Liz and Jenna get into a fight over Jenna's role in a movie called The Rural Juror; meanwhile, Tracy attempts to earn money by selling a George Foreman-esque grill, with Jack's help.
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Almighty Janitor: Apparently, NBC is owned outright by an obscure wig company.
- Amusing Injuries: Kenneth gets burned by the hot fat that drips from the Meat Machine, once when he goes to open it and once when it sprays him. It's played for laughs, and while Kenneth is clearly hurt, he gets none of the third-degree burns that would come from being sprayed with boiling hot fat.
- Awesome McCoolname: Jenna's character in The Rural Juror is named Constance Justice. Subverted, as the TGS staff finds it ludicrous rather than cool.
- Bile Fascination: In-Universe, the whole writing staff is eager to see The Rural Juror after Liz tells them it's a trainwreck. Subverted, as the staff later agrees that it was actually a pretty good movie, with Jenna herself doing a great job in her role; Liz only thought it was a trainwreck because she wanted it to fail for selfish reasons.
- Brutal Honesty: Liz claims to be giving this when she tells Jenna what she really thinks of The Rural Juror. Of course, the truth is more complicated than that.
- The Cameo: Whoopi Goldberg shows up as herself in a cutaway gag, where she's leading an aerobics video called Workin' Out With Whoopi. She shows up again at the end, this time selling Tracy's Meat Machine under her own name.
- Courtroom Drama: The Rural Juror seems to be one, in the vein of John Grisham novels and adaptations (In-Universe, it's adapted from a book by John's fictional brother, Kevin).
- Damning With Faint Praise: Liz's standard method for sparing Jenna's feelings is to praise something minor, then hug her ("I thought the lighting was really neat!"). Jenna eventually catches on.
- Everyone Has Standards: Tracy may be desperate for money, but he's not willing to put his name on the Meat Machine once it's revealed how dangerous it is—not out of pragmatism, but because he doesn't want to make money off of hurting people.
- Expy: Tracy's Meat Machine is clearly modeled after the George Foreman grill, although with a more specific purpose: combining different kinds of meat into one patty.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Liz admits that she wanted The Rural Juror to be bad out of her jealousy of Jenna's fame.
- Lame Comeback: At the end of a tense exchange with Jenna, Liz can only manage "well, I'm sorry you feel that way!"
- The Rashomon and Self-Serving Memory: When Liz recalls her past support for Jenna, her flashbacks show her warmly damning Jenna with faint praise before hugging her. According to Jenna, however, Liz's "praise" was a lot more snide and dismissive than that. (In addition, the hunky boyfriend Liz had in one flashback was a homely middle-aged man in Jenna's.)
- Show Within a Show: The Rural Juror.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: Jack is seen doing the old "no, you hang up first" bit with a woman on the phone named Maureen. We later find out that "Maureen" is real-life New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Tracy, as per usual. In this episode, he loses track of how many houses he owns.
- Tempting Fate: Jenna says that her film career might earn her more respect on TGS. Immediately afterwards:Frank: What's up, flabby butt? You look weird today.
- The Unpronouncable: The Rural Juror, once again (although it's less "unpronouncable" than "incredibly awkward to enunciate"). Liz can't make out what it means until she sees the title in writing.
- Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket: A commercial for the Meat Machine, which substitutes the bread of a sandwich for patties of meat, shows people who are either too clumsy to handle bread or somehow injure themselves doing so.
