When Liz reprimands Tracy in front of the TGS staff, Tracy asks Liz to stop giving him preferential treatment. Liz agrees, but Tracy thinks that Liz should give up some of her privileges also. Jack remembers some unpleasant memories of his father after his mother, Colleen, visits. Jenna adopts a pet gibbon.
Season 3 peaks at 87.6 with 66 jokes—nearly three per minute throughout.
Directed by Scott Ellis · Written by John Riggi, Tina Fey
WAR
128.8
Wins Above Replacement
“The Natural Order” ranks #50 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 98.8 — Elite. The episode packs 74 scored jokes at 3.3 per minute, averaging 7.8 on craft and 7.7 on impact, with Tracy Jordan landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
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Top Jokes
Colleen Donaghy: "It's Florida, Jack! It's like it never stopped being the '70s down there. And a guy like Paul, who can drive at night, you just don't say no to that!"
Liz Lemon · Tracy Jordan: Tracy: 'And you're no longer allowed to point at women in the cafeteria and yell, I wanna get that pregnant!' / Tracy: 'Fine, I'll bring my lunch from home.'
Kenneth Parcell: Kenneth: 'Well, as a child, I had a prize pig that I thought was my best friend. But then one day, I picked up one of her piglets. She went crazy! She bit off my nut sack that I kept tied around my belt to feed squirrels.'
Jack Donaghy · Liz Lemon: Jack: 'Well, I pay you a little less, yes.' [to Liz asking if he treats her differently as a woman]
Jack Donaghy: Jack: 'It's the biggest regret of my life, Lemon... And I once made love to Kathy Hilton.'
All Jokes — 74 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Liz Lemon: The elaborate scheme to get Tracy to work on time: fake 11am call at 8am, fake rehearsal schedule, and resetting all his clocks to say PM when it's AM
Tracy Jordan: Tracy bursts in furious: 'I took my son to his cello recital this morning at what turned out to be midnight yesterday!'
Tracy Jordan: Tracy: 'White oppressors, answer my question. What time is it, really?' / Staff: '2:45 PM.' / Tracy: 'You're a bunch of racists.'
Liz Lemon: Liz: 'What? How did we jump to that already?'
Tracy Jordan: Tracy: 'You treat me like a child! No -- worse than that! You treat me like one of those little pageant girls with the clip-on teeth.'
Liz Lemon · Tracy Jordan: Liz invokes Oprah: 'Oprah says that you teach people how to treat you, and this is what you've taught us, because you're always late and you take no responsibility for your actions.' Tracy: 'Irregardless!'
Liz Lemon · Kenneth Parcell: Liz: 'You know what? Race card.' Kenneth: 'No, don't accept it!'
Jonathan: Jonathan: 'She had me make dinner reservations for tonight. And by night, I mean 4:30 this afternoon.'
Jack Donaghy: Jack: 'There's a restaurant hostess in midtown I'd like to see cry.'
Jack Donaghy: Jack: 'Including more than one Unitarian!'
Jack Donaghy: Jack: 'It's the biggest regret of my life, Lemon... And I once made love to Kathy Hilton.'
Liz Lemon · Jack Donaghy: Liz: 'Do you want a hug?' Jack: 'What is this, the Italian parliament?'
Jonathan: Jonathan: 'Evidently, the concierge at the Plaza has a beard, and she'd rather not get raped.'
Liz Lemon · Director: Tracy hasn't come back but sent a gibbon to rehearse in his place. The gibbon is 'pretty good.'
Tracy Jordan: Tracy's prepared statement: 'Dear racist Liz Lemon, this is how you treat me — like a white-whiskered gibbon put on this earth to do nothing but dance around for your amusement and reduce the insect population of Malaysia.'
Liz Lemon: Liz: 'Why? The gibbon is on time, he knows his blocking, and he doesn't try to bite the dancers!'
Liz Lemon Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Gibbon (as Tracy surrogate): Cut to talking-head of the gibbon sitting alone: 'I think I've proven my point.'
Liz Lemon · Tracy Jordan: Liz to Tracy arriving: 'Oh my god! Like we really have time for you to walk down the stairs that slowly! Time jump!'
Liz Lemon · Tracy Jordan: Liz: 'Tracy, it costs the show a lot of money when you pull these shenanigans.' Tracy: 'Don't patronize me with your Celtic slang, Liz Lemon.'
Tracy Jordan: "Fine, I'll bring my lunch from home." — Tracy's response to being banned from yelling 'I wanna get that pregnant'
Liz Lemon · Tracy Jordan: Tracy's 'equal treatment' demands: 'Then tomorrow I'm sending a regular town car for you instead of one of those duck tour boats.'
Liz Lemon · Tracy Jordan: Tracy: 'And you're no longer allowed to point at women in the cafeteria and yell, I wanna get that pregnant!' / Tracy: 'Fine, I'll bring my lunch from home.'
Liz Lemon · Tracy Jordan · Crew: Liz tells Tracy to be at work at 10am and know his lines. The crew audibly murmurs in disbelief. Tracy: 'You don't think I could do that?'
Tracy Jordan · Liz Lemon: Tracy's extended villain laugh becomes competitive — Liz and Tracy end up in an overlapping laugh-off that extends through a scene break with jazz music
Grizz · Beth: Grizz and Dotcom's side-conversation: 'Beth, that was a big mistake you made.' / 'Grizz, it was a year ago. You're engaged now. Just drop it, okay...'
Grizz Beth Character Comedy Misdirection ★ Rewatch Grizz · Dotcom: Grizz calls Liz an 'ice queen'; Dotcom: 'I told you she would turn cold.'
Jack Donaghy · Colleen Donaghy: Jack: 'My assistant is named Jonathan.' Colleen: 'Yes, I know. I met him.'
Paul Brett · Jack Donaghy: Paul: 'Hey Colleen, can I borrow one of your ties?' Jack: 'Oh, brother.'
Jack Donaghy: Jack: 'Great! I'll call the restaurant. See if they can seat a third wheel.'
Crew Members: Two crew members at end of day: 'Now let's get outta here before we realize we've forgotten about something.' / Pause / 'I feel like we're half-assing this.'
Kenneth Parcell: Kenneth: 'Oh, I didn't know anyone was here. That wasn't me screaming in the bathroom.'
Kenneth Parcell: Kenneth about the gibbon: 'Once it tries to mate with a child, I'm sure animal control will just shoot it.'
Jenna Maroney: Jenna: 'He's not an animal. Look at him! He's a little person!' [The gibbon then giggles.] 'Oh, he loves me! Somebody loves me. I'm gonna name him Little Jenna and let him live in my dressing room.'
Jack Donaghy: Jack: 'Have you ever been to Florida? It's basically a criminal population. It's America's Australia.'
Liz Lemon: Liz: 'You know, some men like older women. Let's not make this about you, okay?'
Tracy Jordan: Tracy: 'Professional is my middle name. No need. I've got it memorized.'
Tracy Jordan: Tracy directs the crew with expert terminology: 'I'm going to do a Valentino cross, camera right, then dump the laugh. So stay on your fours, guys! One, two, three, jump and pose!' — followed by a union break he calls at exactly 3:15.
Tracy Jordan: Tracy directing his own rehearsal with technical jargon: 'Valentino cross, camera right, then dump the laugh... stay on your fours'
Tracy Jordan: Tracy lists groups who shouldn't get preferential treatment: 'Not black comedy superstars. Not Hispanics. Not Indians. Not whatever this guy is.'
Tracy Jordan · Liz Lemon · Brian: Tracy forces Liz to change a water cooler jug herself by refusing to let anyone help her — leading to an extended physical comedy sequence where she struggles alone
Tracy Jordan: Tracy: 'No one help her!'
Len (P.I.): Jack's private investigator: 'I'm wearing a child's Halloween costume under this.'
Jack Donaghy: Jack: 'What is he, a check forger? Real estate swindler? Bird owner?'
Jenna Maroney: "His costume is hiding his erection."
Kenneth Parcell: Kenneth: 'Well, as a child, I had a prize pig that I thought was my best friend. But then one day, I picked up one of her piglets. She went crazy! She bit off my nut sack that I kept tied around my belt to feed squirrels.'
Liz Lemon · Frank Rossitano: Liz: 'I hope to have a daughter someday, and I want her to—' [gets hit by fart] 'Oh god, what is that smell? It's like orange-flavored egg! It's in my mouth!'
Frank Rossitano: Frank: 'Good. We're learning. This next one's me.'
Jack Donaghy · Liz Lemon: Jack: 'Well, I pay you a little less, yes.' [to Liz asking if he treats her differently as a woman]
Jack Donaghy · Liz Lemon: Jack on coddling Liz: 'With a man I can be more direct, but with you I have to have a conversation, talk things through more.' Liz: 'Gimme an example.' Jack: 'Well, right now comes to mind.'
Liz Lemon: Liz: 'That's the Quantum Leap intro.'
Jack Donaghy · Liz Lemon: Jack: 'Now, what I originally wrote for my father may be dated. Who would be our current Nikita Khrushchev?' Liz: 'Mm... Simon Cowell?'
Tour Guide: Tour guide: 'Now you're standing on the very spot where Gracie Allen took Jack Paar's virginity.'
Tour Guide: Tour guide: 'Boy, people are not gonna believe that you saw this. So take a lot of pictures.'
Jenna Maroney: Jenna: 'Little Jenna had a baby last night.' [crowd ooh's] 'Thank you.'
Frank Rossitano · Liz Lemon: Frank: 'Ow, Frank! What the hell?' — he punches Liz on the arm as 'treating her like one of the guys'
Frank · Liz Lemon: Frank hitting Liz as a demonstration of equal treatment
Tracy Jordan: Tracy: 'Hmm. That must have been hard for you. [pause] It was.'
Tracy Jordan: Tracy: 'Because a dude boss would be a jerk if he didn't come to Lutz's bachelor party. Also a dude boss would pay for it.'
Tracy Jordan: Tracy to Liz: 'You have to stay here. I haven't gotten your notes on the rewrite, and your input is invaluable to the process... since we're all equal now.' / 'Let's go see some naked daughters and moms!'
Tracy Jordan: "Let's go see some naked daughters and moms!"
Jack Donaghy · Paul Brett: Jack confronts Paul: 'I bet you can, you son of a bitch.' [in response to Paul saying 'you can check out on the TV']
Jack Donaghy: Jack's entire confrontation speech to Paul (written for his father): 'I am not afraid of you. You're just a big bully. Like Simon Cowell. That's right. I just called you a communist.'
Colleen Donaghy: Colleen: 'It's Florida, Jack! It's like it never stopped being the '70s down there. And a guy like Paul, who can drive at night — you just don't say no to that!'
Colleen Donaghy: "It's Florida, Jack! It's like it never stopped being the '70s down there. And a guy like Paul, who can drive at night, you just don't say no to that!"
Colleen Donaghy: Colleen: 'That man left and came back so many times that I totally lost count! One night he went out to move the car, and he was gone from the spring of '57 until... one night he just showed up out of the blue!'
Colleen Donaghy · Jack Donaghy: Colleen to Paul: 'You're on your own tonight. I have a date with my son. He's taking me out to a late dinner.' / Jack: 'It's, uh, 6:00.' / Colleen: 'Whoops!'
Lutz: Cut to bachelor party at strip club: [sobbing] 'I don't wanna be here! I don't like it here! Who's this guy?' — Lutz crying at his own bachelor party
Lutz Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Callback Tracy Jordan: Tracy at the strip club: 'The black one. I can't take it anymore! I hate it!' — Tracy gives up on equal treatment first
Tracy Jordan: Tracy at strip club: 'One of those strippers took off Lutz's shirt. That gland thing is no joke!'
Tracy Jordan Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Callback Tracy Jordan · Liz Lemon: Tracy: 'We're dressing monkeys up as people, and monkeys are playing with people as toys! It's not a toy, Tracy.'
Kenneth Parcell: PR person/Kenneth: 'Hey, before you hear crazy rumors and start believing them, the gibbon did not attack Jenna. He was trying to mate with her face.'
Jack Donaghy: "Hey! Some Like It Hot. I love this movie." — Jack watching the film and immediately pivoting from comedy back to grief/revelation
Jack Donaghy: Jack: 'My mother told me she and my dad went to see it together, and if that's the stuff she remembers, maybe that's how I should remember him too — on a date with my mom instead of walking out the door.'
Jack Donaghy · Liz Lemon: Liz: 'Wait a minute — this movie came out in 1959? How could my father have been gone from the spring of '57 until 1959 if I was conceived in '58...' Jack: 'Jimmy Donaghy's not my father.' [gasps] 'Twist!'
