In the second season finale, Jack moves on to a new job involving politics in Washington, but the position is not quite what he anticipated. Meanwhile, Liz suffers a pregnancy scare, Kenneth confronts rival page Donny when applying for a summer job, and Tracy works on his latest invention.
Elite density carries absurdist escalation: 63 jokes in 22 minutes sustains 94+ rating.
Directed by Don Scardino · Written by Tina Fey
WAR
152.2
Wins Above Replacement
“Cooter” ranks #3 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 100.0 — Elite. The episode packs 89 scored jokes at 4.1 per minute, averaging 7.7 on craft and 7.7 on impact, with Jack landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
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Top Jokes
Jack · Liz: The Sabor de Soledad revelation: Mexican cheese curls get their 'special tangy flavor from evaporated bull semen' and were causing false positives on pregnancy tests
Jack Liz Dark/Subversive Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback Cooter/James: Cooter's addendum: 'It wasn't even a hamburger. It was a sandwich.'
Cooter/James Deadpan/Understatement Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: Jack: 'Oh, that explains your hair's thickness and shine.'
Jack Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Dennis: Dennis's definition of 'prenatal': 'Pre... before. Natal... ruined.'
Dennis Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun ★ Rewatch Cooter: Origin of 'Cooter Berger': 'Cooter because I look like a turtle, and Berger because he saw me eating a hamburger one time.' — 'It wasn't even a hamburger. It was a sandwich.'
Cooter Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 89 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Jack: Jack lists his government responsibilities including 'the War on the Poor'
Jack Dark/Subversive Misdirection ★ Rewatch Jack: Jack mentions 'the cryogenecists are already sharpening their head saws'
Jack Dark/Subversive Absurdist Jack · Liz: Liz eating Mexican cheese curls at 8am; 'Don't knock my Sabor de Soledad. I found a prize in here the other day... I hope.'
Jack Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Jack: Jack's final line before leaving: 'I have to go. It's time for my freedom search.'
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy Tracy: Tracy bursts in: 'Liz Lemon, do these look like wizard nipples to you?'
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: Liz responds: 'Are the lightning bolts supposed to be going in or out?'
Liz Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Tracy: Tracy's porn video game title: 'Goregasm... colon... The Legend of Dong-Slayer'
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: Tracy to Liz: 'Yeah, you fixulate this!' — then immediately apologizing
Tracy Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Tracy: Tracy accuses everyone of 'goofing off like a bunch of goof-offs' while standing in the middle of his porn video game production
Tracy Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Tracy · Liz: Tracy asks Liz 'You having your woman times?' — Liz starts to deny it, then realizes she's late
Tracy Liz Character Comedy Misdirection ★ Rewatch Liz: Visual gag: Liz staring at a birth control pill calendar with days crossed off like a prisoner counting days
Liz Visual Gag Character Comedy Cerie: Cerie's unsolicited birth control advice: 'I think you're supposed to take all of them, like, in a row.'
Cerie Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Liz: Liz's comeback to Cerie: 'But I have been sexually active since I was 25.'
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Pete: Pete's memory of Carter's Olympic boycott announced as 'Bad news, archers.'
Pete Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Pete: Pete's bitter aside after the boycott memory: 'Peanut farmer.'
Pete Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Callback Donny · Kenneth: Donny emerges from hiding in a narrow space waiting to taunt Kenneth
Kenneth: Kenneth accuses Donny of sending a false memo about the deadline: 'Saboteur!'
Donny: Donny gloats: 'You'll be staying here in New York all summer, fighting the crowds, smelling the hot garbage, while I travel to beautiful, breezy Beijing.'
Donny Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Cooter: Cooter Berger introduces himself: 'vice chair of Farm Subsidies, acting head of FEMA, temporary acting head of the FBC while the acting head is on trial.'
Cooter Absurdist Dark/Subversive Jack: Jack: 'I don't like to think of this President as a lame duck. I think of him as a lame eagle.'
Jack Wordplay/Pun Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Cooter · Jack: The ceiling is visibly leaking; Cooter insists 'No, it's not. We've looked into it, and it's not.'
Cooter · Jack: No pens in the government office — Cooter has 'gotten used to it' and writes his extension number in the leaking ceiling water
Cooter: 'We're not in a recession.' — delivered in response to being asked why there are no pens
Cooter Irony/Sarcasm Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Cooter: 'I know, I'm not drunk either, but we'll manage.' — re: not being prepared for the Appropriations Committee meeting
Cooter Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Liz: Liz enters Jack's old GE office and starts talking to his mother's portrait, then catches herself
Liz Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Tracy · Jenna · Grizz: Tracy directing the voice acting session: 'Warrior, you have defeated the snake-elf. Now join me in the orgy chamber. The poets will sing of this night.'
Tracy · Jenna · Grizz: Tracy to Jenna after stopping the session: 'Not you, Grizz. You're doing great.' while firing Jenna for bad acting
Tracy: Tracy's avatar sensuality direction sequence: 'Touch my cheek... chest area... little robot... butt... like it's a secret... knees-butt... feet with your knees'
Tracy Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch Tracy · Jenna: Tracy directing Jenna's sex sounds, then calling 'Let's take it again from the top. This time, let's record.' — revealing they weren't recording
Liz: Liz's voicemail to Jack, interrupted by the sex sounds session in progress: 'Aah! Things are happening!'
Liz Reaction Beat Character Comedy Randall: Government official refuses $9 million dam funding: ''Dam' is a swear word.' Proposes calling it a 'God finger' instead.
Randall Absurdist Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Jack: Jack's speech to the committee about pens escalates to 'We need hope. We need change. We need experience. We need pens.'
Jack Setup/Punchline Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Committee Member: Committee member response to Jack's Rome speech: 'Well, that's one theory.'
Kenneth: Kenneth explains his lateness: 'I had to put on my jeans by myself.'
Donny · Jenna: Donny emerges from Jenna's bag: 'Did someone say 'Donny'? No. No. Oh. It's pretty muffled in there.'
Liz: Liz explaining 'back-door brag': 'It's hard for me to watch American Idol because I have perfect pitch.'
Liz Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Kenneth: Kenneth's attempt at a back-door brag: 'It's hard for me to watch American Idol because there's a water bug on my channel changer.'
Kenneth Character Comedy Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Callback Cooter: Cooter: 'I haven't felt this energized at work since the two weeks when they tried to teach us Farsi.'
Cooter Absurdist Dark/Subversive Jack: Jack hears that Geiss spoke from his coma and said 'Jackie Boy' — and immediately writes his resignation letter
Jack Character Comedy Escalation Cooter · Jack: Cooter refuses to accept Jack's resignation because as acting head of the FBC he oversees the EWPC
Jack: Jack's final appeal to Cooter invokes GE's slogan: 'He brings good things to light!'
Jack Character Comedy Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Cooter: Cooter's resignation pile: 'Look at these resignation letters. They're written in ketchup, dirty rock, leak water.'
Cooter Absurdist Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Callback Liz · Friend: Liz figures out her friend is pregnant: 'You're pregnant.' 'What? Yes! How can you tell?' 'I just can. People always underestimate my instincts because of my looks.'
Liz Friend Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: Liz: 'It is Floyd, right?' — implying doubt about who the father is
Liz Deadpan/Understatement Dark/Subversive Friend: Cutaway to margarita night: 'Whoo! Those margaritas were strong.'
Friend Misdirection Character Comedy Friend · Liz: Liz discovers her friend slept with Dennis: 'It was before he tried to throw me under the subway train.'
Liz: Liz's response: 'You had a three-way with Roseanne and Tom Arnold.'
Liz Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Liz: Liz's single-mom role models: 'Like Erin Brockovich or Sarah Connor.'
Liz Character Comedy Absurdist Liz: Liz's advice to her friend: 'And while you're there, try to get me some Adderall.'
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Cooter: Cooter, upon pens arriving: 'We've got pens! Glorious pens!'
Cooter Running Gag Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Cooter · Jack: The pens arrive — but they're all caps: 'Oh, my God! They're caps, nothing but caps!'
Cooter: Cooter breaks down: 'That's not my name! My name is James Reilly! Cooter Berger? What do you think I am, a cartoon dog?'
Cooter Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Cooter: Origin of 'Cooter Berger': 'Cooter because I look like a turtle, and Berger because he saw me eating a hamburger one time.' — 'It wasn't even a hamburger. It was a sandwich.'
Cooter Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jack · Cooter: Jack's plan to get fired: 'We have to work together to get fired.'
Cooter/James: Cooter's addendum: 'It wasn't even a hamburger. It was a sandwich.'
Cooter/James Deadpan/Understatement Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Dennis: Dennis has been sneaking into Liz's apartment to pretend to be at work: 'I told my mom I got a job, so I've been coming here for the past couple weeks during the day.'
Dennis Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Dennis: Dennis's definition of 'prenatal': 'Pre... before. Natal... ruined.'
Dennis Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun ★ Rewatch Dennis: Dennis names his unborn son 'Morpheus': 'If it's a boy, we're gonna name him Morpheus, like that guy in The Matrix.'
Dennis Character Comedy Absurdist Dennis: Dennis's exit line: 'Morpheus hears everything that you say.' then 'Your boobs are gonna get bigger.'
Dennis Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Dennis: Dennis's parting shot: 'Your boobs are gonna get bigger.'
Dennis Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Jenna: Jenna's opening of Kenneth's essay, talking to camera about herself: 'You must have been such a pretty monkey.'
Jenna Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jenna · Kenneth: Jenna's fake talking-head promoting Kenneth includes: 'Yes. Kenneth, can you take this money to the many charities I support anonymously?' — then the envelope is empty
Jenna: Jenna's essay claims Kenneth 'can lift almost 100 pounds' as a fitness achievement
Jenna Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jenna: Jenna's essay fragments: 'Mind, body, spirit? / Kenneth, I see myself in you? / So brave? / So ready? / To be all that you can do? / So beautiful in every way? / I see myself in you?'
Jenna Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jenna: Jenna's essay ends with the line 'To be all that you can do?' — mangling the Army's slogan
Jenna Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Jenna: Jenna, having been moved by her own speech, calls after Kenneth about copier paper as he runs out: 'Oh, Kenneth, someone was looking for you. They need 12 boxes of copier paper on stage one.'
Jenna Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Kenneth · Unnamed Staff: Someone asks Kenneth to move 12 boxes of copier paper on stage right after he's about to run to submit his application
Jack · Cooter: The gay bomb: Jack and Cooter's plan to get fired involves a Pentagon 1994 proposal for a weapon that would 'make enemy soldiers totally gaybones for each other'
Jack: Re: why the gay bomb project was abandoned: 'It would have been expensive, impractical, and offensive to both the red states and the gayer blue states.'
Jack Dark/Subversive Observational Jack: Jack's aside: 'Like eating a burrito before sex.'
Jack Absurdist Deadpan/Understatement Frank: Frank's credit on the porn video game: 'I got an Additional Filth By credit.'
Frank Character Comedy Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Donny · Kenneth: Donny gloats over Kenneth's copier paper task: 'Too bad it cost you a trip to China.' / 'Looks like you only have 30 seconds to get your application to the 27th floor. And you're not gonna make it.'
Donny: Donny reveals the application was for the WRONG person, with 30 seconds left: 'Looks like you only have 30 seconds to get your application to the 27th floor. And you're not gonna make it.'
Donny Escalation Character Comedy Kenneth: Kenneth's physical comedy sequence: running with copier paper, crashing, doing a flip into an elevator
Kenneth Physical/Slapstick Escalation ★ Rewatch Liz: Liz's collapsing voicemails to Jack: from casual to 'This is a disaster. This baby's gonna have a father!'
Liz Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch C.C. · Jack: C.C. to Jack: 'I did certain things for you in bed that you were going to reciprocate. But then we broke up before my birthday, so you owe me.'
C.C. Jack Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Jack: Jack's reaction to C.C. agreeing to help: 'Yes! I am so on a roll! No crying in my bath tonight.'
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Liz: Compilation of Liz's escalating voicemails to Jack, now including pregnancy and Kenneth's acrobatics
Liz Running Gag Escalation Callback Liz: Liz's extended voicemail about converting her 'laundry and newspaper pile into a nursery'
Liz Character Comedy Observational Jack · Liz: The Sabor de Soledad revelation: Mexican cheese curls get their 'special tangy flavor from evaporated bull semen' and were causing false positives on pregnancy tests
Jack Liz Dark/Subversive Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: Jack: 'Oh, that explains your hair's thickness and shine.'
Jack Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: 'I guess in Mexico women use it to stop their periods before Cinco de Mayo.'
Jack Absurdist Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Callback Jack · Liz: Jack: 'I'm a little afraid to ask if you're still eating them.' / Liz: 'They're so good.'
Jack Liz Character Comedy Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: Liz: 'No, I can't go to a sperm bank. The Duffy men use those like ATMs.'
Liz Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack · Liz: Jack reveals the President gave him a nickname too: 'The Jacker.' Both Jack and Liz react with resignation.
Jack Liz Character Comedy Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Jack · Cooter: The gay bomb actually works on Jack and Cooter in the committee room — both men start to feel weird
Jack Cooter Escalation Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Callback Committee Member: Pens follow-up: 'Ooh, pens!' — a committee member reaches for the pen caps in the committee room
Frank · Tracy: Frank has been playing Dong-Slayer for three months without realizing it: 'Dude, I played this thing for a couple hours. It's okay, I guess.' / 'Frank, you've been in your office for three months.'
Frank: Frank has been playing Goregasm for three months and his reaction: 'Yes! I'm gonna be a billionaire!'
Frank Character Comedy Escalation Callback