Jack hires his own private investigator to lead GE in the wrong direction so that they will not be able to find any dirt on him that might put him in a compromising position. However, when he is asked to give up his cookie jar collection, Jack finds the task too much of a challenge. Meanwhile, Angie announces that she will follow Tracy at all times to keep him in line, which Liz believes to be good until she covers for Tracy and gets on Angie's bad side. Finally, Jenna starts to worry once she starts to lose all the weight she gained over the summer and her popularity begins to hang on the line.
Steady character work drives 62 jokes across a mid-tier season-two episode.
Directed by Don Scardino · Written by Matt Hubbard
WAR
116.2
Wins Above Replacement
“The Collection” ranks #105 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 95.4 — Elite. The episode packs 74 scored jokes at 3.2 per minute, averaging 7.6 on craft and 7.5 on impact, with Jack landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
Get weekly comedy rankings
Join comedy fans getting new analyses, score drops, and the funniest moments each week. Free, no spam.
Top Jokes
Tracy: Tracy: 'You can't ask a bird not to fly. You can't ask a fish not to swim. You can't ask a tiger not to turn back into a Chinese dude at midnight.'
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Kenneth: Kenneth's cookie jar rating: 'So I guess to answer your question, I'd give cookie jars about a 'B.''
Kenneth Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack · Liz: Jack's cookie jar that says 'Mom' on it — which he insists is 'an upside-down wow'
Jack Liz Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: Jack's family skeletons: 'My brother Eddie sells faulty sprinkler systems to elementary schools. My cousin Tim fixes NBA games. My mother's an olympic-level racist. But as for the rest, they're too drunk to do much of anything.'
Jack Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Kenneth: Kenneth: 'It'll be just like back home on the pig farm. I'm gonna fatten you up, grow to love you, and then my uncles'll slit yr thro—'
Kenneth Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 74 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Jack: Jack gestures grandly at New York City telling what appears to be a child or subordinate 'one day sir, this whole city will be yours'
Jack Character Comedy Absurdist Jack · Liz: Liz interrupts the moment and Jack immediately responds 'Oh hey, can I talk to you? You always ruin everything.'
Jack Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Liz · Jack: 'What animal best describes you?' / 'An eagle with the head of a bear.' / 'Thank you. Your respect means the world to me, Lemon.'
Liz Jack Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack · Liz: Jack reveals he hired a private investigator to investigate himself
Jack · Liz: Jack deflects Liz's therapy talk by using a fake phone call: '- ring ring! - Hello. I'm sorry, I have to take this.'
Jack Liz Character Comedy Visual Gag ★ Rewatch Jack · Liz: Jack turns Liz's therapy overshare back on her: 'Well, you do the same thing with your therapist every week, don't you?'
Jack Liz Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Liz · Angie: 'Bling bling! That is ghetto fabulous.' / 'This belonged to Brooke Astor.'
Tracy: 'I'm whipped. Angie got me up at 7:30 today. Did you know in the morning they have food, TV, almost everything. It's pretty good.'
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist Angie · Liz: Angie asks Liz to help supervise Tracy, then: 'Will you be able to do that without falling in love with him?' / 'Does...' [Liz's reaction]
Angie: 'Oh, you looking for a sassy black friend? Well, you got one now, girlfriend. Go on — rowr!'
Angie Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy Jenna: Jenna asks if any fan mail is from prisons
Jenna Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jenna: Jenna sees fan mail and exclaims: 'Oh! God! Putting on this weight is the best thing that ever happened to me. People actually like me now.'
Jenna Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Announcer: The Enorme perfume ad voiceover: 'Enorme. Make him chase the chunk. Available exclusively at your local drug store. Do not use if menstrua—'
Liz: Liz: 'Can't plus-size women wear regular perfume?'
Liz Observational Deadpan/Understatement Jack · Jenna: Jack to Jenna: 'And on a personal level, I just like you more when you're fat.'
Jack Jenna Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Angie · Liz · Tracy: The makeup artist puts makeup on Tracy and Angie reacts: 'Oh, hell no!' while Liz says 'Actually, he looks great. Thank you.'
Jack: Jack: 'I was at the 1976 Democratic National Convention — but it's okay, I was there beating up hippies.'
Jack Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Jack: Jack's family skeletons: 'My brother Eddie sells faulty sprinkler systems to elementary schools. My cousin Tim fixes NBA games. My mother's an olympic-level racist. But as for the rest, they're too drunk to do much of anything.'
Jack Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Lenny · Jack: PI: 'Any weird sex stuff I should know about?' / 'You know what? Don't tell me. I like to find that out on my own. I'm a watcher.'
Lenny: The PI's parting gift: 'If I sign a friend up at my gym, I get a free hat, so... think about it.'
Lenny Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Jenna · Liz: Jenna shows Liz her belt notch progression to prove she's losing weight
Jenna Liz Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Jenna: Jenna's list of what's at stake: including 'the offer to play Ms. Pac-Man in the live-action Atari movie'
Jenna Absurdist Character Comedy Jenna · Liz: Jenna has a secret ritual with Jack where they 'slap their palms together when they walk by each other' — revealed to just be a high five
Tracy: Tracy: 'You can't ask a bird not to fly. You can't ask a fish not to swim. You can't ask a tiger not to turn back into a Chinese dude at midnight.'
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: 'The only way I could feel better about myself is to get booby-slapped by a coked-out Russian stripper.'
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist Kenneth: Kenneth: 'It'll be just like back home on the pig farm. I'm gonna fatten you up, grow to love you, and then my uncles'll slit yr thro—'
Kenneth Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack · Lenny: Jack defends his all-white country club: 'That is not an all-white club. What about Johnny Carlos? He's ethnic.' / 'He's the King of Spain, Jack. I don't think that counts.'
Jack: Jack on his undocumented worker: 'I could never pay an English-speaking person that little. They'd starve.'
Jack Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Lenny · Jack: The PI's final question: 'You don't have a massive collection of cookie jars, do you?' — followed by a long pause and Jack: 'How did you find out about that?'
Lenny Jack Setup/Punchline Misdirection ★ Rewatch Jack: Jack attending a cookie jar collectors convention under the pseudonym 'Victor Nightingale' — 'Collector of the Year. Congratulations, Victor Nightingale.' / 'Thank you. Yes, I'm Victor Nightingale.'
Jack Character Comedy Visual Gag ★ Rewatch Lenny: PI: 'CEOs don't have thousands of cookie jars. Weird little guys in bow ties do.'
Lenny Deadpan/Understatement Observational Jack: Jack: 'You wish it was a gay thing. This is worse.'
Jack Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Jack · Lenny: Lenny presents a fake photo of Giuliani with antique wooden dolls, then: 'That's a fake! Giuliani doesn't collect dolls.' / 'Yeah, you're right. He doesn't. Because he incinerated them! In 1989, the year he ran for mayor. He looks so happy.'
Jack Lenny Setup/Punchline Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Lenny: 'You can either be the head of the largest corporation in America, or get buried in a bow tie with a bunch of cookie jars.'
Lenny Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Liz · Angie: Liz covers for Tracy: 'He went to the vet. His cobra got sick.' / 'Okay.'
Liz Angie Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Tracy: Tracy returns and fabricates: 'My cobra, Ramses. He had got sick. So I took him to the vet. Then my thumb got caught in my butt, so I nodded my head until it came out.'
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy Angie · Liz: Angie to Liz: 'You smell like enorme and brass polish. You were at a strip club.' / 'I trusted you. You wear glasses.'
Tracy: Tracy immediately blames Liz: 'It was all Liz Lemon's fault! The whole plan was hers!'
Tracy Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Tracy: Tracy, now forced to act like an adult: 'Good-bye forever, Liz Lemon. Thank you for being my secretary!'
Tracy Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Angie: Angie rejects the bank-robber sketch: 'No. I don't want to perpetuate any black stereotypes.'
Angie Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Liz · Angie: Sketch pitch: Tracy plays 'a gentleman who wears flamboyant clothes and lives uptown' — 'He's a pimp.' / 'He's an entrepreneur.' / Character name: 'Slick-Back Lamar.'
Angie: Angie rejects the Barack Obama sketch because: 'We support Kucinich.'
Angie Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Angie · Liz: Liz tries to appeal to Angie and physically touches her: 'Excuse me. Did you just try to control my body with your white hand?'
Angie Liz Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Grizz · Dotcom: Grizz and Dotcom's sketch pitch: 'We open on a lone soldier walking through the desert. The year: 1861. The place: Mars.'
Kenneth: Kenneth feeding Jenna: 'This stuff will make you real fat, Ms. Moroney. It made my dad's heart just up and give out.' / 'And that's what made my mom's friend Ron move in.'
Kenneth Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jenna: Jenna eating: 'Coming in for a landing... there's turbulence. And now an Indian guy got up to use the bathroom and an air marshal shot him. No, no, I can't!'
Jenna Cringe/Discomfort Dark/Subversive Kenneth: Kenneth: 'Boy, I wish I had some pig sedative right now.'
Kenneth Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Jack · Lenny: Jack, handing over his cookie jars: 'They'll be taken to Jersey City and incinerated.' / Jack immediately: 'Oh, no. No, no, no, no. I can't have that — give that to me.'
Lenny: Lenny: 'You're like John Kerry with his wind surfing. I warned him too.'
Lenny Observational Character Comedy Pete: Pete to Liz on dealing with Angie: 'Oh, you want a scary black lady to be nice to you? Tell her you like her nails. Always works for me at the bank.'
Pete Character Comedy Observational Kenneth: Kenneth: 'Uh, usually, but now you've got me thinking about it.' [after being asked if he can walk and talk at the same time]
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Liz: Liz's theory: 'Women eat because they feel bad about themselves. Maybe that's the problem. Everything's going so well for Ms. Moroney right now.' — then adds: 'Yeah, so be mean to her.'
Liz Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Mr. Mason · Kenneth: Kenneth approaches a random famous person and is immediately insulted: 'Who picked out your outfit? Stevie Wonder?'
Kenneth: Kenneth's planned mean thing to say: 'I could wait for her to drop something and then say, 'Smooth move, Ex-Lax.' That's what my mom's friend Ron would do.'
Kenneth Character Comedy Running Gag Callback Jack · Liz: Jack's cookie jar that says 'Mom' on it — which he insists is 'an upside-down wow'
Jack Liz Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: Jack's backstory: 'We never had any cookie jars in my home because my mother never baked us any cookies because she never felt we deserved any cookies.'
Jack Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Jack: Jack: 'The guy with the weird hobby never gets the corner office.'
Jack Character Comedy Observational Jack · Liz: Jack: 'Lemon, I'm impressed. You're beginning to think like a businessman.' / Liz: 'A businesswoman.' / Jack: 'I don't think that's a word.'
Jack Liz Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Jack: Jack explains his strategy for Angie: 'I think you're gonna have to fight her.' — then breaks down the tactical approach: 'I think Angie's right-handed, so you have to work her clockwise.'
Jack Character Comedy Absurdist Jack: 'Every time I meet a new person I figure out how I'm gonna fight 'em. You have a gimpy left knee, right?'
Jack Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Jack · Liz: Jack physically demonstrates fighting technique on a reluctant Liz: 'You want to lean in to take away their momentum. Hands up, come on!' / 'I don't want to.' / 'Lean in, come on.' / 'Oh, Jack, stop it!'
Jack Liz Physical/Slapstick Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jenna: Jenna reacts to the insults with 'Oh, daddy! Go on, keep talking. What else don't you like about me?'
Jenna Character Comedy Misdirection ★ Rewatch Callback Kenneth · Jenna: Kenneth's devastating insult list to Jenna — including: 'You lied about your brother drowning so people would come to your one-woman show.' / 'Your toes look like dried-up shrimps.'
Jenna: Jenna's response to Kenneth's insults: 'Oh, daddy! Go on, keep talking. What else don't you like about me?'
Jenna Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Liz · Angie: Liz offers Angie a 'consultant credit' — Angie: 'You think you're gonna buy me off so I'll play nice? It's never gonna happen.' / Then Liz ejects her, Angie says 'Are you stepping up on me?' / And Liz: 'So what if I am? Also, your nails look tacky.'
Liz Angie Character Comedy Escalation Callback Tracy · Angie: Tracy intervenes and tells off Angie: 'You're controlling. You're manipulative. You're loud—' Angie: 'Tracy—' / 'I've never heard you talk like that before.' / Tracy: 'Wait, let me get the shirt off.'
Liz · Tracy: Liz interrupts Tracy and Angie's apparent reconciliation/intimacy: 'Okay, so just to be clear, does this mean Angie is leaving or—' / 'Oh, no! You guys start with that?'
Liz Tracy Reaction Beat Cringe/Discomfort ★ Rewatch Kenneth: Kenneth: 'I wasn't able to get Ms. Moroney to eat. I'm so sorry. Well, it turns out she's the wrong kind of crazy. And I guess we have to get married now.'
Kenneth Character Comedy Absurdist Callback Jack: Jack looks at the cookie jar: 'Ah, look at that kooky old cookie jar. I like the upside-down 'wow' on it.'
Jack Callback Character Comedy Callback Kenneth: Kenneth's cookie jar backstory: 'They'd go into the bedroom to sort out their paperwork...' [describing mom and Ron] '...and I'd just go ahead and stare at that cookie jar.'
Kenneth Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Callback Kenneth: Kenneth's cookie jar rating: 'So I guess to answer your question, I'd give cookie jars about a 'B.''
Kenneth Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: Jack: 'Some people have so many problems that there aren't enough cookie jars in the world to contain them.'
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jack · Kenneth: Jack gives his entire collection to Kenneth — then instructs him on proper handling: 'Always hold them squarely at the base, never by the lid.' And signs off as: 'Tell Patty and Beth and all of them that Vic Nightingale says hello.'
Jack: Final line: 'Are you happy now, you son of a bitch. You son of a bitch.' [Jack, presumably to the cookie jar or GE itself]
Jack Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch