The important thing about Miss Tomlin—and the lady is very important—is that she defines her generation and her time. She is the Anti-Establishment Establishment. She waltzes to a different drummer and a clash of symbols….

Lily Tomlin makes you believe in Lily Tomlin. Behind all of her characterizations there seems to stand a serious person saying: "I live here, I am a woman and, so far as I can tell, this is the way it is." It is difficult to think of any other comedian who actually does this. Miss Tomlin never shirks the pain of comedy….

When one of her parading characters describes herself "as a figment of my own imagination" you get the real feel of Miss Tomlin. She is fantasy gone sane. She is a woman's-eye view of madness. Her feminism is essential—she is so flamboyantly female she can make fun of...