Entries in the Category "30 rock"
Community Does Mad Men!
Community is getting awesomer and awesomer every week. I can understand why you might not like it--it really doesn't have a ton in common with its more understated Thursday night neighbors The Office and Parks and Recreation--it's more of a whip-fast smart-silly like 30 Rock.
I'm a Renaissance woman so I enjoy both of those types of shows. But of the three of them that aired last night (30 Rock was shuffled off so Jim and Pam could have a full hour to birth their baby) Community was easily the funniest. There was a good plotline about Jeff taking pool for his phys ed credit and objecting to required uniform of 80s-style short-shorts (I won't go into how that story wraps up because you've got to see it to believe it).
But the best moment was courtesy of oddball Abed. See, the gang thought that a pretty girl from Spanish class liked him and they were encouraging him to go talk to her. He didn't think he could as himself, so he tried out a variety of characters who might feel more comfortable hitting on her ("I think that one was a vampire") until he settled on the right one.
This wasn't it, but it was my favorite.
The impersonation was SO GOOD that I knew who he was doing before he said so. Right around, "Then you picked the wrong outfit."
The inside joke: Annie, played by Alison Brie, plays a secondary character (she's Mrs. Pete Campbell!) on Mad Men.
Golden Globes Recap
This will be shorter and less detailed than my usual next-day awards show extravaganza. I had family visiting this weekend, and both my mom and aunt joined me for the Globes viewing, so we were able to crack jokes and comment on the clothes in real time, which sort of took away some of the excitement of doing it here. What can I say? SO SORRY INTERNET. We still have the Oscars.
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It's a new year!
The last day of 2009 was a pretty low-key one for me. I spent the afternoon running errands and buying groceries (BAD IDEA! BAD IDEA! GROCERY STORES WERE VERY VERY CROWDED! LIKEWISE BANKS AND POST OFFICES!) then came home and made tacos for dinner. I watched several reruns of 30 Rock, made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, which I then ate and chased down with a glass of Shiraz.
At ten to midnight, I sat down with Skylar to watch the ball drop in Times Square.
I chose CNN for my Times Square coverage, the only channel that's not afraid to pair Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper (pictured above) and give them 90 minutes of live air to fill with conversation such as the following:
Anderson: What's your New Year's resolution?
Kathy: To make you say 'balls' more.
Finally, at 12:05am I took the dog out for her final bathroom visit of the evening and was greeted by a neighbor (presumably) streaking in the new year! I might've thought he was just an escaped mental patient or similar, but he jubilantly wished me a "Happy New Year!" as he raced past. I was amused; Skylar was baffled.
So...that was 2009. Vive le 2010!
A Note to My Local NBC Affiliate
Hey, Cleveland-area television programmers! Just living in this town doesn't give us an innate interest in the outcome of the Browns game! Some of us would much rather be watching new episodes of The Office and 30 Rock like the rest of the country gets to do!
Blerg, NBC. Blerg.
Emmys Day-After Recap
I’ve got my Emmy food (pizza and mint creme Oreos) and I’m ready to go!
The Host
Neil Patrick Harris is totally cool. He’s singing and dancing, he’s wearing a white dinner jacket, and I think he just insulted Two and a Half Men. (Theme songs are getting so short, next year’s theme to the show will just be "meh." HA!) Later: I love the way he keeps introducing people from their obscure early credits (“from the 1987 Afterschool Special…”).
Click ahead for much much more!
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30 Rock and the Comedy Rule of Three
This episode, “Apollo, Apollo,” aired a few weeks ago, but I just rewatched it this weekend and I can’t over how hilariously the gag of Kenneth the page seeing the world muppet-style played out. I’ve realized that the path of the joke perfectly illustrates the Comedy Rule of Three. A basic description of the Rule of Three is that everything is funniest in groups of three. A more specific variation on the rule suggests that the perfect multi-layer joke rolls out by first establishing a premise, next by reinforcing the premise, and third by upending the premise in an unexpected way.
Early in the episode, corporate shark Jack Donaghy expresses admiration for Kenneth’s optimistic innocence, saying it must be incredible to see the world through his eyes. A shot of Kenneth establishes a first-person POV shot and then we see Jack the way Kenneth sees him: as a muppet, complete with power suit and slicked-back hair.
Later in the episode, Kenneth and Jack talk to Tracy Jordan, who has been tricked into thinking he’s orbiting the earth in a space shuttle. We get a brief bit about how Tracy sees the world (everyone’s a Tracy) and then Kenneth views Tracy in the guise of a muppet as well.
BUT! Almost immediately after muppet-Tracy, the joke is stepped up a notch by muppet-Liz.
The way the episode cuts from Kenneth’s POV of muppet-Liz to actual Liz, still flopping around like she’s constructed out of felt, brings a new and unexpected twist to the established joke—just one of many reasons why 30 Rock is, and continues to be, awesome.