Jack begins to meddle in Liz's new relationship with Carol.
Season premiere reboots with 99 jokes in 24 minutes—peak joke density carries Liz through a reinvention arc.
Directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller · Written by Tina Fey
WAR
99.5
Wins Above Replacement
“The Fabian Strategy” ranks #84 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 84.1 — Elite. The episode packs 99 scored jokes at 4.1 per minute, averaging 7.2 on craft and 6.8 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
Jack: Like a young Bo Derek stuffed with a Barry Goldwater
Jack Wordplay/Pun Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jack: Hannibal defeated Fabian with a decoy army. James was a plant. The strie wall finish was a decoy. She Hannibaled my Fabian!
Jack Escalation Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: I'll have you know that I wore sandals this summer, over socks... in a dream
Liz Escalation Character Comedy Liz · Carol: I'm on a waiting list to adopt a kid. Touched by a priest... it's fine
Liz: Your health insurance will remain in effect until the end of this sentence
All Jokes — 99 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Liz Setup/Punchline Wordplay/Pun Liz Misdirection Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: It was so warm you could pick fully cooked lobsters out of the water
Jack Absurdist Setup/Punchline Jack: Like a young Bo Derek stuffed with a Barry Goldwater
Jack Wordplay/Pun Absurdist ★ Rewatch Liz: You sound weird. Do you have a beard?
Liz Observational Character Comedy Jack: No more making love on the beach surrounded by a privacy circle of English-trained butlers
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy Liz: Get this, my gynecologist committed suicide
Liz Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Liz Escalation Character Comedy Carol: No, wait, actually that's a half-burned-down McDonald's
Carol Misdirection Observational Carol: Who flies Newark to Atlantic City? Black bachelorette parties
Carol Observational Setup/Punchline Tracy: Oh, I misdialed. I thought I was calling my nutritionist
Tracy Misdirection Character Comedy Pete: We're already printing all of our internal memos on the back of my kids' art
Pete Observational Cringe/Discomfort Jack: The Harry Potter theme park is a huge hit with both anglophiles and pedophiles
Jack Dark/Subversive Wordplay/Pun Jack: The movie division has a James Cameron movie the whole world will see, whether they like it or not
Jack Observational Meta/Self-Referential Jack: Only NBC continues to be the engorged whitehead on the otherwise flawless face of Universal Media
Jack Observational Meta/Self-Referential Liz: Tracy's head size keeps changing
Liz Absurdist Character Comedy Liz: Everyone must make eye contact with Miss Maroney at all times
Liz Absurdist Character Comedy Jack: Like executive producer Ashton Kutcher, or secretary of state Hillary Clinton
Jack Observational Setup/Punchline Jenna Visual Gag Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Tracy: I need you to go to the dry cleaners for me and find out how martinizing works. I've always been curious
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy Tracy: Then I need you to be back by noon to make the bathroom smell like sandalwood before I wreck it
Tracy Cringe/Discomfort Absurdist Brian: I'm not Kenneth, sir. My name's Brian. Kenneth got fired at the end of last season
Brian Setup/Punchline Meta/Self-Referential Tracy: Of course. I knew that
Tracy Reaction Beat Character Comedy Liz: Did you know that if you're a pilot, that Chili's will seat you right away, even if the pilot's dinner companion has just been yelling at the hostess?
Liz Observational Cringe/Discomfort Jack: You are the Jackie O of our time
Jack Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Liz: Why would he? Those Starwinds are nice! I mean, the bathtubs are so much cleaner than at home
Liz Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Jack: It's almost as bad as 'climax'
Jack Setup/Punchline Wordplay/Pun Jack: Then one of you says, 'we should redecorate.' And the other one says, 'please, Avery, I'm using the commode right now.'
Jack Observational Character Comedy Jack: a reddish-brown shade called 'elk tongue'
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy Jack: This is how I know you've never had an adult relationship
Jack Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Jack: Before you know it, she'll have me wearing jeans and reading fiction!
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy Liz: If an apple and a feather fall at the same time...
Liz Misdirection Character Comedy Jack: He ran away, Lemon. Rather than engage in battle, he would retreat and retreat until the enemy grew fatigued and eventually made a mistake
Jack Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Jack: Although I abhor it as a military strategy, it is the basis for all of my, uh, personal relationships
Jack Character Comedy Observational Liz: So Avery is your enemy. That sounds healthy
Liz Observational Deadpan/Understatement Jack: Meeting someone in a hotel room twice a month is not a relationship... just ask any hooker
Jack Observational Setup/Punchline Jack: I was going to say 'climax.' Aah!
Jack Callback Reaction Beat ★ Rewatch Callback Jenna: It takes people and turns them into amounts of money
Jenna Observational Character Comedy Jenna: Except for Tracy, I'm the most person on the show!
Jenna Absurdist Character Comedy Jenna: You should fire Grace from wardrobe. She doesn't do anything
Jenna Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Liz: Come on, you'd have to be a heartless monster... I'll do it
Liz Misdirection Character Comedy Grace: But I've been here since the Jack Paar show
Grace Observational Character Comedy Liz: Your health insurance will remain in effect until the end of this sentence
Grace Character Comedy Observational Tracy: Kenneth, I knew you'd come back! Let me smell your head
Tracy Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Brian: This is a woman's blazer from a very expensive blazer shop called Rico's
Brian Absurdist Character Comedy Tracy: Just like my kidneys did to my lungs that time
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy Tracy: Should I get my rainbow wig out of storage?
Tracy Character Comedy Callback Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy Writers: Would you rather have to start every sentence you say for the rest of your life with Urkel's catchphrase, 'Did I do that?' Or be Siamese twins with Sharon Stone for a year?
Liz: Did I do that? Carol!
Liz Callback Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Carol: Try five miles high. And no, I have not
Carol Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Carol: No, but once, when I was in the Air Force, I saw Mr. T in a Pizza Hut
Carol Absurdist Misdirection Carol: Yeah, but with a lot more volleyball
Carol Observational Setup/Punchline Carol: Sucked a mechanic into my engine once
Carol Dark/Subversive Deadpan/Understatement Liz: I'll just have to run home first and take some plates out of the bathroom
Liz Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Carol: The lady said they're all booked up for something called Jackfest
Carol Observational Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Jack: A middle-aged woman saying 'dude stuff'... is that on my sadness scavenger hunt?
Jack Observational Character Comedy Liz: I'm like that woman on the Food Network whose husband only comes home on the weekends, and she spends the rest of her time eating and drinking with her gay friends
Liz Observational Character Comedy Jack: Her name is the Barefoot Contessa, Lemon, and you will never be like her, starting with the barefoot part
Jack Character Comedy Observational Liz: I'll have you know that I wore sandals this summer, over socks... in a dream
Liz Escalation Character Comedy Tracy: No, you do not exist! I'm in control of this!
Tracy Character Comedy Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Liz · Carol: This is one of the three things in the world I like... Ina Garten, sweater weather, and... When Muppets present at award shows?
Liz: And don't you agree that our situation is perfect right now? We have these great visits together, but then we still have our separate lives. We're like Jeffrey and Ina
Liz Character Comedy Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Carol: I'm not like Jeffrey Garten. I'm not as strong as that guy!
Carol Character Comedy Escalation Carol: How many women have you been with? I'd rather not say. It's shameful. I mean, I'm a pilot... Six
Carol Misdirection Character Comedy Carol Misdirection Character Comedy Liz: Oh, that's not so great
Liz Reaction Beat Character Comedy Liz: I had to spoon him for, like, an hour. And I was the outer spoon
Liz Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Jack: her anger eventually transforming into some rather interesting sex
Jack Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Jack: It has to be elk tongue!
Jack Escalation Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Pete: And this morning, I made love to my wife. And she was still asleep, so I didn't have to be gentle
Pete Cringe/Discomfort Dark/Subversive Pete: Are you sure? Think about it again.
Liz · Pete: That's one of the most upsetting things I have ever imagined. Are you sure? Think about it again
Liz: it's cheaper for us to just replace anyone who gets murdered
Liz Dark/Subversive Observational Jack: His name is James. Not Jim, not Jimmy... Jamessss
Jack Character Comedy Observational Jack · Liz: Have you seen my eyes, Lemon? Yep. They're very blue. Like a Mykonos sky
Jack Liz Character Comedy Setup/Punchline Jack: Mark Foley once called them 'piercing'
Jack Observational Dark/Subversive Jack: Do you know what a prize I am in the gay community? There's a term for it. I'm a bear... And I'm a daddy bear
Jack Character Comedy Observational Jack: Not a GLAAD award, I know that
Jack Observational Meta/Self-Referential Jack: Or would you rather teach your cat to dial 911?
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy Liz: And second of all, you know that I have Life Alert
Liz Character Comedy Callback Kenneth: Would an imaginary me know that you have a mole on your list of pets to get? Or that your favorite color is rainbow?
Tracy: Of course it would. It would know anything I knew because it sprung from my imagination
Tracy Observational Character Comedy Tracy: Why don't you come back home to TGS and pick the peas out of my fried rice? And the rice. I just want carrots
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy Tracy: But don't you miss rubbing my foot back into the shape of a foot?
Tracy Absurdist Cringe/Discomfort Kenneth: They gave me a tote bag with The Mentalist on it!
Kenneth Observational Character Comedy Tracy: Obviously, I'm going to need the tote bag
Tracy Character Comedy Escalation Jack: Do you see something, uh, here that you like?
Jack Visual Gag Cringe/Discomfort Liz · Pete: There's one too many producers, Pete. Okay, I get it. But please... I have five kids... That I don't want to be at home with
Liz Pete Misdirection Character Comedy Jenna: the last time I said that, I was in a three-way with two of the Backstreet Boys
Jenna Character Comedy Observational Carol: why does Geico have three different spokespeople? They have the caveman, the lizard, and then the stack of money with the eyeballs
Carol Observational Escalation Liz: And the fake Rod Serling guy
Liz Callback Observational Callback Liz · Carol: I'm on a waiting list to adopt a kid. Touched by a priest... it's fine
Liz: Is that what 'ragazzi robusti' means?
Liz Character Comedy Observational Jack: Hannibal defeated Fabian with a decoy army. James was a plant. The strie wall finish was a decoy. She Hannibaled my Fabian!
Jack Escalation Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: Like... Whiskey and hunting
Jack Character Comedy Observational Liz: She's your pube shirt
Liz Callback Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Kenneth: Good night, bear! Good night moon... Soon Park from accounting
Kenneth Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy 