Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's Funniest Moments of All Time

The comedy vets — who’ll be back co-hosting the Golden Globes on Feb. 28 — make us laugh till it hurts. Here, our favorite painfully perfect performances

By Nancy Mattia and Alex Apatoff
Updated February 22, 2021 09:47 AM

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The 2015 Golden Globes

Credit: Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal via Getty

For the pals' final turn hosting the awards show (before deciding to come back for 2021) they pulled out all the stops. No one was spared, but one particularly laugh-inducing dig came at the expense of the hours Steve Carell spent getting prosthetics for his nominated role, by Fey: "Steve Carell’s Foxcatcher look took two hours to put on, including his hairstyling and make-up. Just for comparison, it took me three hours today to prepare for my role as human woman.”

Poehler also hinted that we might see them on the Golden Globes stage again: "We’ll be like the Jay Z of the Globes and never retire," she told EW.

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The 2014 Golden Globes

Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty(2); Jeff Vespa/WireImage

The hosts didn't let any actors get by without a playful jab, joking about Leonardo DiCaprio's love life (“And now, like a supermodel’s vagina, let’s all give a warm welcome to Leonardo DiCaprio”), Matthew McConaughey's weight loss for Dallas Buyers Club (“He lost 45 pounds, or what actresses call being in a movie”) and George Clooney's penchant for younger women (“Gravity” is nominated for best film. It’s the story of how George Clooney would rather float away into space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age”).

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The 2014 Golden Globes

Poehler takes advantage of her big win for Best Actress in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy for Parks and Recreation by planting one big smooch on U2 rocker Bono (from her comfy perch on his lap). Her boyfriend at the time Nick Kroll jokingly tweeted "Hey Bono, watch your back."

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The 2019 Oscars

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Along with good pal Maya Rudolph, the comedians tried out a bunch of material (despite not being the hosts). "We're going to stand here a little too long, so the people who get USA Today tomorrow will think that we hosted," Fey said.

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The 2013 Emmy Awards

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The glam duo chomped on popcorn and heckled Emmys host Neil Patrick Harris from their front-row seats, demanding he twerk and remove his pants. When he refuses, calling it “degrading,” Poehler retorts, “It might be degrading but we would be degrateful.”

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The 2013 Golden Globes

Credit: Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal/Getty

After Girls Lena Dunham beat out the two co-hosts in her best actress in a comedy category, she thanked them for “comforting me at the darkest moments of my life.” Fey and Poehler returned to the stage, swigging consolation drinks. “Congratulations, Lena,” said Fey, sarcastically, “I’m glad we got you through middle school.”

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'Weekend Update'

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In this 2005 Saturday Night Live skit, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler joined forces to mentor teen guest (and Mean Girls costar) Lindsay Lohan, who at the time had a reputation for late-night shenanigans. In digging for dirt on the young actress, the anchors were concerned, nosy, inappropriate — and totally hilarious.

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Saturday Night Live

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Two months before the 2008 presidential election, the SNL season opener featured Fey in a spot-on impersonation of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin and Poehler channeling a stressed-out Hillary Clinton. The women debated global warming, hockey moms and the surprising view out the window from Palin’s Wasilla, Alaska, home.

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Baby Mama

Credit: K.C. Bailey

The big-screen comedy Baby Mama starred Poehler as a wacky, working-class woman hired to carry a baby for Fey, a successful but infertile entrepreneur. Though the characters were polar opposites, they did agree on at least one thing: Vegetable spray needn’t be limited to cooking.

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The 2008 Emmy Awards

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And the award for best banter by co-presenters goes to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler! Fey played the straight man to Poehler’s goofball as they handed out a comedy award during the live telecast.

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Katie Couric Interviews Sarah Palin

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A parody of an actual CBS News interview that aired days earlier, this Saturday Night Light skit featured Fey reprising her role as a perky Sarah Palin for a sit-down with Poehler’s unnerved Katie Couric. Together they proved that politics makes funny bedfellows.

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Max 60 Sec

It’s a sign of a healthy collaboration when comedy partners can still surprise and delight each other. While interviewing Fey on this video show, Poehler was so smitten with one of her BFF’s creative responses, she high-fived her and suggested ending the interview right then and there.

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'Jersey Floor'

On the way to tape a 2011 episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Fey pushed an elevator button labeled “Jersey Floor,”  instantly morphing the two from the Amy and Tina we know and love into tough, tanned, big-haired broads stalking Fallon and friends.

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'Weekend Update' Joke-Off

For a special Weekend Update reunion, Fey teamed with Jimmy Fallon, while Poehler aligned with Seth Meyers in a “joke-off” to see who could make the best strip-club puns. The winners (to us): the gals’ improvised buzzer noises.

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Night of Two Many Stars

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At a Comedy Central auction benefit, the comediennes agreed to go on a date with the highest bidder. They cajoled the audience to go higher and higher, and two lucky ladies won — after bidding $36,000 each!

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The 2016 Screen Actors Guild Awards

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Though they were missed as Golden Globes cohosts that year, the duo brought some of their chemistry to the SAG Awards to present Carol Burnett with the Life Achievement Award. "Carol is better than all of us," Poehler said. "We're going to give her a prize for it.

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Wine Country

Credit: Corina Marie Howell

You know how sometimes you just want to get a bunch of your best, funniest friends together and go to Napa? So did Fey and Poehler ... so they wrote a movie and made it happen. 

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Upright Citizens Brigade

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The stars (with Horatio Sanz) returned to their improv roots (and cracked each other up in the process) at the 20th Annual Del Close Marathon in 2018.

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Sisters

The duo had so much fun in Baby Mama, they reunited to try another family dynamic: Siblings who team up to throw one more epic bash in their childhood home before their parents sell it. 

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By Nancy Mattia and Alex Apatoff