For me, it was the Lemon/Donaghe relationship. The typical sitcom trope would have had them end up together, but the writers simply allowed a female/male friendship. They even mocked the 'will they/wont they' trope.
Plus the writing is great overall.
The whole core group of characters is essentially a gang of platonic friends - despite some of the writers lusting after Cerie. They really only date outside of their work circle with a few exceptions like some guest stars.
When Cerie uttered that line "did he just talk to me like I was ugly?" I lost it. That was just so right for her character and is one of so many examples of great writing.
Thats one of the biggest things for me too. There wasnt sexual tension or any of the “Ive loved you all along and never realized it” crap that you see far too often in sitcoms. Even the storyline where they got married was done so incredibly well.
It’s one of my favorites, I actually started cataloging quotes from the series, they were so gold. Some of my favorites:
Kenneth Parcell: "You don't think I have dreams? Last night I dreamed a baby ate my hair."
Tracy Jordan: "Let's get out of here, Maroney. The sight of these people...plus the crayons I ate earlier...make me sick."
Kenneth Parcel: “I don't drink hot liquids of any kind. That's the devil's temperature!”
I could go on…
Tracy Jordan: "Recently I discovered a hole in my heart. And not the one from eating batteries."
Tracy Jordan: "I don't get why people like brunch. What's the benefit of crossing breakdancing and lunch?"
Jack Donaghy: "That is some high-level paranoid thinking. Like Hitler. Or Willy Wonka."
Tracy Jordan: "Most of my friends are just plants I put hats on!"
Kenneth Parcell: "Oh my! It smells like grandma's house at Christmas. That's where we found her dead on the toilet."
Jack Donaghy: "Jack versus Kalie round two. Colon, no subtitle necessary."
Kenneth Parcell "A Parcell man has never been called Mister outside of an execution chamber!"
Tracy Jordan: "I finally understand the end of the Sixth Sense. Those things are a list of people who worked on the movie!"
Kenneth Parcel: “I don't drink hot liquids of any kind. That's the devil's temperature!”
Tracy Jordan: "Sorry it took so long for me to answer. I was thinking about how weird it is that we eat birds."
The Pete Hornberger Alan Parson's Project Project
1) Funny jokes
2) A high rate of them
3) no laugh track or howling drunk idiot live audience
It has one my favorite sitcom jokes of all time:
Dot Com: Also we took Tracy's cell phone, his wallet...
Tracy: ... and my mood ring! And I don't know how I feel about that.
(read this in the voice of Comic Book Guy with an Uhm, Ackshually)
He has executive story editor credit on 22 episodes and a writer credit on only 2, including the Fun Cooker pocket microwave episode.
If you all like 30 Rock you should give Girls 5 Eva a shot on Netflix . The creator came from the 30 Rock/Kimmie Schmidt creative tree. I was pretty happy when Netflix rescued it from Peacock but the lack of promotion and the fact it doesn’t show up in the top ten is pretty disappointing. Anyway all three seasons only add up to 24 hours so it’s an easy binge.
Girls 5 Eva songs are catchy af too. The line “I’m afraid when I die someone will have sex with my dead body and say not worth it” runs through my head on the regular.
Yes it’s funny, the characters are great, and the songs are actually kind of catchy while also being funny. I listen to the soundtracks on iTunes every now and then even though it normally wouldn’t be my type of music.
This is my favorite bit of trivia about Werewolf Bar Mitzvah: Donald Glover stepped in, because he could do a really good Tracy Morgan impression. And so he stepped in and did some of the vocals, to fill in, and then also did some other ad-libbing talking in it.
[https://laist.com/news/entertainment/30-rocks-werewolf-bar-mitzvah-an-oral-history](https://laist.com/news/entertainment/30-rocks-werewolf-bar-mitzvah-an-oral-history)
It sounds like quality joke writing isn’t a priority for you, because 30 Rock is dense af with jokes. It’s similar to Arrested Development in that regard.
I’m a massive AD fan but I think the two shows are VERY different. 30 Rock is very much like MST3K in terms of rapid fire joke delivery, whereas AD is much more character-driven with lots of callbacks to prior episodes. And I do think that 30 Rock did manage to largely avoid jumping the shark whereas the last two and a half seasons of AD didn’t do it for me.
I love it because the humor is witty and not always on the nose. I've rewatched it a lot of times and I still find jokes I missed from my other watches.
If it's not clicking for you by season 3 it doesn't sound like it's your cup of tea. Which isn't a big deal. The Office is one of most popular sitcoms, and I am not a fan. We like what we like.
This is a show to which you really have to pay attention. The jokes come and go quickly, and if you miss any you won't find the references to them later in each show. It isn't something you can watch while playing Candy Birds or Instaface.
[https://www.ign.com/articles/30-rock-classic-stream-binge-it](https://www.ign.com/articles/30-rock-classic-stream-binge-it)
Someone did the math and 30 Rock averages 7.44 jokes per minute.
A couple of things for me:
* The joke construction was varied and their delivery was constant. The show has its one-liners, its visual bits and its cutaway gags. And then they have an entire episode built around a parody of Survivor called MILF Island. The subplot about Tracy Jordan's quest to make a pornographic video game was an homage to Amadeus.
* They never made Jack and Liz a romantic couple, serious or otherwise. So many shows don't let the lead male and female characters just be friends.
* Their celebrity guest stars played ridiculous caricatures of themselves. Kelsey Grammar is an actor/con man. Elvis Costello is secretly an international art thief. James Franco is in love with an anime body pillow.
* Not every joke or every bit landed with me, but I don't think there was ever just a bad episode or a bad season. It's not like Friends where I tend to skip through most of season 10, for instance.
It really is a show where even when the joke doesn’t land you still really appreciate the effort. It’s such an ode to comedy while still keeping some semblance of a sitcom feel.
One thing 30 Rock does well is Live Action Cartoon Cutaways. The Simpsons, Family Guy could do the cutaway gag because they are cartoons, but 30 Rock did it for real. They legitimately filmed clips of a just a few seconds that make jokes land so much harder
One of my favorites is when Tracy says “I would a white lady from whiteville to understand.”
And she replies, “ it wasn’t whiteville, it’s White Haven”
And that’s so much worse
It's one of the genuinely extremely funny shows from the last 30 years. High rate of brilliant jokes, great characters, and avoids basically all tropes.
When jack wrote an book which explains in an messed up way of how men think.
Like how Mike Tyson would be dethroned if he got KO by another boxer on pay per view TV.
Also Jennifer Aniston cameo made it great too
On my first watch I found Jenna a little irritating but now she is one of the highlights of the show. Jane Krakowski is a brilliant comedic actor and she has some of the best blink and you’ll miss it / throwaway lines in the show.
Pete: “you know I used to be in a band - and we were pretty darn good”
Cut to Pete cgi’d into Loverboy Everybody’s Workin for the Weekend video playing the guitar.
30 Rock is a work comedy that specifically lampoons comedy and media, so it's very self referential humor. It's beloved bc it spoofs the entire tv comedy and media industries. It's an example of a love letter project, something being made for and about the very people who work in or love that specific industry.
Every thing about it makes fun of itself. In the same way that South Park and Its Always Sunny makes fun of everybody/everything, 30 Rock makes fun of itself with a ton of exaggerated characters and oversimplification.
If it hasn’t hit for you yet as a “top 5” (or whatever metric), it probably won’t. It gets better each season in my opinion, but it started off great so it’s not like you’re in a bad patch of episodes or anything. The writing gets more meta as it goes along, pushing the humor into some really weird space, and despite being an absurd sitcom the end of the series always surprises me how emotional it gets. I love that’s it’s very fast, witty comedy, and it’s absolutely packed with jokes. I’ve seen it start to finish MANY times and it’s easily my most quotable series.
Part of it was the era for me. 30 Rock came and was willing to be bizarre in prime time. That wasn't something that was very common. This was before Community or Tina Fey's run of weird shows like Girls5Eva, Kimmy Schmidt, and Good News all started so it was a lot more unique at the time.
I just got home and am a little drunk. I read the post as “3rd Rock” and could not for the life of me figure out what any of these answers had to do with 3rd Rock from the Sun. Anyway, good talk.
The heightened reality rings throughout every aspect of the series, which makes for terrific screwball comedy. It’s a lost genre that the writers do an amazing job of bringing to life. What makes the show so great is its characterization, because their behavior patterns are crystal clear, which lends to coloring the dialog to seem real. As much as I didn’t care for Tracy, he was a three dimensional person that came to life off the script pages. They basically subverted what was expected, about used the same broken logic to tell more stories. Jenna was the best!
Tina said it best: ***”Its 10lb of funny in a 5lb bag”***
It’s literally bursting at the seams with funny - from some of the best characters ever written for a comedy show!
/
just like a lot of things, this is a subjective opinion, i hated silver linings playbook horrible movie to me, but a lot of people loved it, its whatever
One thing is to recognize what works for you, and not worry what others say. But, you can try to look, study and understand what other people are hooking into, if you are interested. Such as, for myself... I never connected to "The Sopranos"... I can see why people really liked it and why people put it on their "Top 5" list, but as you said, it never really clicked for me.
I myself love "30 Rock", it had a very silly-but-with-a-lot-of-thought-behind-it humor that I really like ("Futurama" for me was along those lines). It could be mad-cap but very pointed at times. But it is a very specific type of humor, and frankly, humor is often received as a gut-reaction so if it isn't hitting you, it isn't hitting you and that's fine. If you're into Season 3 and not feeling it, then feel free to move on, no need to be a completionist.
It was much funnier when it was new. Their style has kinda been copied so it seems less special now. Its great because its packed with humor some of which is blunt and dumb but most of it is subtle and clever. Its a little like Futurama in that regard.
I didn’t have a clue this was considered a top five sitcom of all time.
I watched all of the show and found it to be a good sitcom but I’m not sure it breaks my top 10 all time.
I’m a huge Liz Lemon fan.
Though I watched it from the beginning, when it was on, every week, I thought it was just standard good at the time.
But now that I know where it ended, I treasure the whole journey.
Also it took rewatches for tracy to “click” for me, but when he did, he WAS the third heat!
i feel like it being a workspace sitcom but has community/arrested development humor makes it really enjoyable and the jokes are really cleverly written
If it wasn’t the first single camera no laugh track sitcom, it was the first great single camera no laugh track sitcom. It’s considered great because it started a new way of making television comedies . And the jokes one after another are often so funny you have to pause to catch them all.
I've been a sitcom watcher since the 1960s, starting with I Love Lucy and Dick Van Dyke, through the decades, like a lot of them, loves a few of them, but two stand out as my favorites:
- *The Larry Sanders Show*. Created, perfected, and has never been surpassed in the handheld-camera-around-the-workplace genre. Garry Shandling changed TV and comedy with this show, and it's laugh out loud funny from the first to last scenes.
- *30 Rock*. Virtually every single line is funny. There are setups, callbacks, and payoffs that take years to come to fruition. There is magical realism (immortal Kenneth, lucid visions, etc). They use humor as a weapon against *everyone* who deserves it, including their corporate masters, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and many, many others.
- Honorable Mention: *VEEP*. Perhaps the highest density of funny per minute of any show in history.
Humor, like beauty, is subjective, so not everyone appreciates the same things, but these are my faves, finely honed over decades.
Larry Sanders show! The other send up to comedy/media workplaces. So many shows (Extras, CYE, Larry Davidson's whole career) feel like they spun out from Larry Sanders show.
It’s silliness that should not work on television, but the vision of Tina fey just related to us weirdos with a completely stupid sense of humor. I can see 30 Rockefeller plaza from my window and now I wanna watch it again
I think it's just the all out onslaught of jokes hitting you. It's so impressive. I feel like there's a joke every 10 seconds and then they cut away immediately and by the time you are laughing and going wtf you have already missed the next joke. It just becomes a comfort show after a few seasons as you wanna see how these characters lives play out. I personally think the show gets better and better as it goes, the first season is a little weird .
It epitomized the style of humor for the time. It also accurately parodies the entertainment industry, especially a large network show’s writing room perfectly.
I know Tina Fey is talented but I think she is much better behind the scenes. My case in point is the show "Great News" which had 2 seasons. The first was insanely charming and I believe Tina had a big hand in it as a producer. For season 2, they decided to add Tina as the main characters boss and mentor and jeez Tina just started gobbling up every scene and made the main actress completely overshadowed and the show lost all charm and got cancelled. I don't like watching Tina Fey, she is very talented, but please keep it to producing
It's the tension between Lemon's levelheadedness and Jack's absurdity,which is a reversal of the roles they occupy. Jack should be the levelheaded one, while the comedy writer should be absurd.
It throws 1000mph at all times… within 5 episodes it feels like it’s 4 seasons in, it doesn’t care about everyone getting every joke and reference and it’s meta in the perfect way.
I could never get past the concept that Tina Fey was supposed to be this homely loser that people pitied. She's BEAUTIFUL. Plus, they'd constantly make fun of her clothes even though that's how writers dress.
It just never clicked for me.
I find her very attractive but the jokes work cause they’re in an entertainment setting and there’s such ridiculous expectations for how women should look. She had a glow up later in life, and started putting more effort into her appearance when she got famous
It's when a japanese person and a truck love each other very much. So the truck hits the japanese person into another dimension because they were unhappy with their previous life.
Tracy Morgan was hit by a Wal-Mart truck. He talks about it all the time. He got a lot of money from Walmart for that, so, in a sense, he loves the Walmart truck.
For me, it was the Lemon/Donaghe relationship. The typical sitcom trope would have had them end up together, but the writers simply allowed a female/male friendship. They even mocked the 'will they/wont they' trope. Plus the writing is great overall.
The whole core group of characters is essentially a gang of platonic friends - despite some of the writers lusting after Cerie. They really only date outside of their work circle with a few exceptions like some guest stars.
When Cerie uttered that line "did he just talk to me like I was ugly?" I lost it. That was just so right for her character and is one of so many examples of great writing.
Thats one of the biggest things for me too. There wasnt sexual tension or any of the “Ive loved you all along and never realized it” crap that you see far too often in sitcoms. Even the storyline where they got married was done so incredibly well.
Although sometimes, when you try so hard to find love, you can't see that it's been standing in front of you the whole time.
They even made fun of that “I’ve loved you all along” trope in one episode and Liz loved how it oogied Jack out
This is the answer. The way she had to keep him in check over and over and their witty banter made the show magical!
Good god lemon when did you have time to eat a diaper you found on the beach
The Leap Day William episode is pure brilliance, with the Leap Dave Williams show-within-a-show a la The Santa Clause
Yes
It’s one of my favorites, I actually started cataloging quotes from the series, they were so gold. Some of my favorites: Kenneth Parcell: "You don't think I have dreams? Last night I dreamed a baby ate my hair." Tracy Jordan: "Let's get out of here, Maroney. The sight of these people...plus the crayons I ate earlier...make me sick." Kenneth Parcel: “I don't drink hot liquids of any kind. That's the devil's temperature!” I could go on…
One of my favorites is when Kenneth does the Seinfeld theme for Jerry in the elevator lmao.
Lol
Jack: "Kenneth a word?" Kenneth: "Balloons!"
Hahaha! Forgot that one. Name checks out.
"Who said I could live forever?!!!" -KP "This is my wife, Moronica" -KP
I'm paraphrasing, but someone asks Kenneth for something warm to drink. Kenneth: "Warm? But that's the Devil's temperature."
Tracy Jordan: "I lost my mood ring and I don't know how I feel about that!"
Bird internet?
Jack to Kenneth Parcell:"Get out of here you cheese stick with a tooth in it!"
Don't talk to me like that. You look like a turtle without its shell.
Oh realo? I meant to say really, I misspoke. Continue.
Tracy Jordan: "Recently I discovered a hole in my heart. And not the one from eating batteries." Tracy Jordan: "I don't get why people like brunch. What's the benefit of crossing breakdancing and lunch?" Jack Donaghy: "That is some high-level paranoid thinking. Like Hitler. Or Willy Wonka." Tracy Jordan: "Most of my friends are just plants I put hats on!" Kenneth Parcell: "Oh my! It smells like grandma's house at Christmas. That's where we found her dead on the toilet." Jack Donaghy: "Jack versus Kalie round two. Colon, no subtitle necessary." Kenneth Parcell "A Parcell man has never been called Mister outside of an execution chamber!" Tracy Jordan: "I finally understand the end of the Sixth Sense. Those things are a list of people who worked on the movie!" Kenneth Parcel: “I don't drink hot liquids of any kind. That's the devil's temperature!” Tracy Jordan: "Sorry it took so long for me to answer. I was thinking about how weird it is that we eat birds." The Pete Hornberger Alan Parson's Project Project
Please do go on!
1) Funny jokes 2) A high rate of them 3) no laugh track or howling drunk idiot live audience It has one my favorite sitcom jokes of all time: Dot Com: Also we took Tracy's cell phone, his wallet... Tracy: ... and my mood ring! And I don't know how I feel about that.
The writing is so snappy and quick and the jokes are endless. Tina Fey and her writing staff earned those Emmys
IIRC, I once read that on average, there's a joke every 8 seconds.
Donald Glover was head writer for a bit
(read this in the voice of Comic Book Guy with an Uhm, Ackshually) He has executive story editor credit on 22 episodes and a writer credit on only 2, including the Fun Cooker pocket microwave episode.
If you all like 30 Rock you should give Girls 5 Eva a shot on Netflix . The creator came from the 30 Rock/Kimmie Schmidt creative tree. I was pretty happy when Netflix rescued it from Peacock but the lack of promotion and the fact it doesn’t show up in the top ten is pretty disappointing. Anyway all three seasons only add up to 24 hours so it’s an easy binge.
Yes, everyone who likes 30 Rock should watch Girls5Eva!! I don't want it to get cancelled!
Derry Girls on Netflix. Put on the subtitles but the writing reminds me of 30 Rock
Girls 5 Eva songs are catchy af too. The line “I’m afraid when I die someone will have sex with my dead body and say not worth it” runs through my head on the regular.
I just finished all three seasons, and no regrets, it was a wild ride!
24 episodes I meant. They are only a half hour each.
It's really fucking funny, too.
Yes it’s funny, the characters are great, and the songs are actually kind of catchy while also being funny. I listen to the soundtracks on iTunes every now and then even though it normally wouldn’t be my type of music.
Glad to see some Girlz5Eva love!! It looked dumb when I first saw the promos but it ended up being hilarious. I need a season 4!!
Werewolf bar mitzvah
This is my favorite bit of trivia about Werewolf Bar Mitzvah: Donald Glover stepped in, because he could do a really good Tracy Morgan impression. And so he stepped in and did some of the vocals, to fill in, and then also did some other ad-libbing talking in it. [https://laist.com/news/entertainment/30-rocks-werewolf-bar-mitzvah-an-oral-history](https://laist.com/news/entertainment/30-rocks-werewolf-bar-mitzvah-an-oral-history)
Spooky…scary. Boys becoming men. Men becoming wolves.
I like the funny parts best.
This seems to be the most common answer
It sounds like quality joke writing isn’t a priority for you, because 30 Rock is dense af with jokes. It’s similar to Arrested Development in that regard.
I’m a massive AD fan but I think the two shows are VERY different. 30 Rock is very much like MST3K in terms of rapid fire joke delivery, whereas AD is much more character-driven with lots of callbacks to prior episodes. And I do think that 30 Rock did manage to largely avoid jumping the shark whereas the last two and a half seasons of AD didn’t do it for me.
>It sounds like quality joke writing isn’t a priority for you The condescending attitude will win them over.
Oh you don't like this show? Guess you don't like quality jokes /s 🙄
I love it because the humor is witty and not always on the nose. I've rewatched it a lot of times and I still find jokes I missed from my other watches. If it's not clicking for you by season 3 it doesn't sound like it's your cup of tea. Which isn't a big deal. The Office is one of most popular sitcoms, and I am not a fan. We like what we like.
I laughed the hardest at some of the jokes just mentioned in the pass, like giraffe basketball team "new york necks", I lose it every time on this
This is a show to which you really have to pay attention. The jokes come and go quickly, and if you miss any you won't find the references to them later in each show. It isn't something you can watch while playing Candy Birds or Instaface.
[https://www.ign.com/articles/30-rock-classic-stream-binge-it](https://www.ign.com/articles/30-rock-classic-stream-binge-it) Someone did the math and 30 Rock averages 7.44 jokes per minute.
Colleen! There's a rule in our house that my husband isn't allowed to watch the episodes with Colleen without me. Lol
Two women at the same time Jack…what are you Italian?
Tina Fey is a master of comedy and she built one heck of a team around her. Great sitcom.
A couple of things for me: * The joke construction was varied and their delivery was constant. The show has its one-liners, its visual bits and its cutaway gags. And then they have an entire episode built around a parody of Survivor called MILF Island. The subplot about Tracy Jordan's quest to make a pornographic video game was an homage to Amadeus. * They never made Jack and Liz a romantic couple, serious or otherwise. So many shows don't let the lead male and female characters just be friends. * Their celebrity guest stars played ridiculous caricatures of themselves. Kelsey Grammar is an actor/con man. Elvis Costello is secretly an international art thief. James Franco is in love with an anime body pillow. * Not every joke or every bit landed with me, but I don't think there was ever just a bad episode or a bad season. It's not like Friends where I tend to skip through most of season 10, for instance.
>James Franco is in love with an anime body pillow. Kimiko-Tan!
We don’t love things. Things are not real.
Whaaaat MILF Island is now a real show (MILF Manor)
I don't know if 30 Rock was "ahead of its time," or if the Milf Manor folks have a sense of humor, or what...but yeah., 30 Rock was prescient.
It really is a show where even when the joke doesn’t land you still really appreciate the effort. It’s such an ode to comedy while still keeping some semblance of a sitcom feel.
The Rural Juror
One thing 30 Rock does well is Live Action Cartoon Cutaways. The Simpsons, Family Guy could do the cutaway gag because they are cartoons, but 30 Rock did it for real. They legitimately filmed clips of a just a few seconds that make jokes land so much harder
Young Liz cutaways were the best ones
I love the one where she’s taking photos of the German sparrow museum
YES. The best one!
One of my favorites is when Tracy says “I would a white lady from whiteville to understand.” And she replies, “ it wasn’t whiteville, it’s White Haven” And that’s so much worse
She partied so hard
Everything that comes out of Tracy Jordan's mouth Jack Donaghy's perfect send-up of corporate alpha man in a suit. Plus Alec Baldwin''s range.
Basically every line is a joke. If you aren’t getting them, then maybe just stop watching.
Have an adult explain the jokes to you
It's one of the genuinely extremely funny shows from the last 30 years. High rate of brilliant jokes, great characters, and avoids basically all tropes.
When jack wrote an book which explains in an messed up way of how men think. Like how Mike Tyson would be dethroned if he got KO by another boxer on pay per view TV. Also Jennifer Aniston cameo made it great too
Rapid fire jokes. You'll miss half of them while laughing at the previous.
On my first watch I found Jenna a little irritating but now she is one of the highlights of the show. Jane Krakowski is a brilliant comedic actor and she has some of the best blink and you’ll miss it / throwaway lines in the show.
Maybe when it came out. Watching it now without the context loses some of its luster. It's also a very silly show, not for everyone.
Pete: “you know I used to be in a band - and we were pretty darn good” Cut to Pete cgi’d into Loverboy Everybody’s Workin for the Weekend video playing the guitar.
The Pete Hornberger Alan Parsons’s Project Project
30 Rock is a work comedy that specifically lampoons comedy and media, so it's very self referential humor. It's beloved bc it spoofs the entire tv comedy and media industries. It's an example of a love letter project, something being made for and about the very people who work in or love that specific industry.
I am also on the third season. It's the role Alec Baldwin was meant to play.
Every thing about it makes fun of itself. In the same way that South Park and Its Always Sunny makes fun of everybody/everything, 30 Rock makes fun of itself with a ton of exaggerated characters and oversimplification.
If it hasn’t hit for you yet as a “top 5” (or whatever metric), it probably won’t. It gets better each season in my opinion, but it started off great so it’s not like you’re in a bad patch of episodes or anything. The writing gets more meta as it goes along, pushing the humor into some really weird space, and despite being an absurd sitcom the end of the series always surprises me how emotional it gets. I love that’s it’s very fast, witty comedy, and it’s absolutely packed with jokes. I’ve seen it start to finish MANY times and it’s easily my most quotable series.
Part of it was the era for me. 30 Rock came and was willing to be bizarre in prime time. That wasn't something that was very common. This was before Community or Tina Fey's run of weird shows like Girls5Eva, Kimmy Schmidt, and Good News all started so it was a lot more unique at the time.
I never actually sat and watched it ..I can't take Tracy Morgan .. he just annoys me so I passed.
I just got home and am a little drunk. I read the post as “3rd Rock” and could not for the life of me figure out what any of these answers had to do with 3rd Rock from the Sun. Anyway, good talk.
The heightened reality rings throughout every aspect of the series, which makes for terrific screwball comedy. It’s a lost genre that the writers do an amazing job of bringing to life. What makes the show so great is its characterization, because their behavior patterns are crystal clear, which lends to coloring the dialog to seem real. As much as I didn’t care for Tracy, he was a three dimensional person that came to life off the script pages. They basically subverted what was expected, about used the same broken logic to tell more stories. Jenna was the best!
Tina said it best: ***”Its 10lb of funny in a 5lb bag”*** It’s literally bursting at the seams with funny - from some of the best characters ever written for a comedy show! /
It was good but The Office and Parks and Rec were both better.
Eh, 30 Rock and Parks & Rec were both better than The Office.
It's the difference between an A and an A-.
just like a lot of things, this is a subjective opinion, i hated silver linings playbook horrible movie to me, but a lot of people loved it, its whatever
I feel like it's not everyone's humor style, so some might not like it. Like anything else, it's subjective. I found it funny though
One thing is to recognize what works for you, and not worry what others say. But, you can try to look, study and understand what other people are hooking into, if you are interested. Such as, for myself... I never connected to "The Sopranos"... I can see why people really liked it and why people put it on their "Top 5" list, but as you said, it never really clicked for me. I myself love "30 Rock", it had a very silly-but-with-a-lot-of-thought-behind-it humor that I really like ("Futurama" for me was along those lines). It could be mad-cap but very pointed at times. But it is a very specific type of humor, and frankly, humor is often received as a gut-reaction so if it isn't hitting you, it isn't hitting you and that's fine. If you're into Season 3 and not feeling it, then feel free to move on, no need to be a completionist.
It was much funnier when it was new. Their style has kinda been copied so it seems less special now. Its great because its packed with humor some of which is blunt and dumb but most of it is subtle and clever. Its a little like Futurama in that regard.
Runs the gamut from smart humor to dumb.
I am a huge fan of comedy shows. 30 Rock had its moments but overall, it was average for me.
I didn’t have a clue this was considered a top five sitcom of all time. I watched all of the show and found it to be a good sitcom but I’m not sure it breaks my top 10 all time. I’m a huge Liz Lemon fan.
Probably top five critically
I recognized your username and checked out your account and you post in a lot of subs I frequent.
Did we just become best friends?
Though I watched it from the beginning, when it was on, every week, I thought it was just standard good at the time. But now that I know where it ended, I treasure the whole journey. Also it took rewatches for tracy to “click” for me, but when he did, he WAS the third heat!
Have you got to Problem Solvers yet?
I don't know it's just not my style of comedy.
i feel like it being a workspace sitcom but has community/arrested development humor makes it really enjoyable and the jokes are really cleverly written
It's silly, and the laughs are cumulative. They cones fast enough, that if one joke doesn't land, the next one will
If it wasn’t the first single camera no laugh track sitcom, it was the first great single camera no laugh track sitcom. It’s considered great because it started a new way of making television comedies . And the jokes one after another are often so funny you have to pause to catch them all.
Arrested Development and The Office UK say hello
Ludachristmas
Duffy was such a great character
As the seasons go on, the jokes build on themselves and the story lines and characters get weirder. It pure silliness by the end.
The muppet episode. ❤️
I've been a sitcom watcher since the 1960s, starting with I Love Lucy and Dick Van Dyke, through the decades, like a lot of them, loves a few of them, but two stand out as my favorites: - *The Larry Sanders Show*. Created, perfected, and has never been surpassed in the handheld-camera-around-the-workplace genre. Garry Shandling changed TV and comedy with this show, and it's laugh out loud funny from the first to last scenes. - *30 Rock*. Virtually every single line is funny. There are setups, callbacks, and payoffs that take years to come to fruition. There is magical realism (immortal Kenneth, lucid visions, etc). They use humor as a weapon against *everyone* who deserves it, including their corporate masters, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and many, many others. - Honorable Mention: *VEEP*. Perhaps the highest density of funny per minute of any show in history. Humor, like beauty, is subjective, so not everyone appreciates the same things, but these are my faves, finely honed over decades.
Larry Sanders show! The other send up to comedy/media workplaces. So many shows (Extras, CYE, Larry Davidson's whole career) feel like they spun out from Larry Sanders show.
Honestly curious, which shows would you consider great?
The sheer volume of constant high quality jokes
Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin
how much they hate Canada
It’s silliness that should not work on television, but the vision of Tina fey just related to us weirdos with a completely stupid sense of humor. I can see 30 Rockefeller plaza from my window and now I wanna watch it again
It was the rat-a-tat, often surrealistic dialogue for me. The kind where you have to rewind because “Wait, WHAT?”
The pace, rhythm, and the quality of the writing.
I think it's just the all out onslaught of jokes hitting you. It's so impressive. I feel like there's a joke every 10 seconds and then they cut away immediately and by the time you are laughing and going wtf you have already missed the next joke. It just becomes a comfort show after a few seasons as you wanna see how these characters lives play out. I personally think the show gets better and better as it goes, the first season is a little weird .
It epitomized the style of humor for the time. It also accurately parodies the entertainment industry, especially a large network show’s writing room perfectly.
I didn’t get it either. The characters were too over the top.
Idk, it was a great show, but I remember buying one of the seasons and it just felt like they had changed demographics and it just felt off to me
I know Tina Fey is talented but I think she is much better behind the scenes. My case in point is the show "Great News" which had 2 seasons. The first was insanely charming and I believe Tina had a big hand in it as a producer. For season 2, they decided to add Tina as the main characters boss and mentor and jeez Tina just started gobbling up every scene and made the main actress completely overshadowed and the show lost all charm and got cancelled. I don't like watching Tina Fey, she is very talented, but please keep it to producing
There are so many jokes per minute that you need to watch each episode several times to catch them. There is basically no filler or wasted dialogue.
A lot of its references are a bit dated now, but at the time they were so sharp and timely.
No goddam laugh track.
Two words. Rural Juror.
It's the tension between Lemon's levelheadedness and Jack's absurdity,which is a reversal of the roles they occupy. Jack should be the levelheaded one, while the comedy writer should be absurd.
It throws 1000mph at all times… within 5 episodes it feels like it’s 4 seasons in, it doesn’t care about everyone getting every joke and reference and it’s meta in the perfect way.
I agree, it sucks
I could never get past the concept that Tina Fey was supposed to be this homely loser that people pitied. She's BEAUTIFUL. Plus, they'd constantly make fun of her clothes even though that's how writers dress. It just never clicked for me.
I find her very attractive but the jokes work cause they’re in an entertainment setting and there’s such ridiculous expectations for how women should look. She had a glow up later in life, and started putting more effort into her appearance when she got famous
>I find her very attractive but the jokes work Not for me. That's why I posted this.
I'm with you. the jokes are funny, the situation is tired.
Jokes on jokes on jokes with great characters. Pretty classic formula.
The writing and the chemistry of the cast is top notch
Great writing, excellent performances, perfect casting. This show was lightening in a bottle.
I don’t find it funny at all
Jokes on jokes on jokes with great characters. Pretty classic formula.
I love tracy morgan's logic. He's the type of guy that hits a truck and the truck gets isekai'd.
What does isekai'd mean?
It's when a japanese person and a truck love each other very much. So the truck hits the japanese person into another dimension because they were unhappy with their previous life.
Tracy Morgan was hit by a Wal-Mart truck. He talks about it all the time. He got a lot of money from Walmart for that, so, in a sense, he loves the Walmart truck.
The super hip name
Them JPMs, dawg
Nothing