The tables are turned when production begins on Liz’s new talk show, “Dealbreakers,” and she experiences what its like to walk a mile in Jenna’s shoes. Jack, dealing with pressure from Devin, calculates to make “Dealbreakers” a success. Meanwhile, Tracy takes on the ultimate Hollywood challenge in order to prove his commitment to his wife. Everyone pitches in to help Tracy reach his goal including Kenneth, Dotcom and Grizz.
Four-minute talk show sketch sustains 84.5-point momentum with absurdist character comedy at peak density.
Directed by Don Scardino · Written by Kay Cannon
WAR
92.6
Wins Above Replacement
“Dealbreakers Talk Show #0001” ranks #78 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 84.5 — Elite. The episode packs 89 scored jokes at 3.7 per minute, averaging 7.2 on craft and 6.9 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
Devon: F.E.M.A. Paid for these flowers because your show is going to be a disaster.
Devon Dark/Subversive Setup/Punchline Liz: ♪ I'm a star ♪ ♪ I'm on top ♪ ♪ somebody bring me some ham ♪
Liz Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Tracy: We're lucky people laugh when I say stuff.
Tracy Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Jack: My mother never used my beauty pageant winnings to buy her married boyfriend a motorcycle.
Jack Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: and not the one I got from eating batteries.
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy All Jokes — 89 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Narrator: To catch a predator, the XFL halftime show, Storage for broken copier equipment, And now... Dealbreakers.
Liz: ♪ I'm a star ♪ ♪ I'm on top ♪ ♪ somebody bring me some ham ♪
Liz Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jack: You're like a swarthy, big-hipped Kelly Ripa.
Jack Character Comedy Observational Astronaut Mike Dexter: I have to go back into space, Liz. I hope you enjoyed the kissing, followed by my genuine interest in that TV dance competition.
Liz · Pete: What? No, go away. This is my fantasy, Pete!
Liz Pete Meta/Self-Referential Cringe/Discomfort ★ Rewatch Pete: I knew it. You're blonde in your fantasies. It looks terrible.
Pete Observational Character Comedy Jenna: Thank you! But you don't know what it looks like, because of the door!
Jenna Character Comedy Absurdist Liz: Wow, she finally figured that out.
Liz Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Jenna: Oh, my god. I bet she put Charlotte up to this.
Jenna Character Comedy Absurdist Jack: My mother never used my beauty pageant winnings to buy her married boyfriend a motorcycle.
Jack Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Frank: Lately, I've been shoplifting just to feel in control. 'cause no one knows I took the candy bar. No one but Peter.
Frank Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Tracy · Liz: Come over here and check out my corner. - No trap. - What? Come over here, I said... In my normal tone of voice.
Tracy: and not the one I got from eating batteries.
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy Tracy: I mean, havin' a daughter's Like goin' to the nba all-star weekend. It changes you. Makes you want to take your wife to the doctor.
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist Tracy: I said 'click' to distract you from the sound of the handcuffs.
Tracy Absurdist Misdirection Angie: Why are you handcuffed to the bookshelf I built for my husband?
Angie Character Comedy Observational Tracy: There was a better kid's birthday party up the street!
Tracy Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Tracy: Your hair did? You just got your hair did! You have to get your hair did again?
Tracy Wordplay/Pun Escalation Liz: Maybe we could un-did these handcuffs.
Liz Wordplay/Pun Callback Callback Angie · Liz: Oh, cracker! - Racist!
Liz: Now, it's not about who I like the most or who's the funniest, so it's Toofer.
Liz Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Toofer · Liz: As Tennyson wrote, 'I mete and dole unequal-' No, never mind. Lutz, you want it?
Lutz · Liz: Too much pressure. Writers who never talk, Anyone want a promotion?
Frank: My first act as leader, I'm telling them to take down the Internet firewall. We can surf porn again.
Frank Character Comedy Observational Receptionist · Jack: I.M. Adouche? - I am a douche?
Jack: Our health care costs are way down since we started putting something in the coffee to keep women from getting pregnant.
Jack Dark/Subversive Absurdist Devon Banks: Worse than me in capri pants... Which you'd think I'd be able to pull off 'cause I'm tall.
Devon Banks: like me at the provincetown flogging festival.
Devon Banks · Jack: Moron says what? - What?
Tracy: What's that? I want it! I forgot why I originally came in here!
Tracy Character Comedy Escalation Tracy: Sure. I know him from the secret black people meetings.
Tracy Absurdist Meta/Self-Referential Tracy: Nah, I'm just kiddin'. He's not invited.
Tracy Misdirection Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Shopkeeper: EGOT is not a person, T.J. It's a goal. It stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony, Four awards that Thomas planned on winning in his career.
Tracy: That's a good goal for a talented crazy person.
Tracy Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Liz: I can't wear contacts 'cause the doctor says my eyeballs are too pointy.
Liz Character Comedy Absurdist Jack: What if we change your name to Veronica St. Pierre? No, that's too much.
Jack Character Comedy Escalation Jack: Your hair... Is fine.
Jack Reaction Beat Cringe/Discomfort Tracy: I got us all this 'EGOT' necklace for me.
Tracy Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Tracy: and especially for little Chewbaquina Jordan.
Tracy Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Dr. Spaceman: This machine is a genuine... 'Lasig'?
Liz: Dear, Dr. Spaceman, thank you for your submission. The New England Journal of Medicine does not publish X-rated cartoons.
Liz Character Comedy Absurdist Dr. Spaceman: Well, why not? It's so frustrating. But at least I heard it from a friend.
Dr. Spaceman: But you know what? I'm not supposed to have sex with my patients.
Dr. Spaceman: Your hair is... Fine.
Frank: Very funny. I'm not Liz!
Frank Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Grizz: They're all composers.
Grizz Deadpan/Understatement Observational Tracy: ♪ I've started already ♪
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist Liz: Oh, actually, I got three haircuts. The first two made me look nuts.
Liz Character Comedy Escalation Liz: Hey, do I say the word 'camer-ah' weird? Camer-ah.
Liz Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Jack: Okay. Don't try to move the body yourself.
Jack Misdirection Dark/Subversive Jenna: Jack, you don't know what it's like to be on camer-ah. You're vulnerable. You're exposed.
Jenna Character Comedy Callback Callback Jenna: Not anymore. You've created two lizzes, Regular Liz and performer Liz.
Jenna Observational Character Comedy Jack: Treat her like The New York Times treats its readers.
Jack Observational Meta/Self-Referential Frank: You've just never seen my reading glasses before, which I have to wear to read your dumb sketches.
Frank Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Frank: And I lost my hat after I threw it at a bus that wouldn't stop for me, Even though the guy could see me running.
Frank Character Comedy Absurdist Frank: Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be in my office trying to have it all!
Frank Character Comedy Escalation Director: Great, and smile. With your mouth.
Director: Wave like a human being. You remember waving?
Director: Are you spinning a basketball?
Director: Are you spinning a basketball?
Jack: The, uh, gobos are really moraying, right, pete?
Jack Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Devon: F.E.M.A. Paid for these flowers because your show is going to be a disaster.
Devon Dark/Subversive Setup/Punchline Devon Banks (via card): F.E.M.A. Paid for these flowers because your show is going to be a disaster.
Jack: I got a tattoo that says 'freedom' in Chinese, And for what?
Jack: You're better at this than Oprah.
Jack Irony/Sarcasm Misdirection Liz: I fully understand the irony of what I'm about to say, But I have locked myself in my dressing room, and I am not coming out!
Liz Meta/Self-Referential Callback Callback Tracy: How could five of the most popular musical styles all played at once sound so bad?
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist Lutz: Is it me, or is Liz Lemon getting hotter?
Lutz Character Comedy Visual Gag Liz · Jack: In the end, the police chief turns out to be the bad guy. I didn't say I wasn't going to see it.
Liz Jack Character Comedy Misdirection Jack: I may as well let banks play out one of his gay home invasion fantasies on me.
Jack Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Liz: And I want pizzas for all the hungry people in here!
Liz Character Comedy Escalation Whoopi Goldberg: That's why Arlen Specter had to change parties.
Whoopi: That's why Arlen Specter had to change parties.
Tracy · Whoopi Goldberg: Wait! Is that a daytime Emmy? - It still counts. Girl's gotta eat.
Whoopi Goldberg: Colored man, put it back. Put it down.
Jenna: I've always wondered why you guys don't take the door off its hinges.
Jenna Observational Character Comedy Jack: Your audience has spent the last hour listening to Kenneth tell cleaned-up versions of Garrison Keillor stories.
Jack Character Comedy Observational Jack · Liz: Hey, buddy, your hair looks nice. - Don't try those tricks on me!
Liz: I could have had it all, But you had to ruin it With your thinking!
Liz Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Liz: You should kill yourself!
Liz Dark/Subversive Escalation Liz: This is how I cry now, ever since you made me get that off-brand eye surgery.
Liz Callback Character Comedy Callback Tracy: ♪ baby girl ♪ ♪ you're the missing piece ♪ ♪ the perfect fit ♪ ♪ baby girl ♪ ♪ you're the product of doing it ♪
Tracy Character Comedy Escalation Angie: Damn it, Tracy. That's what's in your heart?
Angie Reaction Beat Character Comedy Tracy: I won't be around a lot, 'cause I'm 'EGOT'-ing.
Tracy Character Comedy Callback Callback Tracy: We're lucky people laugh when I say stuff.
Tracy Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Jack: And from now on, whenever a television is on in the background of a Sheinhardt-Universal soap opera, You will be on it.
Jack Character Comedy Escalation Liz: I'm gonna be on TV on TV!
Liz Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Astronaut Mike Dexter: I found it on the beach. That's me again.
Astronaut Mike Dexter: What is this TV show? It's very distracting.
