In an interview with Howard Stern on Monday, Tina Fey finally identified which former SNL co-star called her the C-word during her Saturday Night Live days: Colin Quinn, who has recently appeared in Trainwreck, Inside Amy Schumer and Girls. The infamous name-calling incident inspired the 30 Rock episode “The C-Word,” in which Liz Lemon, the head writer of TGS, is called a cunt by Lutz, one of the writers.
Tina Fey became head writer at SNL in 1999, and Quinn anchored Weekend Update before Fey and Jimmy Fallon took over as co-anchors in 2000. According to Fey, the “cunt” incident happened while she was head writer. That’s right, not only did Colin Quinn call Tina Fey a cunt, he called her a cunt while she was head writer of Saturday Night Live.
According to Fey, “I was trying to help him with a show that he was working on…and I think his anxiety about the writing of the show spilled over. Because it was very random. I was like, ‘What?’ He left me a message and he said that…and it was funny, cause when someone says something like that about you, when you literally can’t even think of like…I couldn’t even guess why. Usually if someone calls you that, you’re like, ‘I know what I did.’”
On 30 Rock, Lutz calls Liz a cunt response to Liz ruling the writers’ room with a strict hand (which is her job). Liz’s reaction sums it up perfectly: “This word is not acceptable because there’s nothing you can call a guy back. There is no male equivalent to this word.” At first, Liz takes the comment to heart, but eventually she realizes that she deserves respect and puts everyone in their place as only she can, by yelling a Designing Women quote at the writers’ room.
Fey and Quinn have since made up, she says, and Quinn seems to be on the same page. He tweeted the following on Monday:
Listen to the interview below:
Image Via NBC/30 Rock
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