History YMMV / ThirtyRock

** Much of Tracy's insane behavior is patterned on actual Hollywood celebrity behavior; for example, Tracy has his Oscar claimed by a Native American...just like Creator/MarlonBrando. Of course, unlike Brando (who was protesting the unfair treatment of Native Americans in film), Tracy simply had ''a mouth full of Pop-Tarts''.
** One episode has Jack and Avery scrambling to have their child be born on American soil, so she can be U.S. President one day. She ends up being born in Canada. The requirements for being United States President include being a "natural-born citizen", a poorly defined phrase that ''probably'' means the child can be born overseas as long as the parents are United States citizens, but has also been used politically and in court challenges against potential candidates - specifically 2016 Republican primary candidate Ted Cruz, born in Canada - without definitive result. It's plausible that until the issue gets a clear legal ruling, being Canadian-born would at least hurt her chances politically. (See also Artistic License - Law below.)

** Kenneth is a main-cast example.

** Similar to the above, "The Beginning of The End", one of the shows Jack greenlights is ''God Cop'', a supernatural police procedural in which God helps the cops solve crimes. Replace God with the Devil and you have the premise of Creator/{{Fox}}'s [[Series/Lucifer2016 tv adaptation]] of Creator/MikeCarey's ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}''.

* ValuesDissonance In "100", Tracy (at Jack's advice) loses all the respect he got after the EGOT simply by continuing to work in television. In the years since the show aired, "prestige TV" has started dominating and even often exceeding Hollywood's prestige, which makes this sentiment ludicrous today.

* AcceptableEthnicTargets: "Saint Patrick's Day" has Liz make several derogatory jokes aimed at Irish Nationalists and Irish-Americans that border on bigotry. She wears an Orange dress in memoriam for King William of Orange who defeated the Irish Jacobites on behalf of the Irish Williamites resulting in the Act of Toleration, Bill of Rights, preservation of Magna Carta and parliamentary democracy in the British Isles. Ironically it later turns out when Jack discovers his true father he isn't Irish at all.

* AcceptableEthnicTargets: "Saint Patrick's Day" has Liz make several derogatory jokes aimed at Irish Nationalists and Irish-Americans that border on bigotry. She wears an Orange dress in memoriam for King William of Orange who defeated the Irish Jacobites on behalf of the Irish Williamites resulting in the Act of Toleration, Bill of Rights, preservation of Magna Carta and parliamentary democracy. Ironically it later turns out when Jack discovers his true father he isn't Irish at all.

** The entire premise of the ShowWithinAShow ''MILF Island''. It's so ridiculously inappropriate that it's hilarious.

* AcceptableEthnicTargets: "Saint Patrick's Day" has Liz make several derogatory jokes aimed at Irish Nationalists and Irish-Americans that border on bigotry. She wears an Orange dress in memoriam for King William of Orange who defeated the Irish Jacobites on behalf of the Irish Williamites resulting in the Act of Toleration, Bill of Rights preservation of Magna Carta. Ironically it later turns out when Jack discovers his true father he isn't Irish at all.

* AcceptableEthnicTargets: "Saint Patrick's Day" has Liz make several derogatory jokes aimed at Irish Nationalists and Irish-Americans that border on bigotry. She wears an Orange dress in memoriam for King William of Orange who defeated the Irish Jacobites on behalf of the Irish Williamites. Ironically it later turns out when Jack discovers his true father he isn't Irish at all.

* AcceptableEthnicTargets: "Saint Patrick's Day" has Liz make several derogatory jokes aimed at the Irish and Irish-Americans that border on bigotry.

** The episode [[Recap/ThirtyRockS2E11MILFIsland "MILF Island"]] includes clips from the titular ShowWithinAShow. In 2022, Creator/{{TLC}} debuted the reality show ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74UehiFYrMk MILF Manor,]]'' which had a similar, but far less {{Squick}}-inducing premise. It then zigzagged back to FreakierThanFiction when the FirstEpisodeTwist turned out to be that while the male contestants were all of legal age, they were also biologically related to the [=MILFs=].

** Similar to the above, "The Beginning of The End", one of the shows Jack greenlights is ''God Cop'', a supernatural police procedural in which God helps the cops solve crimes. Replace God with "Lucifer" and you have the premise of Creator/{{Fox}}'s [[Series/Lucifer2016 tv adaptation]] of Creator/MikeCarey's ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}''.

** Similar to the above, "The Beginning of The End", one of the shows Jack greenlights is ''God Cop'', a supernatural police procedural in which God helps the cops solve crimes. Replace God with "Lucifer" and you have the premise of Creator/{{Fox}}'s [[Series/Lucifer2016 tv adaptation]] of Creator/MikeCarey's ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}]''.

** The episode [[Recap/ThirtyRockS2E11MILFIsland "MILF Island"]] includes clips from the titular ShowWithinAShow. In 2022, Creator/{{TLC}} debuted the reality show ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74UehiFYrMk MILF Manor,]]'' which had a similar, but far less {{Squick}}-inducing premise.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: 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 TheBeard?

%% CriticalResearchFailure: Jack and Avery are upset that their daughter can't be president since she was born in Canada which isn't true. There are only two types of American citizens: natural born and naturalized. The former can be president, the latter can't. Since both of Elizabeth's parents are American citizens, she would be a natural born citizen no matter where she was born which means she could be president. Neither John [=McCain=] nor Ted Cruz was born in America but were able to run for president because they were children of American citizens who just happened to be born in another country.
%% CriticalResearchFailure of CriticalResearchFailure: [=McCain=] was born in an American territory, and Cruz's issue was not completely settled since he did not actually gain his party's nomination, nor did any courts definitely decide in his favor based on the merits of his case. While it does seem likely Liddy would ultimately qualify for office, [[https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/natural_born_citizen legal experts]] say there is still "some debate" on the issue, and given that the real-life Cruz had this legal ambiguity used against him, it could indeed hurt Liddy's chances in a similar way.

** The episode [[Recap/ThirtyRockS2E11MILFIsland MILF Island]] includes clips from the ShowWithinAShow MILF Island. In 2022, Creator/TLC debuted the reality show "MILF Manor", which had a similar, but far less {{Squick}}-inducing premise.

* ValuesDissconance In "100", Tracy (at Jack's advice) loses all the respect he got after the EGOT simply by continuing to work in television. In the years since the show aired, "prestige TV" has started dominating and even often exceeding Hollywood's prestige, which makes this sentiment ludicrous today.

** In "100", Tracy (at Jack's advice) loses all the respect he got after the EGOT simply by continuing to work in television. In the years since the show aired, the "Golden Age of Television" has only gotten more prestigious, which would make this sentiment rather puzzling today.

** [[AwesomeMcCoolname Criss]] [[ButtMonkey Chros]]. Most of Liz's boyfriends get DieForOurShip treatment, but Criss has, for the most part, gotten a free pass because the fandom really likes him.

** "How do you do, fellow kids?". [[labelnote:Explanation]]Steve 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/{{ACDC}} "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 [[TotallyRadical try too hard to be "relatlable" hip and "down with the kids"]]. It has also led to fans using {{Snowclone}}s for different contexts related to certain characters and also as a PretenderDiss 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; [[http://www.reddit.com/r/fellowkids /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.[[/labelnote]]

* HollywoodHomely: Very much DependingOnTheWriter, 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 [[UpToEleven 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.

** Jack/Liz shippers have not done this. Understandable, considering their choices are "Jiz" and "Lack". Or "Lick". Or, if you use last names, "Demon".