Remember when entertainers really mattered? Suddenly they do again. Fey has the best comedy on TV in 30 Rock and scored a hit movie in Baby Mama and a multimillion-dollar book deal; if she'd just sing something, she'd be a shoo-in for queen of all media. But more than that, in 2008 Fey made smart sexy and nerdy cool, and she proved that comedy can still have serious political clout: her winking impression of Governor Sarah Palin defined the governor before she had a chance to define herself.
—Lev Grossman