YMMV / 30 Rock

• Adorkable: Liz, particularly in "The Head and the Hair". She can't even begin to imagine why a guy like Gray would want to date her, she's charmingly out of place at a trendy party, and she gives a friendly greeting to a guest's lapdog before she talks to any other people.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: In "Reunion", one of Liz's high school classmates, who was and is very effeminate, was a victim of continuous harassment and gay jokes by Liz throughout high school, and at the reunion he reveals that he has a wife. However, a joke is made of the fact that they don't actually have any kids together, just three dogs. Is he actually straight, and did she make an outrageously baseless assumption about his sexuality just by the way he acted? Or is he gay after all, and did her relentless gay jokes drive him so deep into the closet that he refused to ever come out in fear that everyone would treat him like she did, and went so far as to marry a woman to be The Beard for him?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees:
  • The "Gay Bomb" was an actual Pentagon project that was abandoned in the mid-nineties.
• Ass Pull: Colleen being a late life lesbian seemed like a plot-driven Contrived Coincidence made for mild shock value and to set up a posthumous Heel–Face Turn.
• Award Snub:
  • Many fans thought that Jane Krakowski's material really improved in the show's latter years, so it came as a disappointment to them that she was omitted from the final shortlist for Season 6, where she was seen as the highlight. She managed to pull off another nomination for the final season, but was unable to win.
  • Despite its popularity with the Emmys, the show could never win for Directing. This was very unfortunate for frequent nominee Beth McCarthy-Miller.
  • Many others also thought that the show's final season was among the series' best, and fully deserving of the Comedy Series prize.
• Base-Breaking Character: Jenna may be Love to Hate for a lot of fans but there are other fans who genuinely hate her.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • At the end of "Klaus and Greta" Liz has a threesome with James Franco and his Japanese love pillow.
  • At the end of "Live from Studio 6H" Alec Baldwin and Scott Adsit make out for no reason. This could possibly be interpreted as a Shoutout to "Greenhilly". An old SNL sketch where Alec Baldwin made out with anybody and everybody. Seen Here.
  • In the episode "Everything Sunny All The Time Always", Jack goes to plead for help from ex-girlfriend Condoleeza Rice. They get into a duel between Rice's piano and Jack on the flute (an obscure callback to a first-season throw-away gag, making this something of a BLAM inside a BLAM!), which has no impact on the plot and drags the show to a screeching halt.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • In an effort to help Jack tank the network, Liz says to her fellow writers that there's no bad ideas.
    Tracy: [in a Nazi costume] Yes, I got a reservation under Black Hitler.
  • The entire premise of the Show Within a Show MILF Island. It's so ridiculously inappropriate that it's hilarious. Perhaps inevitably TV executives would eventually create their own version of this ridiculous parody show, "Milf Manor".
    Announcer: 25 super hot moms. 50 eighth-grade boys. invoked No rules.
  • Then there's another show-within-a-show bluntly titled Bitch Hunter. We don't even know its exact premise, only that it involves Will Ferrell (or an actor played by Will Ferrell) kicking down doors of places usually occuped by women (such as a women's bathroom and a bachelorette party) while armed and ending his sentences with "...bitch!" Apparently even in-universe it got women's groups riled-up (and apparently The Girlie Show was greenlit to quell those complaints), but it's simply too out-of-there to not laugh.
    Will Ferrell: PUT THE MIMOSAS DOWN! ... BITCH!
  • In "Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning", Jack Donaghy makes a pre-taped celebrity benefit for a natural disaster so it can air on the night of the next one. He finds his disaster in the devastation of Fiji island, Mago. Only to discover, to his horror, that the island was owned by MEL GIBSON and the celebrity benefit is being done for him.
    • There is just something magical about Alec Baldwin's strangled delivery of ''OH GOD!'' when he sees Mel Gibson's brother has immediately used the benefit to deny the Holocaust on national TV.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Grizz and Dot Com are recurring cast examples.
  • Cerie is this also. For obvious reasons.
  • Dr. Leo Spaceman.
  • Criss Chros. Most of Liz's boyfriends get Die for Our Ship treatment, but Criss has, for the most part, gotten a free pass because the fandom really likes him.
• Ethnic Scrappy: Elisa is disliked for being a stereotypical Spicy Latina with little character outside of her relationship.
• Fanfic Fuel: What happened between the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue and the Distant Finale?
• Fanfic Magnet: For a character who only ever appeared in one episode, Gretchen Thomas shows up in quite a bit of fanfiction.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Jack/Liz. Oh goodness, Jack/Liz...
• Friendly Fandoms: With Parks and Recreation, definitely helped by the long lasting friendship between the respective leading ladies, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Jack attended Princeton on the "Amory Blaine Handsomeness Scholarship." Blaine is the protagonist of F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise. Fitzgerald is famously a Princeton alumnus, and the novel is a fictionalized account of his time there.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In "Sandwich Day," one of the sketch ideas on the TGS whiteboard is "pervert Elmo." Five years after the episode aired, Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash would leave the character after being accused of sexual misconduct around minors.
  • A plotline of Tracy faking an inability to read after his actor Tracy Morgan's severe car accident caused him to require daily cognitive therapy.
  • Likewise, a gag in "The Moms" has Tracy proudly boasting about being in the Guinness Book of World Records for having been in the most car accidents in a single year.
  • In Season 3, Jack gets someone to pretend like he was Bill Cosby in order to get Tracy to come back to the show after he (temporarily) quit. Tracy goes on a tirade about how Cosby had done something unspeakable with his aunt in 1971. Fast forward to 2014, with dozens of allegations against him, it started to become clear that Cosby was likely a harasser and serial rapist. Coincidentally, public opinion only turned against Cosby after he was mentioned in a standup bit by comedian Hannibal Buress. While he wasn't on the staff yet in Season 3, Buress wrote for the later seasons and had a recurring cameo.
  • Similarly, as mentioned below, Jenna made a joke about dodging sex with Harvey Weinstein before it was revealed in 2017 that he had raped or attempted to rape scores of actresses working for movies his company produced; of course, it was kind of an open Hollywood secret with others like Seth MacFarlane making jokes about it as well.
  • The unaired pilot has Jenna played by Rachel Dratch, making one particular moment more awkward than funny as she was the only main cast member to be replaced:
    Jenna DeCarlo: I'm psyched! I mean, I'm living in New York, I have my own TV-show... I mean, dreams do come true, right?
  • The One With The Cast of Night Court shows Jack pulling a gun at the end, and 100, Part 2 has a scene where Jack accidentally shoots a man while running through 30 Rock brandishing a gun. Both of these have since become uncomfortable after Alec Baldwin was accused of accidentally shooting a crew member on Rust.
  • The episode "Governor Dunston" has Liz and the writers on TGS debating how many sketches they should do about Bob Dunston, a controversial Republican politician with a buffoonish public image who's been selected as Mitt Romney's Vice Presidential candidate in the 2012 election, as they fear that their sketches lampooning him are simply making him more relatable and would make viewers more likely to vote for Romney, a politician who they oppose. Four years later when Donald Trump ran for President, NBC's late-night comedy shows would face the same dilemma and controversy for real, especially after Trump hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live and made an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in which Fallon tousled his hair and generally goofed around with him rather than addressing his controversial statements and positions.
  • Jack using the extensive stock footage the studio possesses of Jerry Seinfeld to digitally insert him into the network's current programmes. Liz later has a nightmare sequence where she realises that future TV and movies will be written by "no one". These fears have become closer to reality, what with the 2023 Writers' and Actors' strike, which was caused by the threat of people being replaced by Artificial Intelligence technology.
• He's Just Hiding: According to What Will Happen To the Gang Next Year?, Kim Jong-Il. (He's the best waiter ever.)
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Has its own page.
• Humor Dissonance: While most of the in-show sketches are intended to be Stylistic Suck and considered terrible in-universe (thus avoiding the problem Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip had), some of them end up being funny anyway. The "Black Hitler" gag in particular is meant to come off as cheap shock-value humor to highlight how much Liz is sabotaging TGS, but comes off as a hilarious Crosses the Line Twice sketch idea.
• Hollywood Homely: Very much Depending on the Writer, Liz is stated to be rather plain most of the time, though sometimes she's treated as actually appears to the viewer. Occasional gags made her out to be ugly, like when she had skin deformities revealed by an HD camera. In "Black Light Attack!" the sight of Tina Fey bent over was meant to be unappealing. Yeah, right.
• Ho Yay:
  • Salma Hayek kissing Tina Fey, anyone?
    Liz: [stunned] I can see why he likes it...
  • And just before that, when Elisa hints she has "a terrible secret":
    Liz: I won't — I don't want to know. [lowers her voice] Are you a man?
    Elisa: Really? That's your guess, a man? You wanna see me naked?
    Liz: [slight shrug, awkward smile] ...sort of.
• Jerkass Woobie: Jack takes a level in this towards the end of the series. Especially at the end of the series where the final episode has him try to find something that makes him genuinely happy instead of his percieved notion of happiness.
• Les Yay: Jenna on seeing Liz in her Brooklyn Without Limits jeans.
  Jenna: (admiring) I'd hit that.
  Tracy: (critically) Too small.
• Memetic Badass: His name is KELSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Good God Lemon!"
  • "How do you do, fellow kids?". ^ExplanationSteve Buscemi as an undercover cop in a High School saying the phrase to a bunch of teenagers, while wearing teenager-like clothing, a shirt that says "Music Band", while holding two skateboards. The absurdity of the scene and how it can easily be used as a way to mock older people and companies who try too hard to be "relatable" hip and "down with the kids". It has also led to fans using Snowclones for different contexts related to certain characters and also as a Pretender Diss against people who in their eyes are transparently trying to pretend to be something for their own ends. It proved to be such a popular meme, that it even has its own subreddit; /r/FellowKids, which documents shows and companies who try (and most often fail) at being hip towards youngsters. This meme is basically up there as being one of the most timeless memes due to how ubiquitous it is.
  • "High-fiving a million angels right now!"
  • "What a week, huh?" "Lemon, it's Wednesday."
    • "We sure had quite a year." "Lemon, what are you talking about? It's May".
  • Kenneth's 'I Lie to Myself' speech, it gets animated with other characters.
• Moe: Kenneth, the most adorkable Humanoid Abomination in all of television.
• Most Wonderful Sound: Whenever Jack laughs.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Leap Day William. He trades candy for children's tears according to Kenneth, and at the end of "Leap Day" after giving a speech, he shows his gills, black eyes and sharp teeth as a Jump Scare, implying that he is some kind of Cthulhu.
  • Some of Tracy's recollections of his old neighborhood are disturbing. Examples include having a basketball hoop made from a ribcage, a puppy apparently committing suicide after seeing his bathroom, and finding a child's shoe inside of a burrito.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Jalisa, for Jack and Elisa.
  • Parodied when Jenna hooks up with James Franco. She claims that the media just calling them "James" is this.
  • Jack/Liz shippers have not done this. Understandable, considering their choices are "Jiz", "Lack", or "Lick". Or, if you use last names, "Demon", although they could use "Jaz" or, if you use last names, "Lonaghy".
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • The bookstore worker in the window who beats up Liz's cutout in the cold open of "Into the Crevasse" is Councilman Jamm!
  • The real estate lady who busts into Liz's apartment and informs her that it's going condo is (depending on what you watch) either Fig or Wendy Parks.
  • One recurring cameo was an assistant played by Donald Glover, then a writer for the show and later known as Troy Barnes and Grammy award winner Childish Gambino.
  • Tituss Burgess definitely made an impact on Tina Fey and Robert Carlock with his role as Angie's gay friend D'Fwan. He would later star as Kimmy Schmidt's gay friend, Titus Andromedon.
  • Adrienne C. Moore, who plays two separate Sassy Black Woman characters in the final season, is now more recognizable as Black Cindy on Orange Is the New Black.
  • Comedian Hannibal Buress wrote for the show in its later seasons, before his standup career took off. He also had several bit parts: he's one of the recurring hobos, as well as Tracy's stand-in at the end of the first "Queen of Jordan" episode.
  • Aubrey Plaza has a bit role — her career first — as an NBC page in a Season 1 episode; this was because Plaza actually was an NBC page at the time and impressing various producers in the building from her entertaining tours.
  • William Jackson Harper, who would go on to play Chidi in The Good Place, had a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance in an episode as a protestor who disparages Liz's unfamiliarity with Los Angeles … in the middle of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
• The Scrappy: Avery, at least to some of the more extreme Liz/Jack shippers. Many still felt sorry for her when she gets captured by Kim-Jong-Il. And was forcibly married to his son.
  • Hazel is basically Kenneth's Evil Counterpart with worse material and none of his charm. Unsurprisingly a large majority of the fandom greatly dislikes her.
• Seasonal Rot:
  • Season 4 (and to a lesser extent, some of Season 3) is widely considered to be the show's weakest, with an abundance of gags that had simply become tired by that point and an extreme amount of focus on Jack Donaghy's love life. It's also criticized for its harsh treatment of Liz Lemon as the writers started making her out to be much frumpier and more pathetic than she had been in past seasons. While it isn't exactly universally panned, it was certainly considered a step down from the show's incredibly strong first three seasons. Luckily, most fans agree Season 5 refreshed the series and brought it back to the strength of its earlier days, and that Seasons 6 and 7 followed suit.
  • Season 7, while otherwise considered good, was criticized for its short length causing a lot of the show's arcs to be wrapped up in a rushed manner or given no resolution at all.
• Special Effects Failure: The elevator scene with Conan O'Brien and Liz Lemon in the Grand Finale is very obviously green-screened.
• Squick: Jack has been imprinted to be aroused by the song "Merry Little Christmas" because of his mother's sultry annual performances of it as a child.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The songs for Jenna's feature film "inspired by, but, for legal reasons, not based on the life of Janis Joplin."
  "Synonym's just another word for the word you want to use..."
  "Come on and take it! Take a big ol' chunk of my lung now mister..."
• Take That!: In Live Show, Tracy starts intentionally breaking character and laughing during live skits in a selfish attempt to steal the spotlight for himself and get even more attention at the expense of his costars. This was the BIGGEST criticism lobbed at Jimmy Fallon during Fallon’s tenure at SNL. To drive the point home further, Tracy Morgan (the actor who plays Tracy Jordan) stated in a Penthouse interview he was so sick and tired of Fallon’s shameless mugging for the camera and constant laughing during sketches that he threatened Fallon with physical violence if Fallon did it ONCE during one of Morgan’s sketches.
• Tear Jerker: Liz's fight with Floyd in season 4 after she accidentally gets him drunk.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Pete Hornberger is depicted as a guy who hates his job and is a miserable husband and father. Instead of being endearingly pathetic, however, he often comes off as being despicably so, given that he frequently tries to escape his wife and children despite little indication they warrant this treatment, and his sexual desperation often manifests in behavior that would be considered sexual harassment or assualt, which comes across as more gross and horrific than funny.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?:
  • The show takes a lot of swings at the Bush Administration. Probably most direct when they made a Little League baseball team into an extended analogy for the Iraq War. All Played for Laughs.
  • "Brooklyn Without Limits" takes a pretty harsh potshot at Urban Outfitters.
  • Corporate executives are frequently portrayed as arrogant, elitist, and more than willing to hurt jobs and careers to make a quick buck. Even Jack started off as a significantly more bloodthirsty businessman and corporate shark.
  • One episode takes quite a lot of time to set up a joke that amounts to calling "birthers" and intelligent design believers idiots.
  • Mitt Romney, during that election season, is implied to be an android controlled by a society of wealthy corporate executives.
• The Woobie:
  • Kenneth. The way he's so happy in a Crapsaccharine World and how he sees everyone as a potential friend (even though many of his friends couldn't care less about him) and gets physically assaulted at work repeatedly (even on his birthday).^note  A montage of his abuse from the staff ends with him saying the whole montage was just things that happened on his birthday.
  • Pete Hornberger. That is all.

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