Liz hires a new female writer after a blog declares "TGS" misogynistic. Meanwhile, Jack plots his takeover of Kabletown by zeroing in on his main competition--the CEO's granddaughter.
TGS writers weaponize sexism jokes—83 total gags attack the show-within-show's misogyny.
Directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller · Written by Ron Weiner
WAR
172.5
Wins Above Replacement
“Tgs Hates Women” ranks #16 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 100.0 — Elite. The episode packs 92 scored jokes at 3.8 per minute, averaging 7.9 on craft and 7.8 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: Well, Lemon... [Episode ends]
Jack Meta/Self-Referential Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Callback Jenna: Abby used to be a strong, smart, beautiful woman. Why did she transform herself into that baby hooker? / Oh. Children's book idea: Baby hooker. Don't tell Liz.
Jenna Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Jack: Practice frottage on a poster of Linda Ronstadt and meet your idol. Like when I met Jacques Cousteau. I will never forget what he said to me. / [pause] Oh, I did forget. It was so long ago.
Jack Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Abby: 'I thought this box would be the perfect size for your head. P.S. I was electrocuted again while watching Seven.'
Abby Dark/Subversive Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: Please follow me to Brian Williams' bathroom, which is also J. Fred Muggs' skull.
Jack Absurdist Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Callback All Jokes — 92 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Jenna: My publicist just called from rehab. I made the internet.
Jenna Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Liz: It's this really cool feminist web site where women talk about how far we've come and which celebrities have the worst beach bodies.
Liz Irony/Sarcasm Observational ★ Rewatch Jenna: Ruth Bader Ginsburg!
Jenna Character Comedy Reaction Beat Jenna: "Comedy's freshest female voice." Take that, Courtney Thorne-Smith.
Jenna Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Jenna · Liz: Jenna's 'TGS' clips: Amelia Earhart / period / questions / period / nuke England — all ending with 'Oh, no. My period!'
Jenna Liz Running Gag Escalation Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Jenna: Oh, my period! / You're all fired!
Jenna Running Gag Callback Callback Liz · Jack: Do you think I hate women? / Absolutely. But it's not your fault. You are genetically predisposed to compete against other women for the attention of strong, powerful men like myself or others very similar to me. For example, Hercules, the highlander, or, uh...God.
Liz Jack Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Escalation ★ Rewatch Liz: I want to roll my eyes right now, but the doctor said if I keep doing it my ocular muscles might spasm and eject my eyeballs.
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jack: Female jealousy is an evolutionary fact, Lemon. If you try to breed it out of them, you end up with a lesbian with hip dysplasia.
Jack Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Absurdist ★ Rewatch Liz: I'm like a human bra.
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jack · Liz: She's got good energy. Hire her immediately. / See? I'm not threatened by the fact that men are attracted to her. / Please, Lemon. It's got nothing to do with her hot mouth.
Jack Liz Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Jack · Liz: Like Hank Hooper says in his book, 'New blood is the lifeblood of every company's blood.' He's not a strong writer.
Jack Liz Setup/Punchline Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Liz: Hank Hooper. Isn't that the guy who outbid no one for NBC?
Liz Irony/Sarcasm Meta/Self-Referential Liz: Well, believe in yourself and you will reach your goals. I read that on a bottle of women's exercise water.
Liz Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Jack · Liz · Kaylie: There is a potential successor, so to get what I want, I must find a way to destroy her. / Her? It's a woman? / Well, not exactly. Hi, I'm Kaylie Hooper. I'm 14 years old and I'm waiting in line to meet Justin Bieber...
Jack: Her parents' generation was lost to 'trust fund kids' disease. The aunt smokes pot and 'paints.' The father is trying to sail an inflatable castle across the Atlantic.
Jack Character Comedy Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch Jack: To become a doctor's nurse or a lawyer's mistress or even the president of the United States Shopping Association.
Jack Irony/Sarcasm Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz · Jack: Meanwhile, I'm helping women achieve their potential. Because potential is the difference between what you can't do and what can't you do. / Did you get that off of a water bottle? / No, I sent it in, but Aquafem did not choose it.
Liz Jack Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Writers: Girl coming! / This is a big opportunity for us. She does not know how much we suck. / But she'll find out soon enough. I mean, how long did it take the women here?
Writers Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Writer (science guy): I don't know. How long does it take to see something? I mean, light travels at 186,000 miles per second, so... / No duh!
Writers: Being ourselves doesn't work. So to have a chance with Abby, we're creating new identities. I'm going to pretend to be rich. And I'll be a dangerous bad boy. And I shall be British. 'Cause chicks dig British guys.
Writer: Sir Ian McKellen? That dude must be knee-deep in boob.
Writer Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Writer · Lutz: And if you guys don't go along with this, Lutz will play Xbox Kinect with his shirt off again. / [Star jump! I found the chrysalis!]
Writer Lutz Setup/Punchline Physical/Slapstick Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: Now, you may have heard of J. Fred Muggs, the chimpanzee that was on The Today Show in the '50s. But what most people don't know is that NBC is still a network.
Jack Meta/Self-Referential Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Kaylie: I tried to get [the cleaner wrasse] chosen as our school mascot, but, well, I was outvoted. So our new mascot is a slut.
Kaylie Setup/Punchline Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Jack: He discovered the Titanic, the Lusitania, and according to his website, a guilt-free cheesecake recipe.
Jack Setup/Punchline Deadpan/Understatement Jack: Please follow me to Brian Williams' bathroom, which is also J. Fred Muggs' skull.
Jack Absurdist Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Callback Writer (fake British): West ham drew nil-nil at wolves?
Liz · Writer: Don't you know I'm talkin' 'bout a femolution? / Tracy Chapman. She's a woman, right?
Abby · Writers: Abby: 'Oh, where's little Abby gonna sit? Guess I'll have to sit on somebody's lap.' / Writers: 'Eenie... meenie... minie... moe!' with increasing desperation
Abby: Look at all these dudes! I knew I smelled sausage.
Abby Character Comedy Setup/Punchline Abby · Liz: Our nips just touched. / Mine are so hard. / Mine are different sizes.
Abby Liz Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Liz: Give me strength, oh, Oprah.
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Liz: When I first started working here, an eight-year-old Shirley Temple taught me how to roll a cigarette.
Liz Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: Lemon, who thinks gesturing with one's thumbs is for poor people and is going to be the next CEO of Kabletown? / This guy. [thumbs gesture]
Jack Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Jack: Practice frottage on a poster of Linda Ronstadt and meet your idol. Like when I met Jacques Cousteau. I will never forget what he said to me. / [pause] Oh, I did forget. It was so long ago.
Jack Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Jack · Liz: I should dig up my old shell collection and give it to her. Complete the seduction after Bob Ballard and I double-team her. / Word choice, Jack. / Withdrawn.
Jack Liz Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Abby: Is it cold in here or is it just that I'm not wearing any underwear?
Abby Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Liz · Writer: New York gives us a tax break for employing sex offenders. / It's a terrible program. / What's that? / Oh, I don't know. Is it a stain? / Nobody knows.
Liz Writer Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Jenna: She's being hot and doing baby talk? I invented that. Summer of '98, I took it to a whole new level.
Jenna Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Jenna: There can't be two of us, Liz. She must be destroyed.
Jenna Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jenna: I'll start by spreading a destructive rumor about her like the famous one I made up about Jamie Lee Curtis. That she has two butts.
Jenna Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jack · Abby: Hi. I'm Jack. It's nice to meet you. / [Jack reacts to Abby's baby-talk response with visible discomfort]
Bob Ballard · Jack: The male is much smaller and is basically a parasite that lives on her. Until mating, of course. Then the male dies. / Yes, the scientific term for that is 'marriage.' Don't tell Gina I said that.
Bob Ballard: I'm not gonna live forever, no matter how much gold I give Poseidon.
Bob Ballard: And we keep finding new things. Giant tube worms that breathe hydrogen sulfide. Arctic jellyfish. Oh! And a chemical in kelp that scientists think might one day cure ice cream headaches.
Bob Ballard Setup/Punchline Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Bob Ballard · Jack: I'm making you a student argonaut. / [Cut to Jack] Is there an age cutoff for the student argonauts? / What if you gave me a sticker as a joke?
Jack: [Jack in fantasy sequence, standing at bow of ship, singing a sea shanty] 'There she is, men. The elusive northern right whale.' ♪ Oh blow the wind westerly ♪
Jack Character Comedy Absurdist Visual Gag ★ Rewatch Abby · Liz: Is this where you got your v-card punched? / What? No. Does this look like the makeup room of a clown academy?
Abby Liz Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: Eleanor Roosevelt. First lady to the world, champion of the rights of women, and the lid on my high school lunch box.
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Abby: But I like my pigtails. My uncle says they're sexy.
Abby Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Abby · Liz: And what's the difference between me using my sexuality and you using those glasses to look smart? / I am smart. I placed out of freshman German.
Abby Liz Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Abby · Liz: Or Lutz using that sexy English accent to get me in the sack? / No! You didn't! Lutz? / Is that even possible? / I mean, I was there when he belvedered.
Abby Liz Character Comedy Escalation Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Liz · Abby · Male bystander: God, Abby, you can't be that desperate for male attention. / You know what, Liz? I don't have to explain myself to you. My life is none of your business. / Except it is because you represent my show and you represent my gender in this business and you embarrass me. / Kiss!
Jack · Kenneth: Kenneth, when I'm gone, how do you think people will remember me? / Actually, sir, I've already started to compose a heroic ballad commemorating your life. ♪ Slaves of Jesus ♪ ♪ hear my tale ♪
Jack: I'll tell you what they'll say. 'Hey, remember Jack Donaghy? He wore a lot of suits and went to a lot of meetings. Now power down, conversation robot.'
Jack Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Kenneth: When I have problems, I like to talk to the man upstairs. Unfortunately, Mr. Guzelian got put in jail for attacking his father.
Kenneth Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Misdirection ★ Rewatch Kenneth: I hope my legacy is a Sesame Street type TV show that promotes illiteracy in girls.
Kenneth Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jack: 'Remember Jack Donaghy? He was the world's greatest oceanographer. And we walruses owe him everything for giving us the gift of language.'
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack Deadpan/Understatement Reaction Beat ★ Rewatch Abby: I'm thinking to myself, 'whatever happened to the erasable pen?' Besides pencils, who's saying that's a bad idea?
Abby Observational Character Comedy Jenna: I knew her boobs were fake. And that baby voice is fake too. You know, as someone who speaks very naturally, I'm offended.
Jenna Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Jenna: Abby used to be a strong, smart, beautiful woman. Why did she transform herself into that baby hooker? / Oh. Children's book idea: Baby hooker. Don't tell Liz.
Jenna Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Jack · Various voices: Who else is on the call? / Katherine Scott, sales. Andy Hoberman, web sales. Gil Coughlin, oversight. I've got everyone from meeting planning. Tricia, Maria, Greg, Greg P., Lyle, Edwin. / This is Charles. I'm on for Douglas. / No, Charles. I'm on, but I just dialed in.
Jack: I could ask you the same thing, but that would make no sense.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jack: The negative is in my personal safe along with my will and some beanie babies that I thought would be worth more.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Kaylie: Quiet, chalk-hands. A real man is talking.
Kaylie Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Kaylie: Same reason you're reading Pop-Pop's book. Researching the enemy.
Kaylie Character Comedy Setup/Punchline Jack · Kaylie: I can always seduce one of your teachers and get her to fail you. / I'd be into that. / Me too.
Jack Kaylie Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack · Kaylie: Better pick up your books or you'll be late for class. / This is my free period. / Well played.
Jack · Kaylie: Better pick up your books or you'll be late for class. / This is my free period. / Well played.
Unknown writer or character (stand-up context): You know what sucked about my last lesbian orgy? Right in the middle of it, one of us had to get up to go use the bathroom and then we all had to go!
Writer · Liz: Yeah, come sit on my struikgewas. / On a chair. Come on, Sue.
Writer: Come sit on my struikgewas. On a chair. Come on, Sue.
Writer Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Unknown: Has anyone ever actually had a good time at brunch?
Unknown Observational Deadpan/Understatement Writer · Liz: That's what she said! / Hey, first of all, Steve Carell owns 'that's what she said.' He owns it.
Writer Liz Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy Abby · Liz: You stupid, meddling bitch! / Yes! There's your real voice. There's Abby Grossman.
Abby Liz Character Comedy Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Abby · Liz: My ex-husband is gonna see this. He's gonna find out where I am and he is gonna try to run me over with his car again. / Oh, 'cause I thought it was, like, pressure from society.
Abby Liz Misdirection Dark/Subversive Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Abby · Liz: My ex-husband is gonna see this. He's gonna find out where I am and he is gonna try to run me over with his car again. / I changed my appearance to get away from him! / Oh, 'cause I thought it was, like, pressure from society.
Abby Liz Misdirection Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Abby · Jenna: I was hiding from a man who went insane after being electrocuted while watching Sleeping with the Enemy. / I was cut out of that.
Abby Jenna Absurdist Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Abby · Lutz: Oh, I am desperate for male attention, because I feel safer having men around in case Troy comes back. That is why I slept with Lutz. / And I shall protect her.
UPS Guy · Lutz: Is there an Abby Flynn here? / That's her, Troy! I'm on your side! Get her!
UPS Guy Lutz Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Misdirection ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: Geez, Lutz. It's the UPS guy.
Liz Setup/Punchline Deadpan/Understatement Abby: 'I thought this box would be the perfect size for your head. P.S. I was electrocuted again while watching Seven.'
Abby Dark/Subversive Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Abby · Liz: Great. I have six hours to start a new life. I'll have to be a redhead this time. / Oh, I don't know, with your coloring. / You know what? Don't listen to me.
Abby Liz Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Abby · Jenna: You must really hate women, Liz. / Liz Lemon is a Judas to all womankind!
Abby Jenna Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Jenna: You must really hate women, Liz. Liz Lemon is a Judas to all womankind!
Jenna Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Writers: We were on page six... Where Wonder Woman... Gets her period.
Writers Running Gag Callback Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Bob Ballard (himself, meta tag): [Tag: 'correcting the science'] Tonight's tag is gonna be a nice wrap-up scene between Jack and Liz... But first, I would like to correct some of the science we saw tonight. There is no oil in kelp that helps cure ice cream headaches. No, the only thing that will cure ice cream headaches is having sex on a motorcycle.
Bob Ballard: No, the only thing that will cure ice cream headaches is having sex on a motorcycle.
Bob Ballard Absurdist Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Callback Bob Ballard (meta tag): Kailey was not speaking dolphin. When a dolphin expresses excitement it sounds like this. [Dolphin noise]
Jack: Well, Lemon... [Episode ends]
Jack Meta/Self-Referential Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Callback