Sick of New York and frustrated with his career, Floyd contemplates a move to the Midwest and asks Liz if she's consider leaving TGS behind. Jack rushes to Paris (and soon, the altar) with Christie's auctioneer Phoebe while Tracy works furiously on financing his latest career move, dubbed the "Tracy Jordan Comeback."
Absurdist wordplay fuels 82-point finale with 44 jokes in relentless 22-minute sprint.
Directed by Paul Feig · Written by Jack Burditt, Robert Carlock
WAR
114.7
Wins Above Replacement
“Cleveland” ranks #99 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 95.9 — Elite. The episode packs 75 scored jokes at 3.5 per minute, averaging 7.6 on craft and 7.5 on impact, with Liz landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
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Top Jokes
Tracy: Bill Cosby and Oprah Winfrey are the chief majors. But Jesse Jackson, Colin Powell, and Gordon from Sesame Street, they're members too. And they meet four times a year in the skull of the Statue of Liberty.
Tracy Absurdist Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jenna: Wow, how Sex in the City are we right now? I'm Samantha, you're Charlotte, and you're the lady at home who watches it.
Jenna Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Tracy: I'm gonna have so much money, my grandkids are gonna play lacrosse. Lacrosse, Liz Lemon.
Tracy Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Jack: Yeah, we're all models west of the Allegheny.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: I think she's weird, and I don't like her, and her ex-boyfriend is old. And I don't even think she's British! And you shouldn't marry her, Jack. Please don't marry her!
Liz Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 75 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Jack: By the hammer of Thor!
Jack Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jack: Like 'get away with murdering my first wife' kind of dough.
Jack Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: You could get that third humidifier you always dreamed about.
Jack Character Comedy Observational Liz: Slow down. I'm not ready to move my humidifiers yet.
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Callback Phoebe: I'm Phoebe. We've met before. Jack proposed to me outside your office. I have hollow bones. Like a bird.
Phoebe Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Phoebe · Jack: We've just won the auction rights to a fantastic collection of Chinese erotica. Pick out a good one for me.
Jack: That's Bianca's wedding date. It was my idea.
Jack Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Jack: My Princeton roommate did it the right way. Dated his college girlfriend for 13 years, and the marriage didn't last eight months. And now he's a post-op transgender.
Jack Setup/Punchline Dark/Subversive Escalation Jack: Phoebe reset my watch to New York time while I was sleeping on the plane.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Tracy: It's gonna be at least $30 million with all the Claymation sex scenes in it.
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: I'm gonna have so much money, my grandkids are gonna play lacrosse. Lacrosse, Liz Lemon.
Tracy Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Liz: 'I'm on my grind.' Is that a...
Liz Reaction Beat Character Comedy Jack: You're never gonna lose a job to a guy named Garkel.
Jack Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack · Floyd: Nah, you're not gonna beat that. / Well-played, Garkel.
Jack Floyd Callback Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: Well-played, Garkel.
Jack Callback Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Floyd · Liz: Oh, you like Wagner? No, I like Elmer Fudd. Kill da wabbit.
Liz: My parents were both poets, so I don't really get it.
Liz Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Jenna: I'd marry Jack in a heartbeat. I would have a three-way with two Jacks.
Jenna Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Jenna: Wow, how Sex in the City are we right now? I'm Samantha, you're Charlotte, and you're the lady at home who watches it.
Jenna Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Frank · Tracy: Bill Cosby hates you. / Why would he say that? What have I ever done to embarrass black people?
TGS Writers: Why are we doing this? Because the Jets lost!
Kenneth: In other words: Oh, Tracy, you can't use any of my songs. [sung in Michael McDonald style]
Kenneth Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Tracy: The Black Crusaders. [conspiracy graphic/reveal]
Tracy Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch Liz: If I was gonna spend $600 to have my boobs pinched, I would have gone to that fundraiser at the Clintons' house.
Liz Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Phoebe: We've only just got engaged, and already our intercourse is infrequent and unimaginative.
Phoebe Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Liz: Phoebe, I'm really not that kind of girlfriend. I would gladly pick you up at the airport.
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Floyd · Liz: Yeah, you gotta talk to your landlord about that rat race. / That is my landlord.
Floyd · Liz: Cleveland. / That is also a place.
Floyd Liz Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Floyd: Floyd describing Cleveland dreams: 'Lakewood... Shaker Heights... Big Creek Parkway... St. John Bosco's... cheering on the tribe at the Jake'
Floyd Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Liz · TSA Agent · Floyd: This dream, this is way down the road, right? Three, maybe four years. / What's this fungus cream for? / All right, that's it. Show's over.
Liz · Floyd: You wanna end up like that? / No. / I'm gonna be like her. [cuts to woman being nearly run over in traffic]
Liz · Floyd: He spit in my mouth! / Let's go to Cleveland.
Liz Floyd Physical/Slapstick Misdirection ★ Rewatch Tracy: Bill Cosby and Oprah Winfrey are the chief majors. But Jesse Jackson, Colin Powell, and Gordon from Sesame Street, they're members too. And they meet four times a year in the skull of the Statue of Liberty.
Tracy Absurdist Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: You can read about that on the interweb.
Tracy Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Tracy: They tanked 50 Cent's movie. They blew out Terrell Owens' ankle. And they canceled Eddie Murphy's Oscar, 'cause he ran out on Scary Spice.
Tracy Absurdist Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch TV News Anchor: Tracy Jordan, the Black Crusaders are coming for you. [TV news anchor says this on live television]
Liz · Jack: Golf clubs? Not just golf clubs. These clubs once belonged to President Gerald Ford.
Liz Jack Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Jack: I haven't been above 72nd Street in over a decade.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jack: We have an attraction that can only be described as... wolf-like. Lupine.
Jack Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Liz: Do you cover him? [Liz's reaction to learning Jack and Phoebe's sleeping arrangements]
Liz Reaction Beat Cringe/Discomfort ★ Rewatch Liz: By the hammer of Thor! [Liz discovers something at the address Phoebe secretly visited]
Liz Callback Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Jack/Kenneth: He set fire to a cardboard cutout of Al Roker, and now he's locked himself in his dressing room.
Tracy: It's an anagram for 'Outlaw Sour Tray.'
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: Who taught Tracy about anagrams?
Jack Reaction Beat Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: Would you also prescribe something for Tracy which would keep him awake during sex?
Liz Cringe/Discomfort Callback Callback Tracy · Liz: They want me to disappear like Coolio. / Coolio is around!
Ensemble: Welcome to Cleveland / Where all the real gone daddies move [musical number begins]
Ensemble Absurdist Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Cleveland Stranger · Liz: Are you a model? / No. / Oh, you are so skinny. You really should eat something.
Cleveland Resident/Singer: Chef Boyardee was born here!
Kenneth: Ms. Lemon, this is Kenneth, the NBC page in New York City. I hate to bother you out west.
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Liz: Kenneth, don't be so New York uptight. I'm sure he'll show up.
Liz Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Liz · Floyd: When did you have time to look for jobs and houses? / When you were at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Liz: Did I tell you I sat in ZZ Top's car? And then I had lunch with Little Richard.
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Cleveland TV Producer · Liz: We need a host for a new cooking show on WKYC. [beat as Liz registers being offered a Cleveland cooking show job]
Jack: For God's sakes, Lemon, we'd all like to flee to the Cleve. And club it up down at the Flats and have lunch with Little Richard.
Jack Character Comedy Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Jack · Jenna: Lemon, TGS without Tracy Jordan is basically a puppet show. / You know, I'm right here.
Liz · Jack · Other Character: Floyd and I are thinking of moving. / No, you're not. / No, you're not. [Jack and someone else simultaneously]
Jack: That's how I ended up with a timeshare in Port Arthur, Texas.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jack: Yeah, we're all models west of the Allegheny.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Liz · Jack: What is this? / This is Frank's 'Hot Baby' sketch, which is regrettable, but we have no Tracy Jordan and a show in two days.
Phoebe: You know how John Lennon was better than the rest of the Beatles, but didn't realize it until he met Yoko Ono? Well, I'm Jack's Yoko.
Phoebe Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Misdirection ★ Rewatch Liz Reaction Beat Deadpan/Understatement Callback Liz · Phoebe: What happened to your accent? / Um... I don't know what you're on about. You...daft wanker.
Liz Phoebe Misdirection Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: Surprisingly fast. [reaction to Jack finding out about the Black Crusaders very quickly]
Liz Reaction Beat Deadpan/Understatement Liz: I can't go to Cleveland. [Liz's realization, alone]
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Floyd: Right — if the whole world moved to their favorite vacation spots, then the whole world would live in Hawaii and Italy and Cleveland.
Floyd Setup/Punchline Deadpan/Understatement Floyd · Liz: Liz... I took that job. / Blurgh.
Floyd Liz Misdirection Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: I think she's weird, and I don't like her, and her ex-boyfriend is old. And I don't even think she's British! And you shouldn't marry her, Jack. Please don't marry her!
Liz Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: Oh, my God. Lemon, Phoebe was right. You are infatuated with me.
Jack Misdirection Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: What? No! No, no, no.
Liz Reaction Beat Character Comedy Jack: Floyd is moving? / What did you do?
Jack Reaction Beat Character Comedy Liz: I acted like a rational adult! I didn't get engaged to some gold digger, and then delude myself into thinking that I could keep up with her.
Liz Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Liz · Jack: Yeah, Jack, I know that you fell asleep on top of her in Paris. / In Paris, France.
Liz Jack Callback Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: I think you should go. [Jack to Liz, dismissing her]
Jack Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Jack: Uh, Phoebe, darling, Lemon was just leaving. [Phoebe has arrived to find Liz mid-confrontation]
Jack Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy ★ Rewatch 