” Poehler responds, “It might be degrading, but we would be degrateful.”
2008 Emmy Awards
Fey and Poehler are already award-show pros, having individually displayed an admirable ability to make stilted presenter banter not just tolerable but enjoyable at countless kudofests in the past. But the two presenting together, as they did here at the 2008 Emmy Awards, is an out-of-this-world combination. Poehler even speaks Martian, perhaps to prove it.
‘Saturday Night Live’
Do Fey and Poehler deserve credit for piloting Saturday Night Live’s creative resurgence in 2008? Perhaps. Nonetheless, Fey’s take on Sarah Palin and Poehler’s interpretation of Hillary Clinton on the sketch series in 2008 was a watershed moment for the show, the election, and pop culture in general.
‘Weekend Update’
Any doubters of the two actresses’ chemistry—seriously, though, who are you?—should look to the pair’s two-year run as co-anchors of Saturday Night Live’s hallowed “Weekend Update” segment. That they were the first all-female team to sit at the “Update” desk is one thing—but they may also be the funniest. Watch them make off like punch-line bandits during this “Joke Off” at a mini-SNL reunion last year.
‘Baby Mama’
With the success of Baby Mama in 2008, Fey and Poehler proved just how popular they were with audiences. Grossing $60 million at the box office and earning stellar reviews, the film graduated the duo from sketch-show cult favorites to bona fide comedy A-listers. And it’s hard to argue they don’t deserve it—they even landed jokes about spraying Pam oil on a pregnant woman’s “taint” without eliciting a cringe.
‘30 Rock’ Live!
A highlight of any 30 Rock episode is a flashback to Liz Lemon’s tragic teenage years. The only thing better? A flashback in which Poehler steps in to play Lemon for Fey, which she did during a quick-cut during the sitcom’s most recent live episode. After Fey’s eyes glaze over as she fondly recalls watching telethons in her parents’ basement while cuddling a cheese steak as a girl, the flashback shows Poehler doing just that while triumphantly/embarrassingly bragging, “Best Sweet 16 ever! I’m going to lose my virginity in nine years!”
Rap with Lindsay Lohan
Once upon a time, a time so different from now it’s almost impossible to remember, Fey wrote a brilliant film called Mean Girls, which co-starred Poehler and launched lead Lindsay Lohan’s career into the stratosphere. So when a video surfaced recently of the trio goofing around, reportedly on the set of the film, and rapping, it was a welcome reminder of the red-haired tabloid staple’s simpler days, as well as how great that movie was. (So fetch.)
Jersey Floor
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon has created its fair share of TV spoofs, including the Downton Sixbey send-up of Downton Abbey and the 6b parody of Glee. But Jersey Floor, Fallon’s bit in which people in his building take the elevator up to the magical Jersey Floor and emerge tanned as an Oompa Loompa with hair teased to the heavens, may be his best. The two secret ingredients: Poehler and Fey, who transform into clubbing Guidettes with unconventional pickup lines. (“Let’s have a relationship!” “I wanna make babies with you!”)
60 Seconds With Tina Fey
If we can’t actually hang out with Poehler and Fey, the next best thing is to be a fly on the wall when the two do get together. That’s why this clip of Poehler interviewing Fey for a web series is so great. The two trade jokes, crack each other up, and genuinely have a great time. That’s the key, really. Whenever they perform together, the pair seems to be enjoying themselves. Come January for the Globes, expect to be enjoying yourself, too.
