a = [("apple",5),("foxy",6),("teeny",2),("lemon",1)]
>>> a
[('apple', 5), ('foxy', 6), ('teeny', 2), ('lemon', 1)]
>>> sorted(a)
[('apple', 5), ('foxy', 6), ('lemon', 1), ('teeny', 2)]
>>> import operator
>>> sorted(a,key=operator.itemgetter(1))
[('lemon', 1), ('teeny', 2), ('apple', 5), ('foxy', 6)]
>>> sorted(a,key=operator.itemgetter(1),reverse=True)
[('foxy', 6), ('apple', 5), ('teeny', 2), ('lemon', 1)]
>>> from operator import itemgetter
>>> sorted(a,key=itemgetter(1),reverse=True)
[('foxy', 6), ('apple', 5), ('teeny', 2), ('lemon', 1)]
>>> sorted(a,key=itemgetter(1),reverse=True)
[('foxy', 6), ('apple', 5), ('teeny', 2), ('lemon', 1)]
>>> a
[('apple', 5), ('foxy', 6), ('teeny', 2), ('lemon', 1)]
>>> sorted(a,key=itemgetter(2),reverse=True)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<console>", line 1, in <module>
IndexError: tuple index out of range
>>> a
[('apple', 5), ('foxy', 6), ('teeny', 2), ('lemon', 1)]
>>> a.sort()
>>> a
[('apple', 5), ('foxy', 6), ('lemon', 1), ('teeny', 2)]
>>>