Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan in 30 Rock
It's easy (and fun) to bash social media, but for the sake of great pop music culture it could be a defibrillator. Over the past few years, shows like Parks and Recreation, Friends, and The Office have received a new lease of life from Gen Z thanks to TikTok and streaming. The way rumors spread is digital alchemy, but something happens, clips are shared, and suddenly the next big thing in television is what used to be called «reruns.»
30 Rock, Tina Fey's American sitcom about a fictional comedy show filmed at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, is currently in its second moment, and it can't be too soon.
The show originally aired on NBC between 2006 and 2013 and featured Fey as Liz Lemon, the imaginary head writer of a sketch comedy show. At the heart of the story was Liz, a pretty, gluttonous liberal who struggled with her master of the universe, network executive boss Jack (Alec Baldwin), and the series' unstable cast and crew.
It wasn't fertile ground for a hit—television about television has a rich history. For every Larry Sanders show or episode, there's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (Aaron Sorkin's one-season series that aired the same year as 30 Rock). Real people don't care as much about television as the people who make television would like to think.
However, 30 Rock was undoubtedly a hit, surviving for seven seasons in the fiercely competitive market that was network television in America. (as opposed to cable channels like HBO) is celebrating this as a notable success. Along the way it was nominated for 103 Primetime Emmys and won 16, and while in the UK it aired deep in the digital backwaters of the now-defunct Five USA, here it was at least critically lauded at the time. (It now airs on ITVX.)
I could never pick a favorite 30 Rock joke, but this is definitely up there pic.twitter.com/c7Z3CgTX2k
— Zharuvka (@BivouacChillin) December 23, 2023
Why has it fallen in the reverent pecking order below other revived classics like Friends and Brooklyn Nine-Nine? Perhaps it's because 30 Rock wouldn't have been made today — at least not in the form it was made back then. In 2020, Fey herself asked that four episodes of the series be removed from the streamer because they contained episodes with characters, including a very playful Jon Hamm, appearing in blackface.
“I now understand that ‘intention’ is not what it is.” a free pass for white people to use these images,” said Fey, whose new film “Mean Girls” opens in theaters this week. “I apologize for the pain they caused. In the future, no child who loves comedy should come across these stereotypes and be hurt by their ugliness.”
This was undoubtedly a correct conclusion, but it also shed light on many other instances where 30 Rock sailed close to the wind. There were frequent gay jokes, transphobic slurs, rape jokes, and references to Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein (“I’m not afraid of anyone in show business,” Jane Krakowski’s character Jenna says in a 2012 episode «I refused to have sexual intercourse with Harvey). Weinstein no less than three times… out of five.») In one episode, Liz repeatedly mistakes actor Peter Dinklage, who suffers from dwarfism, for a child. The Irish are repeatedly portrayed as scandalous drunks. As part of the storyline, Jenna gained weight to become more popular and became a hit with a song called Muffin Top. It seems incredible that any of this would make it into a sitcom written today.
Even the jokes in 30 Rock that miss the mark highlight how the show has tirelessly tried to achieve that goal: with In the first episode, Fey's satire was simply fearless, unlike modern sitcoms. Everyone and everything is criticized, and it's quite possible that Fey's «comedy-loving kids» today are much the same.
Unlike, say, Friends or The Office, 30 Rock is overtly political. Not in a partisan or preachy manner, but in the form of smallpox in all houses, criticizing both the left and the right.
“My talents are more valuable than yours, so I’m paid accordingly, and therefore I’m entitled to a bonus,” big boss Jack (Baldwin) tells a wide-eyed intern in an early episode. Jack's adventurous capitalist trips back and forth—and enduring friendship—with Liz, an avowed Prius-owning liberal, are one of the show's mainstays. The fallout from the financial crisis (which Jack calls «comrade Obama's recession») is a walking midseason bassline. Liberals take hits, too: “I once went on a hunger strike in college to protest apartheid,” Liz tells the show’s black star Tracy Jordan. “Oh, you decided it?” he answers. “Thank you so much!”
Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey in the movie “30 Rock” Photo: Alamy
It was all part and parcel of 30 Rock's long-standing mission to treat audiences like adults. One of the best jokes of all time was the joke in which the show's fictional host thought that «Googling himself» suggested having fun alone in a dark room.
This is in stark contrast to recent comedies like Ted Lasso or The Good Place, which assume we're all fresh out of preschool. Indeed, the American sitcom as a whole has collapsed in recent years precisely because it is afraid to take risks: Abbott Elementary is the only current winner, and that is also very nice.
It was interesting to hear Fey talk about the “intention” of the joke — this is not an opportunity to offend. She's right, but intention matters. In another episode of 30 Rock, where Liz and her writers are trying to decide on a name for a pocket microwave, Jack resorts to randomly selecting Scrabble tiles… and saying «Hitler.» , this is just a funny joke that, as Tiktok will confirm, is worth repeating.
Will Forte and Jane Krakowski in 30 Rock Credit: Alamy
And that's why 30 Rock deserves both its recent revival and its place in the pantheon of great comedies: the joke is always, always the point. Led by Fey, who was the head writer on Saturday Night Live for several years, 30 Rock has been relentlessly campaigning for that next punch line, wherever it can be found. In The Atlantic's 2014 analysis of the best comedy shows, it ranked first, averaging just over seven jokes per minute.
With episodes lasting just 20 minutes (back when sprawling epic dramas were in vogue), 30 Rock could have been machine-edited for the social media age, with its short attention spans and thirst for chunks to be shared. (Even back then, 30 Rock was ahead of the curve, with the cast creating online-only character sketches like «Dear Tracy Jordan,» where the show's host turned into an uncle to answer vital questions like, «What size shoe too big?)
The idea was that you come for the jokes and stay for the characters — which might be the working definition of a good sitcom. And as luck would have it, that's exactly how TV works these days — watch a funny bouquet on TikTok, then go to your friendly streamer and enjoy it all. Trust me: with 30 Rock it's worth it.
Свежие комментарии