Interesting, and that second paragraph really helped your point (Carol Burnett was such a first-rate comic of that generation; I can't say a ton about White as I really only knew her from The Wonder Girls and Hot in Cleveland). Personally, however, I'm not a huge fan of Fey (and it's probably just me), but for some reason she strikes me as a little self-congratulatory in her presentation. But I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise because obviously you think pretty highly of her. It might be partly a personal thing. Regardless, in general it seems like female comedy has gotten really good in the last 6 or 7 years and I think you are right that it became more boisterous - I've never heard it described that way before. Something changed and in that sense it was that group of Fey, Poehler and even Mia Rudolf that seemed to get things steered aright (though I will give Mo Collins credit on Mad TV too). And then for me anyway, Wiig took the ball and hit it out of the park.
Fey is the trailblazer. She was the head writer of the SNL tenure that saw the rise of all these female stars in this generation of comedy: Poehler, Wiig, Rudolph, Dratch. You can tell she was just a natural leader who yoked not just these women, but the entire cast, and really produced a stronger SNL collaborative spirit than we have witnessed in any other SNL generation. She even made it okay for female comedians to be as attractive as possible.
Take Poehler. Did you watch her when she first came onto the show? Then watch her after she has a season under her belt next to Fey on Weekend Update. She absolutely bloomed, and you could just tell that confidence and excitement was like a kid sibling who finds a mentor and suddenly realized that she is empowered to become the best version of herself. She had this sudden enthusiasm that she could tell jokes with a message that were worth telling and simultaneously funny. As long as Tina was there things would be fine. Jimmy Fallon, too. Seth Myers just picked up the tone of the Weekend Update that Tina created and ran with it. He didn't try to renovate the style the way all previous hosts have (Spade, Neiland, Norm, Colin, etc.) Everybody since her has just done a Tiny Fey version of Weekend Update.
It spins out. Melissa McCarthy capitalized on her stint in Wiig's
Bridesmaids to become one of the most popular comedians today. This forum loves to hate Amy Schumer, but her drunk feminist persona is just the sorority slut version of the non-bitchy feminist comedian persona Fey carved out: smart, informed, incisive, sarcastic, but not pretentious or hostile (as opposed to the Janeane Garofalos of the world). There is an emphasis on political comedy, too, that female comedians historically have always eschewed unless they were obnoxious types like Garofalo.
Whoever one prefers I see them all as disciples of Fey. I think Wiig is a more talented performer, certainly, but Fey is hands down the best writer, and really sort of the architect of this loose school/movement in the early 21st century.
She's sort of the female Jon Stewart: king and queen of Gen X comedy.
