Jack forces Tracy to attend the Source Awards and Kenneth has words with a rap artist. Meanwhile, Liz goes to great lengths to prove to her African-American date that she's not racist.
Absurdist escalation drives 74 jokes in 22 minutes—3.26 per minute hits series peak density.
Directed by Don Scardino · Written by Daisy Gardner, Robert Carlock, Matt Hubbard
WAR
94.4
Wins Above Replacement
“The Source Awards” ranks #17 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 90.2 — Elite. The episode packs 74 scored jokes at 3.3 per minute, averaging 7.4 on craft and 7.2 on impact, with Tracy landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
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Top Jokes
Tracy: See, it's a Catch 22! Aw, he's gonna be there too.
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Tracy: I'm gonna find a homeless man, dress him up like me, set him on fire, then I'm gonna start a brand-new life in Arizona under the new name 'Ron Mexico.'
Tracy Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jack: Remarkable people, the Blacks. Musical, very athletic. Not very good swimmers. Again, I'm talking about the family.
Jack Escalation Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: Donaghy Estates tastes like the urine of Satan after a hefty portion of asparagus.
Jack Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback Jack · Liz: You shot a Black! No no no no no-- It's cool; that's his last name.
Jack Liz Callback Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback All Jokes — 74 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Liz · Unknown: Good show, Liz Lemon! You coming to the after-after party. We have after-after parties?
Unknown: You going to the after-after-after-after party?
Unknown: It's about to turn back into a taxi dispatch center
Tracy: Don't go, Liz Lemon! There's still a after-after- after-after-after-party! I just gotta take my kids to soccer first.
Tracy Escalation Character Comedy Callback Jack: Must've been Angie Harmon
Jack Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Liz: When I was eight, I had my name on the score board at a Phillies game. And they spelled it 'Lez' but it was pretty cool.
Liz Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: This ought to prove my mother wrong, saying that Donaghy is Gaelic for 'failure.'
Jack Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Jack: She's a Murphy. Bunch of mud farmers and sheep rapists.
Jack Escalation Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Jack: Oh, I'm gonna vomit! What the hell am I gonna do? I've got 10,000 cases of this crap.
Jack Reaction Beat Escalation Jack: Dewey, Cheatham, and Livingston
Jack · Liz: A black? That is offensive. No, no-- That's his last name. Steven Black.
Jack Liz Misdirection Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Jack: Remarkable people, the Blacks. Musical, very athletic. Not very good swimmers. Again, I'm talking about the family.
Jack Escalation Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: When I was dating Condoleezza, there were genuine cultural tensions. I mean, we would go to the movies, and she would yell at the screen.
Jack Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Liz: You know, when I leave work at night, I am just riding on a subway car full of scary, teenaged people.
Liz Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Tracy · Others: Ridikolus-- the hip-hop producer? Isn't that the guy that bit Suge Knight? Yeah, yeah-- He bit Suge Knight. Held Raven Simone over a balcony. Made Rasheed Wallace cry.
Tracy: Don't let no one in who's not on the list 'Cause this mess is gonna get raw like sushi, so haters to the left.
Tracy Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Kenneth · Ridikolus: What's your game, man? Boggle.
Jenna: With that guy that sent you the flowers? By mistake?
Jenna Callback Character Comedy Callback Flower Guy: The old leather pumpkin?
Liz: Why am I the only person that doesn't care that he's black?
Liz Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Tracy: You're lookin' at a ghost, JD. Dead Man Walking, The Green Mile, Christmas With the Klumps.
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Tracy: Growing up, when you were mad at somebody, you would just break dance at 'em. I'm talking about break hard, pull it back-- pop, boom, boom-- Into gladiator-- Bring it back down.
Tracy Character Comedy Physical/Slapstick ★ Rewatch Jack: contains no lead and is not fatal if swallowed
Jack Absurdist Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Tracy: I don't want my kids to have to go to college.
Tracy Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Tracy: Is that a piece of corn in there?
Tracy Visual Gag Observational Callback Steven: You better watch out. Don't make a flap. 'Cause Hilary's wearing a Yankees cap.
Steven Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Liz: What do you sit and look at?
Liz Observational Deadpan/Understatement Steven: Not the fantasy movie with the, uh, monsters. I'm talking about the Strategic Defense Initiative.
Steven Misdirection Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: Donaghy Estates tastes like the urine of Satan after a hefty portion of asparagus.
Jack Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: Well, pick out a stick. 'Cause Ridikolus is gonna be drinking Donaghy Estates tonight.
Ridikolus: Wow, that would've been a great way to shoot Tracy.
Ridikolus Dark/Subversive Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Jack · Ridikolus: He's very unstable. Eh, did you get that at a cane shop?
Ridikolus: Did you get that at a cane shop?
Steven: Yeah, but when you see it on an airplane, they take out all the swears and stuff, and it makes it so much funnier, I think.
Steven Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Steven: We should take a carriage ride around the financial district.
Steven: I get it. You don't like me, because I am black!
Steven Escalation Character Comedy Callback Liz: I love black men! I love you!
Liz Escalation Cringe/Discomfort Callback Liz: No, no-- not that kind of chocolate.
Liz Meta/Self-Referential Cringe/Discomfort ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: Maybe if I just hang out with him four or five more teams, he'll see on his own that we are a bad match.
Liz Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Kenneth · Amanda: Ah, than Ahman-da. It's Amanda.
Tracy: Tom Cruise, 'cause that's how Oprah says it. 'Tom!' That's good; sounds like her.
Tracy Character Comedy Observational Tracy: Shooting people at the Source Awards is a tradition. It's like Christmas. Or shooting people outside of Hot 97.
Tracy Escalation Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Tracy: I called his pitbull a gaywad on 106 & Park.
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Tracy: We were both cast members on a Nickelodeon show called Ray Ray's Mystery Garage.
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Tracy: See, it's a Catch 22! Aw, he's gonna be there too.
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Ridikolus: What color plane you want to buy? Clear... like Wonder Woman's.
Tracy: I'm just going through the classic stages of grief. Fear... Denial... Horniness... Wisdom, sleepiness-- And now, depression.
Tracy Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Kenneth: Aren't you the man who told me to live every week like it's Shark Week? And that nothing's impossible except for dinosaurs.
Kenneth Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Tracy: The manatee has become the mento.
Tracy Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Steven: I found this really neat Canadian restaurant in Times Square.
Liz: I truly don't like you as a person.
Liz Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Callback Steven: And maybe someday, our children or our children's children will hate each other like that. But it just doesn't work that way today.
Steven Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Steven: No no no no no... Some women are gay.
Steven Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Callback Steven: Well, let me get on the black phone and call the NAACP so they could just send you your medal right now.
Steven Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Steven: Because I collect tote bags.
Steven Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Tracy: No--I think you like to dress black men up as Oprah as part of your effort to protect our dignity.
Tracy Character Comedy Callback Tracy: I'm gonna find a homeless man, dress him up like me, set him on fire, then I'm gonna start a brand-new life in Arizona under the new name 'Ron Mexico.'
Tracy Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Tracy: Well, I think I speak for the both of us when I say because they're metal penises.
Tracy Observational Character Comedy Liz · Tracy: What would Oprah do? Would she run away from her community, or would she face her problems head-on and try to make a difference at the Source Awards. What would I doooo!
Liz Tracy Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Tracy as Oprah: What would I do, Tracy? What would I doooo!
Jack: The monkey died of natural causes, so we're in the clear.
Jack Dark/Subversive Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback Tracy: You're all my children of the corn.
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback Liz · Steven: He's channeling Oprah. Why? Because he's articulate?
Liz Steven Irony/Sarcasm Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Callback Tracy as Oprah: You're all wonders. You're all my miracles. You're all my children of the corn.
Audience member: I actually tried some before. It tasted real good, but it make my tongue turn white.
Ridikolus: Got your nose! Jay, go get my nose back.
Tracy: Because everyone is getting Vermont maple scooo-oones!
Tracy Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Kenneth: Oh, will he be mad when you give them back?
Kenneth Character Comedy Misdirection ★ Rewatch Thug: Son, to have you, your moms must be so stupid she thinks Grape Nuts is an STD.
Thug Setup/Punchline Observational Kenneth: Well, sir, your mother must not have raised you right, 'cause you're not saying very nice things.
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Jack · Liz: You shot a Black! No no no no no-- It's cool; that's his last name.
Jack Liz Callback Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Steven · Ridikolus: I got blood on my tote! He's got blood on his tote.
Ridikolus: Wait till I tell Tupac about this.
Ridikolus: Wait till I tell Tupac about this.
