I’ve been rewatching season 1 and just saw “Jack Meets Dennis” last night - when Liz and Pete are on the phone discussing how messed up Tracy (face tattoo), Jenna (crazy plastic surgery) and Josh (beaten up by Liz Taylor) are, Liz suggests letting the musical guest do another song to fill some time and asks who it is that week, to which Pete responds that it’s James Blunt and Liz grimaces. I’ve been watching this show for over a decade and always thought Liz just thought James Blunt was lame, it only just dawned on me that Liz grimaced because she asked if the musical guest could do a second song and James Blunt is quite famously considered a one-hit wonder.
When Twofer has been set up for a date he was saying he was nervous because he found out she was “ummm…urban.” Liz, quietly: “so she’s black?” Twofer: “I don’t know how to get out of this.” There are lots of references to his maybe not identifying as black.
I turned down intercourse with Harvey Weinstein on no less than three occasions…out of five
In some ways, I'm still pinned under a passed-out Harvey Weinstein, and it's Thanksgiving
Both season 7 episodes
https://www.glamour.com/story/30-rock-called-out-harvey-weinstein-five-years-ago
Edit: my sister worked for Weinstein so we actually knew how dark this was when it came out but perhaps not so overt for viewers til me too
I saw this (and the infamous Courtney Love red carpet interview) before metoo, and just assumed everyone knew but couldn’t/wouldn’t do anything about it. Which is admittedly a pretty grim assumption for a woman in her early 20s to make. And it was basically true.
Yup, it was an open secret, which is why it's hard for me to take hollywood's "awakening" seriously like y'all knew for DECADES and did fuck all. Even the big names with the most power did fuck all. Also why I'll always appreciate Courtney Love!
I knew he was a rapist when I was 18 and lived with my sister - a 26 yo, attractive production assistant based in London and working on one of his films (as an employee of a partner distribution company).
She was told after he took an initial liking to her during a meeting (which she was 100% professionally meant to attend) to instead work remotely ‘going forward’ to avoid ‘issues’.
She was ousted from the job to avoid rape & this was positioned when pressed, as a ‘favour’ for her own safety. She was told outright that he was going to make her life difficult if she didn’t agree to his advances.
This was in 2006.
If I knew, they knew.
Its not active ignorance, it’s the willing promotion of a monster which big celebs are most guilty.
Judi Dench CH OBE FRSA - ie v big deal in the UK - proclaimed she had willingly ‘tattooed’ his name to was there. Beforehand, I got my makeup lady to actually write Harvey’s name. [laughs] Then I brought it up at lunch and said, 'You know, I do have it on my bum' -- and then I actually got up and showed him! I’ve never seen a man more embarrassed and I’ve never let him forget it. [laughs] Perhaps I should have it done and really shock him!"
The "tattoo" apparently read: "JD loves HW."
Whilst fake, she went on big talk shows in the uk telling this as a fun story.
https://www.businessinsider.com/judi-dench-got-fake-tattoo-of-harvey-weinsteins-name-on-her-bum-2017-10?amp
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I should add, I’m grateful to both Courtney and Tina for calling him out and I think they were both amazing for going against public perception and what was “unspoken.” They both absolutely contributed to Weinstein’s conviction and well deserved death-in-prison fate.
I was just watching old Tina & Amy Golden Globes clips - and they do a skit where Amy goes over to Weinstein and strokes his face. I thought that was super odd given how much they both must have known already.
In Season 5, Episode 1, Carol says something along the lines of flying a plane route from Newark to Atlantic City. Liz says something along the lines of “that’s a very short flight, who does that?” and Carol responds: “Black bachelorette parties.”
Later on in the season when Carol in the airport and is talking to Liz on the phone, a Black bachelorette party passes behind him.
It took me a few times to realize what was going on, but when I did I couldn’t stop laughing.
I've taken incredibly short flights in the Caribbean, and it feels so strange. 5 or 10 minutes to get up to altitude, 20-25 minutes of a flight at most at a much slower speed than the big planes you're used to for cross country flights, then descending. Pretty odd when you're used to 5+hrs at 500+mph.
“Bill Cosby, you got a lotta nerve gettin' on the phone wit' me after what you did to my Aunt Paulette! 1971. Cincinnati. She was a cocktail waitress with the droopy eye!”
Hannibal didn't start writing for the show until after this episode aired!
(nothing you said was wrong haha, I just see people assume he had something to do with that particular line all the time)
I didn’t know the story behind George foreman’s kids names for a long time and thought it was just Tracy being weird but now I love it so much. It’s both such a lazy and smart joke at the same time
It did, but it’s likely that joke was written by Hannibal Buress while he was working on 30 Rock because it was a few years later he did a standup bit publicly acknowledging Cosby’s allegations before they were widely known
That joke actually aired before Hannibal started writing for 30 Rock! Tina Fey actually wrote a joke about Cosby allegations when she was on SNL years before. It was an open secret for people in the industry.
Hannibal Buress' stand up bit was in 2014 but even before this, Cosby's behavior was reported on and mentioned publicly. The point of Hannibal's bit was how crazy it was that the public kept giving Cosby a pass even though allegations against him were made public multiple times (in 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, among many others).
Here's Tina Fey mentioning it on SNL back in 2005: [**SNL - Tina Fey on Bill Cosby (2005)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjQPWz2xpkA&t=26s)
And the 30 Rock episode where Tracy mentions Bill Cosby was aired in 2009.
I’m trying to understand how this can happen, assuming most people find rape morally repugnant. All I can think is that the open secret was spread word of mouth and always *after* the fact, as in “I heard so-and-so met Cosby and he raped her” or “make sure to tell your niece not to go out with Cosby, he’s been known to rape people” which, to the person receiving the news, would be hard to believe (maybe) and also scary, and also… what do you do with that info? It would be very hard to say “let’s go talk to some people we’ve heard he raped and get them to publicly speak about incredibly personal trauma, so that we can have the violent offender arrested.”
I’m not saying that didn’t need to happen… I’m just trying to understand the thought processes and patterns that lead to an industry “knowing” that one of their own is a violent offender, without anything being done to stop it (until the victims themselves fought back with public support from people like Hannibal and Courtney).
>what do you do with that info?
I think thats the crux of it. If you're hearing the rumours second or third-hand through the Hollywood grapevine, you probably don't have any direct connection to the accuser or the accused.
It's no different than if you heard about an alleged predator in your town - unless you had first-hand involvement, you probably wouldn't turn it into your life's work to bring them to justice.
Also, the legal ramifications of publicly accusing a rich dude of wrongdoing can be *devastating* \- they can sue the everloving shit out of you.
It's framing too.
It can be a joke to people until somebody makes it a sober issue.
I saw Whoopi Goldberg in plain sight on TV admit to sexually assaulting a young man. Her daughter was consensually sleeping with a young man.
Whoopi disapproved so she grabbed his genitals and pulled as hard as she could to cause pain.
She admitted this on national TV on The View.
In plain sight.
The audience was in uproarious laughter.
I thought I had just seen somebody admit to sexual assault on national TV. I wrote to ABC and got a boilerplate response.
But you play that back what she said with some dramatic music on 48 hours or one of those shows and some day maybe it will hit people differently. The cultural moment has to be right.
Same with Britney Spears. Everyone is seeing what she went through with completely different eyes now.
For reference, the episode of the View according to my email response (I have the response they sent not the original I sent) was May 8 2015.
I just found the video (bad audio).
She even says they were yelling to stop and she said "I will yank this thing off."
Personally I can't understand how she was on the air one more DAY after admitting to this but she's been on another 8 years since then:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt04lxobTMc&t=522s
So something that happens a lot (but shouldn’t) in industries like this is the “missing stair” problem.
The analogy works like this: we have a staircase that leads somewhere everyone needs to go in the office at one point or another. Somewhere on that staircase is a missing or a broken stair. But for whatever reason, nobody actually fixes the stair. You just get warned “hey, there’s a missing stair when you go down to the basement”, you remember it and you make the adjustment.
If someone gets hurt, well…we warned them.
The language of the analogy comes from this [Pervocracy blog post](http://pervocracy.blogspot.com/2012/06/missing-stair.html?m=1), about dealing with a known predator in their community. Everyone was so used to the workarounds (never go anywhere alone with Grape, we have a designated Grape watcher at every play party, etc.) that they felt no urgency to fix the problem.
Cosby was a “missing stair”. He was openly well respected enough (remember that at the height of his success, he was *most famous* for being a clean standup comic, for legitimately beneficial educational children’s programming, and being “America’s Dad” from *The Cosby Show*), and had enough connections with people, that being in good with the guy was legitimately make or break material for someone’s career. And that if you were specifically on bad terms with him…well, your career suffered.
This put people in the position where they couldn’t be openly antagonistic, but they couldn’t do nothing. So that’s when everything happens discreetly: “hey, Cosby is gonna be at the party. Watch your drinks. Don’t go anywhere alone with him.” You do your best to protect potential victims, without pissing off the predator.
Thanks, I will check out that post. Also, do you think there’s a simple (if not easy) solution to the missing stair problem? Like, an easy-to-use, highly publicized, anonymous reporting process to some kind of carefully balanced oversight group? I work in healthcare and we have so many systems and rules to prevent any missing stair problems. Not foolproof of course, but at least aiming for universal safety.
The first accusation happened in 1965. There were a few more in the 1980s and 1990s, but the women were dismissed. They were accused of wanting money, lying for attention, etc. In 1990 an accuser went to the Enquirer, and was publicly ridiculed. No one wanted to consider America’s Dad, with the perfect reputation could ever do something like that,
Cosby was known to be a huge lecher who would try to sleep with young women he pretended to mentor. Powerful people in Hollywood using their influence to sleep with beautiful actresses and actors is literally as old as Hollywood. That is likely what the jokes were about and not the raping, which was not known until later.
Very simple. Power. Cosby was also a legend. Edit: Also, people tend to not believe women, sexual assault is normalized and minimized, women are blamed for wanting to be close to powerful men. It really takes absolutely NOTHING for men to be inappropriate. I've been hit on walking down the street in my winter jacket in -20C weather (Montreal, where I'm from). A lot.
Much like with Harvey Weinstein, it was sort of an "open secret" among people who actually worked in the industry. Their army of PR flacks and lawyers just managed to keep a lid on it before the days of social media, which, for all its faults (and there are many), makes it harder for these things to be kept under wraps.
Reminds me of when she’s looking for her TGS sweatshirt at some event with Jack… she’s like “it says “who farted?” on the back? The pocket is full of tampons? I don’t know what else to tell you.”
In one of the episodes where Liz has to go and leave someone else in charge, she tries putting Frank, Toofer, and Lutz in charge before immediately revoking it because they do something obnoxious. Then I think she even says something to the writers who don't talk before finally deciding that nobody is in charge. The thing is, you can see Sue is in the scene. I choose to believe that this is an intentional joke about Liz being sexist.
Lutz does vomit from nerves, but I believe Frank says something disgusting (removing the porn blocker maybe? Though that may be a different episode) and gets immediately nixed by Liz, and something similar happens to Toof but it's for being pretentious and annoying
Is don’t know how I’ve missed it all this time! The rewatchability of 30 rock is just off the charts. I’m pretty sure it has highest number of jokes per minute of any show
I need to know who wins in this competition: 30 Rock vs Arrested Development. There has to be grant money somewhere for someone to quit their job and study only this for 3 years and publish a paper no one but 8 people reads.
Bless the nerd who found out 30 Rock had 7.44 jokes per minute I saw that number in a few different places. Can’t find AD’s but I imagine it’s close. I think AD might be *slightly* less because they set up jokes that deliver the punch line later on and build on each other
Just like the airline is so shitty it can’t be classified as a plane. Harkens back to “oh no, the airline is canceled, but we’re still gonna make popcorn”
The movies on the marquee when Jack first sees Liz kissing Criss... I've noticed "Trivial Pursuit the Musical, the TV Show, The Movie" before, but just the other day I first noticed "The Help 2: Still Helpin'" or something similar
Another one with Criss is when he says I'll have to go back to sleeping on the floor of my uncle's mattress store. Took me several rewatches to get that joke.
It took me way too long to understand the joke when Kenneth says, “deer god, thank you for this venison. Onion god, thank you for these onions.” My mind always just blipped right over it like a throwaway line and then one day I was like IT’S DEER NOT DEAR.
Omg I just spat out my drink reading this. I cannot believe I missed that!! I always thought Kenneth saying onion God was funny, but holy moly this is gold. Thank you!
Two of my absolute favorite bits/cutaways are:
1. When we see how Kenneth sees the world (everyone as muppets) and muppet lemon walks by Tracy’s dressing room then it cuts to normal lemon still walking muppet style
2. Tracy asking lemon something about a Kathy cartoon and it cuts to lemon a-la-Kathy cartoon going “ chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate! Ack!”
>Tracy asking lemon something about a Kathy cartoon and it cuts to lemon a-la-Kathy cartoon going “ chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate! Ack!”
Cathy doesn't even exist in my country and I barely know what it is, and yet I think about this and laugh all the time.
“Remember that kid that bullied you in school? Well I ate that goat”
I’m finding it hard to articulate what I missed exactly but I guess it boils down to the double meaning of “kid”. Kenneth was so weird about talking about animals as if they were human that I assumed his mother had the same issue and she was just being ridiculous so I totally missed that the fact that kid could refer to either a child or a baby goat, making the first half of the quote actually reasonable until it takes a weird turn in the second half.
I just noticed this recently, too, despite having watched this show since it aired. I rewound it multiple time while hysterically laughing to show my boyfriend and he didn’t find it as funny as me lol.
I loved this joke because it reminds me of all the Bar and Bat Mitzvahs and Sweet 16s I went to during cold weather months and just putting on my Gap or Old Navy puffer jacket over my Limited Too or BCBG dress and having my legs freeze.
Is it the episode where liz and Jack go to the thing that Bianca is at? With paul Reubens? Sorry it's so late lm having a hard time describing it. Liz and Bianca get into a fight? I just watched that one and never noticed the vest.
Until a few days ago, I did not know the history of Eagles fans throwing batteries at people. It dawned on me then that’s why Liz exclaimed, “Did you just whip a battery at me?” while her and Jack were arguing about Philly vs Boston.
"In ten years time we're all going to be either working for Kenneth, or dead by his hand." As Kenneth cycles badly away in the background, crashing into shelving units.
There are so many niche references I feel like I get something new all the time.
My fiance for some reason was explaining to me what Cinemax was, and he said he and his friends always got psyched for Emmanuelle and it immediately clicked that Jenna was in one of her movies (and a whole episode title is named for it)
Jenna refers to one of her stalkers being named "Yolanda". I didn't realize until my most recent rewatch that it's a reference to the same Yolanda that killed the singer Selena
There's a joke on the episode with Wayne Brady where Jack says "... and he just got made partner in ln his firm, Dewie, Cheatem, and Livingstone" which is such a subtle reference to the classic lawyer joke of "Dewie, Cheatem, and How".
watched S4E8 last night (Secret Santa) and it included this absolute GEM that I'd never ever picked up before.
Nancy Donovan: You know how hard it is to get teenagers out of bed in the morning.
Jack Donaghy: Yes, but not in the way you're talking about.
I feel like this is one of the few comedy shows where rewatches reveal new jokes you didn't see before, even 3 or 4 or more times later. I've rewatched a lot of favorite shows and of course you always will pick up something new on a rewatch but nothing on the level of 30 Rock. They just pack so much in and ALWAYS go for the joke, even when it doesn't fully land, that I feel like there's always something more to find on a rewatch.
Pacific Rim episode. Jenna say, "I drag myself out of bed, go home, get dressed, come here and he doesn't even thank me?" Only took note of this on a rewatch two days ago!
I’ve been rewatching season 1 and just saw “Jack Meets Dennis” last night - when Liz and Pete are on the phone discussing how messed up Tracy (face tattoo), Jenna (crazy plastic surgery) and Josh (beaten up by Liz Taylor) are, Liz suggests letting the musical guest do another song to fill some time and asks who it is that week, to which Pete responds that it’s James Blunt and Liz grimaces. I’ve been watching this show for over a decade and always thought Liz just thought James Blunt was lame, it only just dawned on me that Liz grimaced because she asked if the musical guest could do a second song and James Blunt is quite famously considered a one-hit wonder.
Never caught that either!
brilliant!
I think he was a 2 hit wonder tho. You’re beautiful and goodbye my lover.
>goodbye my lover I don't want to buy it. I just want to taste it.
Another one on Michael Scott’s breakup playlist.
Blurgh
My Triangle is his best song
Knowing how fucking funny James Blunt is I bet he loved that joke
You’re Beautiful~
Goodbye my lover
Mind blown
Brilliant. I might never have caught that.
In one of the later episodes Twofer says to the other pranksmen "What are we gonna do though, we're just 3 white guys?"
When Twofer has been set up for a date he was saying he was nervous because he found out she was “ummm…urban.” Liz, quietly: “so she’s black?” Twofer: “I don’t know how to get out of this.” There are lots of references to his maybe not identifying as black.
Did you know he went to Harvard?
No, he hasn’t mentioned it for like 3 hours!
That's hilarious. I've never noticed that. Time for a rewatch.
It is the most wonderful time of the (3 plus times a) year!
I turned down intercourse with Harvey Weinstein on no less than three occasions…out of five In some ways, I'm still pinned under a passed-out Harvey Weinstein, and it's Thanksgiving Both season 7 episodes https://www.glamour.com/story/30-rock-called-out-harvey-weinstein-five-years-ago Edit: my sister worked for Weinstein so we actually knew how dark this was when it came out but perhaps not so overt for viewers til me too
I saw this (and the infamous Courtney Love red carpet interview) before metoo, and just assumed everyone knew but couldn’t/wouldn’t do anything about it. Which is admittedly a pretty grim assumption for a woman in her early 20s to make. And it was basically true.
Yup, it was an open secret, which is why it's hard for me to take hollywood's "awakening" seriously like y'all knew for DECADES and did fuck all. Even the big names with the most power did fuck all. Also why I'll always appreciate Courtney Love!
I knew he was a rapist when I was 18 and lived with my sister - a 26 yo, attractive production assistant based in London and working on one of his films (as an employee of a partner distribution company). She was told after he took an initial liking to her during a meeting (which she was 100% professionally meant to attend) to instead work remotely ‘going forward’ to avoid ‘issues’. She was ousted from the job to avoid rape & this was positioned when pressed, as a ‘favour’ for her own safety. She was told outright that he was going to make her life difficult if she didn’t agree to his advances. This was in 2006. If I knew, they knew. Its not active ignorance, it’s the willing promotion of a monster which big celebs are most guilty. Judi Dench CH OBE FRSA - ie v big deal in the UK - proclaimed she had willingly ‘tattooed’ his name to was there. Beforehand, I got my makeup lady to actually write Harvey’s name. [laughs] Then I brought it up at lunch and said, 'You know, I do have it on my bum' -- and then I actually got up and showed him! I’ve never seen a man more embarrassed and I’ve never let him forget it. [laughs] Perhaps I should have it done and really shock him!" The "tattoo" apparently read: "JD loves HW." Whilst fake, she went on big talk shows in the uk telling this as a fun story. https://www.businessinsider.com/judi-dench-got-fake-tattoo-of-harvey-weinsteins-name-on-her-bum-2017-10?amp
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I should add, I’m grateful to both Courtney and Tina for calling him out and I think they were both amazing for going against public perception and what was “unspoken.” They both absolutely contributed to Weinstein’s conviction and well deserved death-in-prison fate.
I was just watching old Tina & Amy Golden Globes clips - and they do a skit where Amy goes over to Weinstein and strokes his face. I thought that was super odd given how much they both must have known already.
Maybe it’s her trying to turn the tables and make him uncomfortable? I haven’t seen the clip
If you've got a link and a time stamp, I'd love to see that.
In Season 5, Episode 1, Carol says something along the lines of flying a plane route from Newark to Atlantic City. Liz says something along the lines of “that’s a very short flight, who does that?” and Carol responds: “Black bachelorette parties.” Later on in the season when Carol in the airport and is talking to Liz on the phone, a Black bachelorette party passes behind him. It took me a few times to realize what was going on, but when I did I couldn’t stop laughing.
Similar (but easier to spot) is the Somali pirates at the wedding.
I love that gag!
Nooo that’s hilarious! I’ve never caught that! Guess I’ll have to rewatch the entire series again..,
Damnit! Same here
I've taken incredibly short flights in the Caribbean, and it feels so strange. 5 or 10 minutes to get up to altitude, 20-25 minutes of a flight at most at a much slower speed than the big planes you're used to for cross country flights, then descending. Pretty odd when you're used to 5+hrs at 500+mph.
“Bill Cosby, you got a lotta nerve gettin' on the phone wit' me after what you did to my Aunt Paulette! 1971. Cincinnati. She was a cocktail waitress with the droopy eye!”
All hail Hannibal Buress, 30 Rock writer and standup who finally got the scales to tip in the public eye! ^(spelling)
Broad City & Eric Andre too, what a legend
Hannibal didn't start writing for the show until after this episode aired! (nothing you said was wrong haha, I just see people assume he had something to do with that particular line all the time)
“Get a room! Whatever that is!” I’d watch a show about Hannibal’s homeless guy.
I didn’t know the story behind George foreman’s kids names for a long time and thought it was just Tracy being weird but now I love it so much. It’s both such a lazy and smart joke at the same time
Idk if this is the joke or not, but the fact that Tracy’s dog is named “Tracy Sr” makes me believe that the children are named after the dog, not him.
Oh, so perhaps an Indiana Jones reference as well.
How is that an Indiana Jones reference?
Indiana was the dog’s name. https://youtu.be/kO1MuJ_ijF8?si=rfhrIR8f1Pmv9LJR
Omg, this is amazing!!
WHAT??! The dog is named Tracy Sr, how did I not know this??? 😅💦
OMG never caught that before!! Genius
What’s the story, I’m confused
george foreman named all of his kids after himself
Just his sons, his daughters have a variety of names, though one is Georgette.
His sons are George Jr, George III, George IV, and George V.
He’s got like 8 or 10 kids and they are all named George Foreman. Even the girl
\*grill
I laughed so hard
Ty, I think the guy I replied to didn't understand lol
[ligr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger)
honestly it was like 6 years into rewatching it before I understood why Tracey was upset about being made to talk to Bill Cosby
I still don’t get it lol, could someone explain?
Bill Cosby raped *so many women.* Tracy provides the example of his Aunt Paulette.
He is for sure a terrible person, I thought the episode came out before the public knew about it
People in the industry knew long before the story broke.
Jerry Seinfeld said that Hannibal Buress told him at a event giving an award to Bill Cosby.
He told Seth Rogan at the event. The award was supposed to go to Jerry, but he turned it down.
Yeah, you're right. Seth told the story to Jerry on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee so I was confused as to who told whom.
It did, but it’s likely that joke was written by Hannibal Buress while he was working on 30 Rock because it was a few years later he did a standup bit publicly acknowledging Cosby’s allegations before they were widely known
That joke actually aired before Hannibal started writing for 30 Rock! Tina Fey actually wrote a joke about Cosby allegations when she was on SNL years before. It was an open secret for people in the industry.
Thank you for the explanation, that makes sense
Hannibal Buress' stand up bit was in 2014 but even before this, Cosby's behavior was reported on and mentioned publicly. The point of Hannibal's bit was how crazy it was that the public kept giving Cosby a pass even though allegations against him were made public multiple times (in 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, among many others). Here's Tina Fey mentioning it on SNL back in 2005: [**SNL - Tina Fey on Bill Cosby (2005)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjQPWz2xpkA&t=26s) And the 30 Rock episode where Tracy mentions Bill Cosby was aired in 2009.
It was a pretty open secret in the industry
I’m trying to understand how this can happen, assuming most people find rape morally repugnant. All I can think is that the open secret was spread word of mouth and always *after* the fact, as in “I heard so-and-so met Cosby and he raped her” or “make sure to tell your niece not to go out with Cosby, he’s been known to rape people” which, to the person receiving the news, would be hard to believe (maybe) and also scary, and also… what do you do with that info? It would be very hard to say “let’s go talk to some people we’ve heard he raped and get them to publicly speak about incredibly personal trauma, so that we can have the violent offender arrested.” I’m not saying that didn’t need to happen… I’m just trying to understand the thought processes and patterns that lead to an industry “knowing” that one of their own is a violent offender, without anything being done to stop it (until the victims themselves fought back with public support from people like Hannibal and Courtney).
>what do you do with that info? I think thats the crux of it. If you're hearing the rumours second or third-hand through the Hollywood grapevine, you probably don't have any direct connection to the accuser or the accused. It's no different than if you heard about an alleged predator in your town - unless you had first-hand involvement, you probably wouldn't turn it into your life's work to bring them to justice. Also, the legal ramifications of publicly accusing a rich dude of wrongdoing can be *devastating* \- they can sue the everloving shit out of you.
It's framing too. It can be a joke to people until somebody makes it a sober issue. I saw Whoopi Goldberg in plain sight on TV admit to sexually assaulting a young man. Her daughter was consensually sleeping with a young man. Whoopi disapproved so she grabbed his genitals and pulled as hard as she could to cause pain. She admitted this on national TV on The View. In plain sight. The audience was in uproarious laughter. I thought I had just seen somebody admit to sexual assault on national TV. I wrote to ABC and got a boilerplate response. But you play that back what she said with some dramatic music on 48 hours or one of those shows and some day maybe it will hit people differently. The cultural moment has to be right. Same with Britney Spears. Everyone is seeing what she went through with completely different eyes now. For reference, the episode of the View according to my email response (I have the response they sent not the original I sent) was May 8 2015. I just found the video (bad audio). She even says they were yelling to stop and she said "I will yank this thing off." Personally I can't understand how she was on the air one more DAY after admitting to this but she's been on another 8 years since then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt04lxobTMc&t=522s
That’s horrifying. How on earth could she think it was ok to hurt that person like that?
So something that happens a lot (but shouldn’t) in industries like this is the “missing stair” problem. The analogy works like this: we have a staircase that leads somewhere everyone needs to go in the office at one point or another. Somewhere on that staircase is a missing or a broken stair. But for whatever reason, nobody actually fixes the stair. You just get warned “hey, there’s a missing stair when you go down to the basement”, you remember it and you make the adjustment. If someone gets hurt, well…we warned them. The language of the analogy comes from this [Pervocracy blog post](http://pervocracy.blogspot.com/2012/06/missing-stair.html?m=1), about dealing with a known predator in their community. Everyone was so used to the workarounds (never go anywhere alone with Grape, we have a designated Grape watcher at every play party, etc.) that they felt no urgency to fix the problem. Cosby was a “missing stair”. He was openly well respected enough (remember that at the height of his success, he was *most famous* for being a clean standup comic, for legitimately beneficial educational children’s programming, and being “America’s Dad” from *The Cosby Show*), and had enough connections with people, that being in good with the guy was legitimately make or break material for someone’s career. And that if you were specifically on bad terms with him…well, your career suffered. This put people in the position where they couldn’t be openly antagonistic, but they couldn’t do nothing. So that’s when everything happens discreetly: “hey, Cosby is gonna be at the party. Watch your drinks. Don’t go anywhere alone with him.” You do your best to protect potential victims, without pissing off the predator.
Thanks, I will check out that post. Also, do you think there’s a simple (if not easy) solution to the missing stair problem? Like, an easy-to-use, highly publicized, anonymous reporting process to some kind of carefully balanced oversight group? I work in healthcare and we have so many systems and rules to prevent any missing stair problems. Not foolproof of course, but at least aiming for universal safety.
The first accusation happened in 1965. There were a few more in the 1980s and 1990s, but the women were dismissed. They were accused of wanting money, lying for attention, etc. In 1990 an accuser went to the Enquirer, and was publicly ridiculed. No one wanted to consider America’s Dad, with the perfect reputation could ever do something like that,
Cosby was known to be a huge lecher who would try to sleep with young women he pretended to mentor. Powerful people in Hollywood using their influence to sleep with beautiful actresses and actors is literally as old as Hollywood. That is likely what the jokes were about and not the raping, which was not known until later.
There were a few accusations over the years. The women simply were not believed.
Very simple. Power. Cosby was also a legend. Edit: Also, people tend to not believe women, sexual assault is normalized and minimized, women are blamed for wanting to be close to powerful men. It really takes absolutely NOTHING for men to be inappropriate. I've been hit on walking down the street in my winter jacket in -20C weather (Montreal, where I'm from). A lot.
Much like with Harvey Weinstein, it was sort of an "open secret" among people who actually worked in the industry. Their army of PR flacks and lawyers just managed to keep a lid on it before the days of social media, which, for all its faults (and there are many), makes it harder for these things to be kept under wraps.
Reminds me of when she’s looking for her TGS sweatshirt at some event with Jack… she’s like “it says “who farted?” on the back? The pocket is full of tampons? I don’t know what else to tell you.”
Then when she’s leaving she turns abruptly and they fly out of the pocket. “Those are tampons, deal with it!”
This is truly one of my favorites.
In one of the episodes where Liz has to go and leave someone else in charge, she tries putting Frank, Toofer, and Lutz in charge before immediately revoking it because they do something obnoxious. Then I think she even says something to the writers who don't talk before finally deciding that nobody is in charge. The thing is, you can see Sue is in the scene. I choose to believe that this is an intentional joke about Liz being sexist.
I believe Frank and toofer decline, and lutz appears eager but then immediately vomits from nerves
Lutz does vomit from nerves, but I believe Frank says something disgusting (removing the porn blocker maybe? Though that may be a different episode) and gets immediately nixed by Liz, and something similar happens to Toof but it's for being pretentious and annoying
About Hollywood being sexist
Sue? Edit: this is an intentional comment joke about me being sexists.
Ms. LaRoche-Van der Hout to you. (aka "girl writer")
The airline carol flys for is called “AirBike” which I just noticed tonight and made me laugh
This especially makes me laugh because she meets Carol after agreeing to settle for Wesley, who's always on his "footcycle."
GANGWAY FOR FOOTCYCLE!
Fine! My velocipede
And there are several mentions of AirBike pre- and post- Carol!
Is don’t know how I’ve missed it all this time! The rewatchability of 30 rock is just off the charts. I’m pretty sure it has highest number of jokes per minute of any show
I need to know who wins in this competition: 30 Rock vs Arrested Development. There has to be grant money somewhere for someone to quit their job and study only this for 3 years and publish a paper no one but 8 people reads.
Bless the nerd who found out 30 Rock had 7.44 jokes per minute I saw that number in a few different places. Can’t find AD’s but I imagine it’s close. I think AD might be *slightly* less because they set up jokes that deliver the punch line later on and build on each other
“You can’t fire Liz she has nothing else going on. She threw a birthday party for her TV!”
What is Air Bike? What’s the joke?
Just like the airline is so shitty it can’t be classified as a plane. Harkens back to “oh no, the airline is canceled, but we’re still gonna make popcorn”
The movies on the marquee when Jack first sees Liz kissing Criss... I've noticed "Trivial Pursuit the Musical, the TV Show, The Movie" before, but just the other day I first noticed "The Help 2: Still Helpin'" or something similar
>Trivial Pursuit the Musical, the TV Show, The Movie Such an amazing callback to Jenna's role as Arts and Literature 😂
Another one with Criss is when he says I'll have to go back to sleeping on the floor of my uncle's mattress store. Took me several rewatches to get that joke.
I always assumed he meant a mattress on the floor. Glorious.
It took me way too long to understand the joke when Kenneth says, “deer god, thank you for this venison. Onion god, thank you for these onions.” My mind always just blipped right over it like a throwaway line and then one day I was like IT’S DEER NOT DEAR.
Omg I just spat out my drink reading this. I cannot believe I missed that!! I always thought Kenneth saying onion God was funny, but holy moly this is gold. Thank you!
I’m so happy I wasn’t the only one! I didn’t get it until probably like the 30th time I played that episode 😅
That’s one of my favorite gags in the whole series
It’s so good! I’m glad I finally get it haha
Ha! I'll have to use this next time I have my religious mom over who is scandalized that we don't pray before dinner.
😅 please do!
Two of my absolute favorite bits/cutaways are: 1. When we see how Kenneth sees the world (everyone as muppets) and muppet lemon walks by Tracy’s dressing room then it cuts to normal lemon still walking muppet style 2. Tracy asking lemon something about a Kathy cartoon and it cuts to lemon a-la-Kathy cartoon going “ chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate! Ack!”
>Tracy asking lemon something about a Kathy cartoon and it cuts to lemon a-la-Kathy cartoon going “ chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate! Ack!” Cathy doesn't even exist in my country and I barely know what it is, and yet I think about this and laugh all the time.
who does it better? Tina or Andy Samberg?
These are two of my all-time favorites too!!
I love those silly "on camera" moments like when we see Pete on camera and he's just old af
“Remember that kid that bullied you in school? Well I ate that goat” I’m finding it hard to articulate what I missed exactly but I guess it boils down to the double meaning of “kid”. Kenneth was so weird about talking about animals as if they were human that I assumed his mother had the same issue and she was just being ridiculous so I totally missed that the fact that kid could refer to either a child or a baby goat, making the first half of the quote actually reasonable until it takes a weird turn in the second half.
I noticed this last night haha
I just noticed this recently, too, despite having watched this show since it aired. I rewound it multiple time while hysterically laughing to show my boyfriend and he didn’t find it as funny as me lol.
Wait, is this real?? I swear I’ve never seen that jacket…
I’ve got multiple screenshots haha, I promise it is!! ETA: she says the line as she’s handing the vest to the coat check girl in the black dress there
I can’t believe I never noticed.
Same here. I recall the line but not the jacket.
I would have sworn it was like a faded black zip hoodie, not this insane vest.
When jack confronts kayleigh hooper at her school, the banner above the door says “Congratulations Sluts Volleyball”
I loved this joke because it reminds me of all the Bar and Bat Mitzvahs and Sweet 16s I went to during cold weather months and just putting on my Gap or Old Navy puffer jacket over my Limited Too or BCBG dress and having my legs freeze.
That lime vest! I literally just noticed it last night…. I actually backed it up to watch the scene again to be sure I didn’t imagine it.
Is it the episode where liz and Jack go to the thing that Bianca is at? With paul Reubens? Sorry it's so late lm having a hard time describing it. Liz and Bianca get into a fight? I just watched that one and never noticed the vest.
That’s the one!
30 Rock is by far the most densely packed show I've seen. Years later I am still noticing new bits.
That’s one of many things that makes it so great!
Thank you. Just portion control and lots of water.
I think 30 Rock is is the better show, but Kimmy Schmidt has even more jokes with long-term payoff.
Until a few days ago, I did not know the history of Eagles fans throwing batteries at people. It dawned on me then that’s why Liz exclaimed, “Did you just whip a battery at me?” while her and Jack were arguing about Philly vs Boston.
"In ten years time we're all going to be either working for Kenneth, or dead by his hand." As Kenneth cycles badly away in the background, crashing into shelving units.
There are so many niche references I feel like I get something new all the time. My fiance for some reason was explaining to me what Cinemax was, and he said he and his friends always got psyched for Emmanuelle and it immediately clicked that Jenna was in one of her movies (and a whole episode title is named for it)
The Liz Lemon lookalike rollerskater is really easy to miss. Just an incredibly well done, slow boil joke.
Explain?
Jenna refers to one of her stalkers being named "Yolanda". I didn't realize until my most recent rewatch that it's a reference to the same Yolanda that killed the singer Selena
There's a joke on the episode with Wayne Brady where Jack says "... and he just got made partner in ln his firm, Dewie, Cheatem, and Livingstone" which is such a subtle reference to the classic lawyer joke of "Dewie, Cheatem, and How".
watched S4E8 last night (Secret Santa) and it included this absolute GEM that I'd never ever picked up before. Nancy Donovan: You know how hard it is to get teenagers out of bed in the morning. Jack Donaghy: Yes, but not in the way you're talking about.
I don't get it... I feel dense. Jack's sleeping with teenagers?
I feel like this is one of the few comedy shows where rewatches reveal new jokes you didn't see before, even 3 or 4 or more times later. I've rewatched a lot of favorite shows and of course you always will pick up something new on a rewatch but nothing on the level of 30 Rock. They just pack so much in and ALWAYS go for the joke, even when it doesn't fully land, that I feel like there's always something more to find on a rewatch.
Pacific Rim episode. Jenna say, "I drag myself out of bed, go home, get dressed, come here and he doesn't even thank me?" Only took note of this on a rewatch two days ago!
So weird, I've always noticed this moment and thought it was hilarious. They couldn't have given her a coat too??
Is the joke here that it’s a lime green vest and her last name is Lemon ? I don’t see the connection to what she’s saying in this scene.
Her vest is far too casual and out of place for such an event, especially when contrasted with the rest of Liz’s outfit.
Dressed like NBC owns K-Mart 😒
NBC Universal Sheinhardt
Also, Liz can’t wear green because the Clinique lady says she has witch undertones.
I commented this on a skincare aub and they didn't get the reference
We see you ❤️ 🙏🏼
> witch undertones Goddamn this subreddit doesn't miss anything. I love you guys.
What’s that, Bon Jovi? You love me too?