Budget cuts at the company impact the "TGS" gang. Elsewhere, Liz's New Year's resolution adds a potential snarl to Jack's wedding; Jenna and Danny share a dressing room; and a health scare hits Tracy.
Buck Henry's guest spot anchors 91.6-rated episode with relentless absurdist escalation.
Directed by Tricia Brock · Written by Jack Burditt
WAR
94.2
Wins Above Replacement
“Mrs. Donaghy” ranks #8 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 91.6 — Elite. The episode packs 68 scored jokes at 2.9 per minute, averaging 7.6 on craft and 7.2 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
Liz: Well, I've been to a rodeo, too. It was a cat rodeo in a gay guy's apartment.
Liz Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: I'm hosting the International Pornography Awards, and I have to go get an insurance physical so I can fly into the arena in a penis-shaped parachute.
Tracy Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch Jack: Hitler and Martha Stewart would have hated that wedding!
Jack Absurdist Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Jack: This big red part, you can see, is 'The Biggest Loser.' The yellow slice, our number-two priority... Make It 1997 Again Through Science or Magic.
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: my alarm clock didn't go off because it died in a cockfight last night
Tracy Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 68 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Jack Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: We rented a villa on St. Esclavage
Jack Wordplay/Pun Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Jack: an exiled French Admiral/defrocked minister
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: deep-sea explorer and raconteur Bob Ballard, took ill after eating some bad toucan
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: Liz Lemon, I want it to be noted that I am here on time.
Tracy Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Tracy: I'm hosting the International Pornography Awards, and I have to go get an insurance physical so I can fly into the arena in a penis-shaped parachute.
Tracy Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch Pete: And we have to schedule our rehearsals around the bat mitzvahs Jack has booked in the studio.
Pete Absurdist Character Comedy Extra/Bar Mitzvah guest: When Madison was born, I said, 'Rivka, my schveltz is filled with schpoinkis!'
Liz: Terrible flower girl. At 4 years old, you should know how to pace your petal distribution.
Liz Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Liz: toiletries, closed-toe shoes, and the State Department-recommended mosquito head net
Liz Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Liz: Hannah! Petal, step. Petal, step. Come on!
Liz Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Monkeys: You! It needs to see Mr. Donaghy! It needs to see him right away! Get us all our stuff back!
Monkeys Absurdist Visual Gag ★ Rewatch Liz: Well, one of my New Year's resolutions is to say yes... Yes to love, yes to life, yes to staying in more!
Liz Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Jack Escalation Reaction Beat Jack: Hitler and Martha Stewart would have hated that wedding!
Jack Absurdist Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Liz: It was a men's tennis shirt and a government-sanctioned head net.
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Jack: Who wears shoes on a beach? Only Rocky and Apollo Creed during the training montage!
Jack Observational Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: My adventures! I am the protagonist!
Liz Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Liz: Whatever you say, dear.
Liz Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Liz: Don't forget, honey, we have bridge with the Cunninghams tonight.
Liz Escalation Character Comedy Callback Angie Dark/Subversive Absurdist ★ Rewatch Dr. Spaceman: You have no reflexes, your blood tastes like root beer, and some of your bones appear to have vanished.
Dr. Spaceman: but my commander refused to pass it on up to Saddam.
Tracy: Who will be there raise my kids if I'm not around to pay someone to raise my kids?
Tracy Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Liz: We would have asked you sooner, but we forgot you worked here.
Liz Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Danny · Jenna: It's just... I got a haircut, and you didn't even notice. Sorry, you get your hair cut every week. Excuse me? I don't like your tone.
Jenna: I'm not the one who forgot our one-minute anniversary!
Jenna Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Frank: There's a hygienist there whose boob sometimes touches my ear!
Frank Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Liz: He is, dot-dot-dot, my husband!
Liz Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Frank: On your wedding night, did he take you in the French fashion?
Frank Wordplay/Pun Cringe/Discomfort Kenneth: That's what Ann Curry and Subhas the janitor tried to tell me. That was five years ago.
Kenneth Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Pete: They shut down your secret bathroom to save on cleaning costs.
Pete Character Comedy Escalation Liz: those vegetable chips that I hate and I keep telling Kenneth not to get
Liz Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Jack: This big red part, you can see, is 'The Biggest Loser.' The yellow slice, our number-two priority... Make It 1997 Again Through Science or Magic.
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: Your show netted $600 last year. Your parents had to buy an ad.
Jack Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Liz: Well, I've been to a rodeo, too. It was a cat rodeo in a gay guy's apartment.
Liz Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jenna: Oh, my nails are wet!
Jenna Physical/Slapstick Character Comedy Pete: After her hysterectomy, she was in a coma briefly.
Pete Dark/Subversive Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Pete: our children are basically snot silos with BB guns
Pete Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Danny: Like pigs have around their delicious testicle meat.
Danny Absurdist Character Comedy Tracy: my alarm clock didn't go off because it died in a cockfight last night
Tracy Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch Tracy: I'm sorry I'm four hours late, but my alarm clock didn't go off because it died in a cockfight last night.
Tracy Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch Angie: What? That's double taxation!
Angie Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Jack: I mean, look at me! I can't even find Mexico on a map!
Angie: There's only thing I won't do, and that's take orders from anyone, ever.
Angie Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Angie: I'm not about to cancel my hair appointment with D'Fwan because I'm your new intern.
Angie Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Angie: Do you have a problem with strong black women?
Angie Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Liz: You're really more like... Oh, boy.
Liz Cringe/Discomfort Reaction Beat ★ Rewatch Jenna · Danny: You should hang it on the wall. Careful! Don't coddle the boy. He can do it.
Liz: But then Subhas and Ann Curry came in, just going to town on...
Liz Cringe/Discomfort Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Angie: It's my way till payday!
Angie: I am friends with a hilarious fat girl and a crazy-eyed, divorced white lady who wants to be in the music business.
Angie Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Pete: I agreed to go to a furniture store instead of watching football one time, and I haven't seen a game since.
Pete Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Pete: Then you got to hit 'em where it hurts. Find their weakness, and viciously exploit it. That's what marriage is.
Pete Dark/Subversive Observational ★ Rewatch Kenneth: What I don't get is this is Danny's dressing room.
Kenneth Character Comedy Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Danny: It's that dark place under the bleachers that's shaped like a wishbone.
Danny Absurdist Character Comedy News anchor: High School for Teen Drama, the Arts, and Feelings
News anchor: 'cloons', video artists, and theatrical jugglers
Jack: We know what art is! It's paintings of horses!
Jack Character Comedy Reaction Beat ★ Rewatch Liz: It is my imitation of Drew Barrymore's impression of that crazy lady!
Liz Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: he rightly pointed out that it made me look like a giant condom.
Liz: Or when you have eye boogers.
Liz Character Comedy Escalation Liz · Jack: I'm sorry, Jack. / I apologize, Lemon.
Liz Jack Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Liz · Jack: Try to walk like a woman, Lemon. Your fly's open, Jack.
Liz Jack Character Comedy Callback Callback Jack · Liz: Try to walk like a woman, Lemon. / Your fly's open, Jack.
Jack Liz Character Comedy Callback Callback D'Fwan: I'm D'Fwan! And I just want to be accepted for who I am, a sexual maniac!
D'Fwan Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort 