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
44
Wins Above Replacement
“The Collection” ranks #135 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 75.1 — Great. The episode packs 62 scored jokes at 2.7 per minute, averaging 6.9 on craft and 6.5 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
Tracy: You can't ask a tiger not to turn back into a Chinese dude at midnight
Tracy Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch Jack: My mother's an Olympic level racist
Jack Dark/Subversive Escalation ★ Rewatch Jack: My brother Eddie sells faulty sprinkler systems to elementary schools
Jack Dark/Subversive Escalation Liz: An eagle with the head of a bear
Liz Absurdist Wordplay/Pun ★ Rewatch Jack: Every time I meet a new person I figure out how I'm gonna fight 'em
Jack Character Comedy Dark/Subversive All Jokes — 62 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Liz: You always ruin everything
Liz: An eagle with the head of a bear
Liz Absurdist Wordplay/Pun ★ Rewatch Liz: You hired someone to investigate yourself? That's weird
Jack: Well, you do the same thing with your therapist every week, don't you?
Jack Observational Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: Wait a minute. That's a fake phone
Liz Visual Gag Reaction Beat ★ Rewatch Liz: Bling, bling! That is ghetto fabulous
Liz Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Angie: This belonged to Brooke Astor
Tracy: I'm whipped. Angie got me up at 7:30 today
Tracy: Did you know in the morning they have food, TV, almost everything. It's pretty good
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Angie: Tracy's like a horny child. He needs constant adult supervision
Angie: Oh, you looking for a sassy black friend? Well, you got one now, girlfriend
Angie Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jenna: Putting on this weight is the best thing that ever happened to me
Jenna Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Commercial: Enorme. Make him chase the chunk
Liz: Can't plus size women wear regular perfume?
Jack: I just like you more when you're fat
Jack Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Jack: The 1976 Democratic National Convention. But it's okay, I was there beating up hippies
Jack Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Jack: My brother Eddie sells faulty sprinkler systems to elementary schools
Jack Dark/Subversive Escalation Jack: My mother's an Olympic level racist
Jack Dark/Subversive Escalation ★ Rewatch Jack: Unless getting thrown out of a Chili's is a crime
Len: You know what? Don't tell me. I like to find that out on my own. I'm a watcher
Len: If I sign a friend up at my gym, I get a free hat
Jenna: The offer to play Ms. Pac-Man in the live action Atari movie
Jenna: A high five. It was our special thing
Jenna Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Tracy: You can't ask a tiger not to turn back into a Chinese dude at midnight
Tracy Absurdist Escalation ★ 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 Dark/Subversive Jenna: Me want food, right?
Jenna Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Kenneth: I'm gonna fatten you up, grow to love you, and then my uncles'll slit your throat
Len: He's the King of Spain, Jack. I don't think that counts
Jack: I could never pay an English-speaking person that little. They'd starve
Jack Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Len: You don't have a massive collection of cookie jars, do you?
Len Setup/Punchline Misdirection ★ Rewatch Jack: Yes, I'm Victor Nightingale
Jack: That's a fake! Giuliani doesn't collect dolls
Len: Because he incinerated them! In 1989, the year he ran for mayor
Len Dark/Subversive Escalation Liz: He went to the vet. His cobra got sick
Tracy: Then my thumb got caught in my butt, so I nodded my head until it came out
Tracy Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch Angie: You smell like Enorme and brass polish
Angie Callback Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Tracy: Thank you for being my secretary!
Angie · Liz: He's an entrepreneur. What's the character's name? Slick-back Lamar
Angie: Did you just try to control my body with your white hand?
Angie Observational Escalation Grizz: We open on a lone soldier walking through the desert. The year 1861. The place Mars
Kenneth: 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 Len: You're like John Kerry with his windsurfing. I warned him too
Kenneth: Tell her you like her nails. Always works for me at the bank
Kenneth Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Kenneth: Usually, but now you got me thinking about it.
Kenneth Character Comedy Observational Liz: Women with low self-esteem take refuge in either food or sex. Not me, of course
Jenna: Who picked out your outfit? Stevie Wonder?
Jenna Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Kenneth: Smooth move, Exlax
Jack: I've always viewed it as an upside down 'wow'
Jack Character Comedy Misdirection ★ Rewatch Jack: Every time I meet a new person I figure out how I'm gonna fight 'em
Jack Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Jack: You have a gimpy left knee, right?
Jack Character Comedy Observational Jenna: Oh, daddy! Go on, keep talking. What else don't you like about me?
Jenna Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Liz: Also, your nails look tacky
Liz Callback Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: Also, your nails look tacky.
Liz Callback Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Tracy: But I don't care. 'Cause I'm putting my foot down.
Tracy Character Comedy Escalation Tracy: But the both of you, you're forcing me to act like an adult. An adult!
Kenneth: Well, it turns out she's the wrong kind of crazy.
Kenneth Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Kenneth: They'd go into the bedroom to sort out their paperwork.
Kenneth Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun ★ Rewatch Callback Kenneth: It was almost as if I took every problem that I ever had and I put it inside that cookie jar. And I sealed it up so tight that nothing would never, ever, ever get out
Kenneth Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Kenneth: And I sealed it up so tight that nothing would never, ever, ever get out.
Kenneth Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Kenneth: I'd give cookie jars about a 'B.'
Kenneth Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: Please tell Patty and Beth and all of them that, uh, Vic Nightingale says hello
Jack Character Comedy Callback Jack: You son of a bitch. You son of a bitch
Jack Reaction Beat Character Comedy 