Slate, discussing how the show covers politics and feminism, assessed Lemon's character as being drawn from other genres of comedy in unexpected ways: "the man-child is a venerable comic tradition, from The Jerk to Billy Madison to everything Will Ferrell does, and 30 Rock proves that an eternal 13-year-old tomboy—scared of sex, obsessed with Star Wars and meatball subs—can be just as funny as her male counterpart." In 2015, Yahoo named Lemon the greatest television character since Tony Soprano of "The Sopranos", and Entertainment Weekly named Lemon one of the 25 Best TV Characters in the Past 25 Years.