30 Rock is left in shambles by the cast and crew after Liz is called away for jury duty. Meanwhile, Jack fails to listen to everyone when he becomes obsessed with launching a new big-money product.
Character-driven escalation hits 88, with three joke types woven seamlessly across 75 gags.
Directed by Ken Whittingham · Written by Donald Glover
WAR
130.6
Wins Above Replacement
“The Funcooker” ranks #86 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 96.5 — Elite. The episode packs 84 scored jokes at 3.7 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
Ms. Gaulke: And don't even get me started on Tracy and Jenna.
Ms. Gaulke Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: Hi. I'm Tracy Jordan. My wife is throwing away some of our old towels. Do you want them? Because they're out by the trash cans.
Tracy Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Tracy · Announcer: Peace and love, Track Jordan. / A heartfelt apology from a comedy icon. / I do not apologize, America! I did not even write that apology! I am advertiser Tracy Jordan, and I approved this message.
Jack: I suggest we both go to our respective homes... open a bottle of wine... and heat up some ham... in the shower.
Jack Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Ms. Gaulke: And when the last one of them trundled off that night, I smelled the air and I could feel that it was time. Time for a new beginning. And I knew that this was possible only through a cleansing fire. It would all have to burn. The packing peanuts, the delivery slips... All of it would dance in the warm mouth of my fire. And a new, better, wonderful me... would rise from the ashes like a phoenix. Behold! The splendor of my beginning!
Ms. Gaulke Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback All Jokes — 84 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Kenneth: Are you pickling squirrel meat? Because I can lend you my skull presser.
Liz: A round, plastic deal that holds your shoes with a pocket for a photograph of what shoes are in there.
Liz Observational Character Comedy Liz: I'm going to become wonderful. It's a new beginning. Like a phoenix rise... Watch out! Or... maybe this is going to be the worst day ever.
Liz Misdirection Physical/Slapstick ★ Rewatch Liz: Already today, I have lost faith in 'decorganizing', chipped a tooth, and lost a shoving match to what I thought was a female bike messenger.
Liz Escalation Character Comedy Liz · Frank: Why are you not wearing pants? / They still have the heat set for winter and my office is boiling.
Liz Frank Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Liz: No. I told you to buy more 'Proactiv'.
Liz Wordplay/Pun Misdirection Jenna: # Synonym's just another word for the word you want to use...?
Jenna Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch O'Cannon: That's no excuse, ye banshee! You and this gravy-face have slarneyed up a real donnybrook!
Jenna Dark/Subversive Setup/Punchline Jenna: I feel I should be rewarded for going this long without swearing on live TV.
Jenna Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Tracy: 50 grand? Can anyone cut this in half?
Tracy Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jenna · Liz: We could cut the lesbian scene. But the Oscars love that kind of thing.
Jack: Obviously, you can't do both T.G.S. and Janie Jimplin.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jenna: I choose the movie. My face is bigger on movies.
Jenna Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Tracy: There's two guys at my gym named Oscar.
Tracy Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Liz: Jenna. That's a glue stick.
Liz Visual Gag Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Jack · Liz: Or should I say... very little? The pocket microwave? / You can buy it on Friday along with everyone else. It has a ham button. You used my idea!
Jack Liz Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Liz: It has a ham button. You used my idea!
Liz Character Comedy Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Dr. Vicki: Between my medical practice and this job, I'm pulled in every direction. / I haven't been this tired since I was forced to do that dance marathon in Dubai.
Dr. Vicki: Well, I can give you these pamphlets on stress and diet and doing a movie and a TV show at the same time. But they're all going to tell you that you need to give something up. And... they're wrong.
Dr. Vicki: Mostly because I checked the wrong box on a form once.
Dr. Vicki Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Dr. Vicki: It's being funded by the U.S. military and the W.N.B.A.
Dr. Vicki: Oh, please. We don't want a paper trail. Take 25 of these a day for the rest of your life.
Liz: I've got my Princess Leia outfit and some Playgirl magazines from the early 1980s. They will dismiss me immediately as a weirdo.
Liz Character Comedy Observational Kenneth · Liz: If no one's in charge, who will yell at me for goofing up the lunch order? / We all will, Kenneth. We all will.
Kenneth: You guys are my best friends. [Kenneth, alone, looking at camera]
Kenneth Reaction Beat Character Comedy Tracy: Do you want to buy half a watch? I have to pay my fine in cash.
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist Tracy: I learned that if you pay some money afterwards, you can say whatever you want on TV. I can even say what Ernest Borgnine whispered to me at --
Tracy Dark/Subversive Absurdist ★ Rewatch Tracy: I guess 'F.C.C.' stands for 'Federal Bunch of Sticklers'.
Tracy Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy Tracy: Now I'm off to appear on Martha Stewart Live. Ooh, it's going to be raunchy!
Tracy Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Tracy: Great news, Liz! I'm in a clinical trial for a military-grade anti-sleeping pill.
Tracy Character Comedy Running Gag Callback Liz · Frank: I am not asking you this as the boss you love to undermine, but as the friend whose birthday you love to forget. Oops!
Liz · Frank: Liz tells Frank to 'be normal sauce' for two hours
Liz · Court Officer: And I don't really think it's fair for me to be on a jury because I'm a hologram. / You seem fine to me. Report to Jury Room 'B'.
Tracy: The subject is unusually thirsty. [Tracy at a lab, being observed]
Tracy Reaction Beat Dark/Subversive Lutz · Jack: Can we get lunch from McDonald's today? / No.
Lutz Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jack: Something that will appeal to the marketing holy trinity: College students, the morbidly obese and homosexuals.
Jack Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Jack: 'Bitenuker' is highly offensive to those who speak either French or Dutch. A Franco-Dutchman would pronounce it 'bet nyooker'.
Jack Wordplay/Pun Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch TGS Writer · Jack: We should make t-shirts! / Yes. / And you're in charge of that.
Liz: Excuse me, Imperial Guard. How long do these arson trials typically last?
Liz Character Comedy Visual Gag ★ Rewatch Callback Liz · Court Officer: You can drop the voice. / Oh. This used to get me out of jury duty in Chicago all the time. / This ain't Chicago, honey.
Liz: Liz looks around the jury pool and says 'Oh, my God' — implying the assembled jurors are visibly chaotic
Liz Reaction Beat Visual Gag Kenneth: And I keep starting to sneeze... but nothing comes out.
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Kenneth: I'm in charge. [Kenneth, to himself, after hanging up]
Kenneth Character Comedy Reaction Beat Kenneth: Attention, everyone! All menstruating women go home immediately!
Dr. Vicki: You know what I like to do for eight hours? The TV Guide crossword puzzle.
Dr. Vicki Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Dr. Vicki · Tracy: Okay. Uh... Now, let's try one where you're not... clawing at the window. / I don't think so, Steven. This feels more natural.
Jack · Liz: They're all dead, Lemon. / What? / They're all dead unless they come up with a name for my pocket microwave. They're up in my office right now where there are fewer... foosballs.
Jack Liz Misdirection Character Comedy TGS Writers · Josh: Hey, I'm rapping Obama. / Welcome to another episode of 'Robot/Bear Talk Show'. / Hey, I'm Josh doing an impression of DeNiro as an auctioneer. Do I hear $1,000? Do I hear $1,000?
Jack: Now that you're back, uh... I thought you could do it yourself. How hard can it be?
Jack Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Jack: Jenna fills in time with a song. Goodnight, goodnight. Mild applause. / You'll be done in an hour.
Jack Meta/Self-Referential Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Tracy: All we do is joke around together about our stupid boss, Liz Lem...
Tracy Character Comedy Awkward Silence Tracy: I don't need to stop being myself if I am the advertiser. I have the money. I'll just buy up all the ads and let that hilarious Tracy Jordan character do whatever he wants.
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist Jack · Frank: Including English, Frank. / They knew what a 'Hot Richard' was?
Jack: 'V'. 'A'. 'G'... Why don't we start over? / 'N'. 'I'. I have an idea. Why don't I just pull them all at once?
Jack Dark/Subversive Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Jack: 'N'. 'I'. I have an idea. Why don't I just pull them all at once?
Jack Callback Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: Liz on the witness stand, narrating her workplace situation as if it's the arson she's describing — overlapping with the actual arson witness testimony
Liz Irony/Sarcasm Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Ms. Gaulke: Throw in a late Hannukah and the fact that I work in a Kwanzaa neighborhood and it all made for a very stressful day.
Ms. Gaulke: But he returned, unrepentant, with 12-inch ones.
Ms. Gaulke: Christine was late, as well as Harry S. They said it was a problem with the subways. But I suspect they were doing sex with each other.
Ms. Gaulke: I supervise 12 employees, most of whom would be unemployable in any other field. They are selfish, irresponsible people who I know talk about me behind my back.
Ms. Gaulke: And don't even get me started on Tracy and Jenna.
Ms. Gaulke Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Ms. Gaulke: And when the last one of them trundled off that night, I smelled the air and I could feel that it was time. Time for a new beginning. And I knew that this was possible only through a cleansing fire. It would all have to burn. The packing peanuts, the delivery slips... All of it would dance in the warm mouth of my fire. And a new, better, wonderful me... would rise from the ashes like a phoenix. Behold! The splendor of my beginning!
Ms. Gaulke Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback TGS Writer: Oh, my God. I knew this day would come. I have so much inside of me.
Kenneth · Jack: Kenneth suggests 'Funcooker' — everyone immediately accepts it as brilliant, leading to Jack saying 'Kenneth, I owe you one.'
Kenneth · Jack: So, it's kind of like a 'funcooker'. / The Funcooker. Yes! It's snappy, fresh, and incapable of offending. / Kenneth? I owe you one. / One hug, you mean?
Tracy · Announcer: Peace and love, Track Jordan. / A heartfelt apology from a comedy icon. / I do not apologize, America! I did not even write that apology! I am advertiser Tracy Jordan, and I approved this message.
Tracy · Jack: Is that 30 seconds, yet? / Nine? / Okay. Here comes the funcooker.
Dr. Vicki · Jenna: Hey. Is your vision steadily narrowing down to a pinpoint as if a darkness is closing in on you? / No, ma'am!
Liz · Jenna: Which one of you is Jenna? / No. / Go to sleep! Sleep, Jenna! Sleep! It's for your own good! Don't fight me! Sleep or die!
Liz Jenna Physical/Slapstick Escalation ★ Rewatch Tracy · Liz · Jack: Hey, America! Oh, Tracy. Please cover for them. Check out my funcooker! / Did he just say 'Funcooker'? / Oh. That's where I've heard that.
Tracy: Hi. I'm Tracy Jordan. My wife is throwing away some of our old towels. Do you want them? Because they're out by the trash cans.
Tracy Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Tracy · Jack: Now that's got to be 30 seconds. / Nine?
Tracy Jack Running Gag Deadpan/Understatement Callback Unknown: 'Bite nuker'! [Someone shouts this in the chaos]
Unknown Callback Running Gag ★ Rewatch Callback Unknown: 'Bite nuker!' — the subtitle indicates this word is shouted from within the warehouse/loading area during the Funcooker chaos
Unknown Callback Running Gag ★ Rewatch Callback Frank: Oh. 9:00 A.M. Monday. Right, Liz? I'll be there with pants on. You're the best!
Frank Callback Character Comedy Callback Liz: All I did was ask for a Diet Slice and some pita chips.
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Liz: All I did was ask for a Diet Slice and some pita chips.
Liz Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Ms. Gaulke: Nice try, Liz. Now, it's my turn.
Ms. Gaulke Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: Well, they're all terrified of you. That will get you a week of good behavior.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Liz · Jack: My containers. My new beginning. / Lemon, we've both had a rough week. You went 'firebug', and I'm sitting on four million mini-microwaves that Legal won't let out of the warehouse.
Liz Jack Callback Character Comedy Callback Jack: I suggest we both go to our respective homes... open a bottle of wine... and heat up some ham... in the shower.
Jack Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: It works in the shower? / You know what? This really is the best day ever.
Liz Callback Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Tracy: Here comes the funcooker! [Title card / final beat]
Tracy Running Gag Callback ★ Rewatch Callback 