"TGS" is forced into hiatus, spurring the show's staffers to seek backup jobs. Meanwhile, Jack tries to rescue a cable network by forging an unlikely alliance with his archenemy, Devin Banks.
Absurdist comedy carries a 87-point episode with nearly 3 jokes per minute across 75 gags.
WAR
92.6
Wins Above Replacement
“Plan B” ranks #45 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 87.4 — Elite. The episode packs 75 scored jokes at 3.0 per minute, averaging 7.4 on craft and 7.0 on impact, with Jack landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
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Top Jokes
Kenneth: And I won't have to be the world's worst hooker! You want to party? It's $500 for kissing, $10,000 for snuggling, end of list.
Kenneth Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Kenneth: unless you're married to it. So I had to marry each envelope and then divorce it
Kenneth Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Kenneth: Let me just take out my idea journal. Hmm. This just says 'Bird Internet.'
Kenneth Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: I'm doing God's work here in Africa. Why, just yesterday, I kicked two naked people out of a garden!
Tracy Absurdist Wordplay/Pun ★ Rewatch Jack: 'I'm Afraid My Hands Are Tied'... is the only show anyone's watching on TWINKS.
Jack Setup/Punchline Wordplay/Pun ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 75 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Liz · Jack: Hey, Jack, the vending machine is broken! / I know. I broke it. I needed to speak with you, and I knew that was the fastest way to get you up here.
Liz Jack Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: You bastard! I trusted you!
Liz Reaction Beat Character Comedy Tracy: I'm doing God's work here in Africa. Why, just yesterday, I kicked two naked people out of a garden!
Tracy Absurdist Wordplay/Pun ★ Rewatch Tracy: Simba, Rafiki! Click, click, click! Yeah, that's right, I just put you in your place in African.
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy Jack: 'TGS with Tracy Jordan' without Tracy Jordan is an oxymoron, like 'liberal government' or 'female scientist.'
Jack Setup/Punchline Dark/Subversive Liz: Or Princeton football.
Liz Setup/Punchline Callback Jack: We were four and three in Ivy League play last year! Our quarterback, Henry Chang...
Jack Reaction Beat Character Comedy Liz · Jack: But you're looking out for us, right? Pounding on desks and doing whatever this is called?
Liz Jack Visual Gag Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Jack Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy Liz: Is it TNT? Are Rizzoli and Isles friends in real life?
Liz Character Comedy Observational Jack · Liz: It's called TWINKS. / That's the name of your network? Isn't 'twink' a term for a young, hairless gay man?
Jack Liz Setup/Punchline Cringe/Discomfort Jack: TWINKS is an acronym designed to project a positive gay image. 'TWINKS... Television With Individuals... Naive, Kinky, Shaved.' Okay.
Jack Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch Jack: When I was with D'Fwan on 'Queen of Jordan,' he spent $4,000 on chihuahua outfits for himself.
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy Callback Jack: 'I'm Afraid My Hands Are Tied'... is the only show anyone's watching on TWINKS.
Jack Setup/Punchline Wordplay/Pun ★ Rewatch Frank: Sidney, it's Frank. 'TGS' is dead. Start booking me stand-up gigs. How many black women's colleges are there in the country?
Frank Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Liz · Frank: What are you doing? / You just said we're going on a forced hiatus. I know what that means... time for Plan B. / Harriet Tubman School of Nursing? Yes and yes!
Toofer: Good thing I kept my teaching certificate so I can still sub. Last time I taught, I was like Robin Williams in 'Dead Poets Society,' by which I mean I got fired.
Toofer Setup/Punchline Misdirection ★ Rewatch Jenna: This is Asian JennaBaby. Excuse me, G.I., do you miss your girlfriend? I'm good at math. So it's not offensive.
Jenna Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Lutz: I'm going back to the job I had in Holland... police psychic. A Dutch TV show is based on me.
Lutz Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Toofer: At Harvard, we call them 'concentrations'...
Toofer Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Kenneth: Let me just take out my idea journal. Hmm. This just says 'Bird Internet.'
Kenneth Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Simon · Liz: Like how Fredward helps iCarly. / No!
Simon: If you can get through the audition without pooping, it's yours.
Simon Absurdist Cringe/Discomfort Jack: Baby? Ah, yes, BABY... Black-Asian Bisexual Youths.
Jack Misdirection Character Comedy Jack: My night nurse swears she calls me 'koskel,' which, in Trinidadian Creole, means 'stranger.'
Jack Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Hank: pardon my French... bonjour.
Hank Wordplay/Pun Deadpan/Understatement Hank: Now, that's a joke, but I am really, really mad!
Hank Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy Hank: Remember when a movie was just a fella with a hat running away from a fella with no hair?
Hank Observational Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: Hank... there is a gay Jack Donaghy.
Jack Character Comedy Setup/Punchline Jack: I sense something, a presence I've not felt since...
Jack Visual Gag Character Comedy Liz: That would be like me hiring that mouse that keeps pooping in my slippers!
Liz Character Comedy Absurdist Jack: He's a gay shark, like the actor who played Jaws.
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy Jack: When the administration started to falter because of our conspiracy... I mean, Obama's ineptitude
Jack Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: And we were all like, 'Whatever. We'll go to IHOP and not tell him!'
Jack Character Comedy Absurdist Jack: He's on LinkedIn, Lemon. He might as well be dead!
Jack Observational Character Comedy Jack · Liz: What else crawls, Lemon? / Babies, Jack. You have one.
Jack Liz Reaction Beat Character Comedy Callback Liz: would you buy a show about a girl television writer trying to have it all in the city and also she's a vampire, I guess?
Liz Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: I thought we understood that you are never to think that I understand anything!
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: Well, there have been a lot of 'Amazing Races' on since then, and I had to watch them and go online and comment on them!
Liz Character Comedy Observational Liz: I've been to L.A. Once. Olive just turns into Barham? Justice for Rodney King! How do I get to 10? It's the 10! Rodney King!
Liz Character Comedy Escalation Aaron Sorkin · Liz: I'm Aaron Sorkin. 'The West Wing,' 'A Few Good Men,' 'The Social Network.' / 'Studio 60.' / Shut up.
Aaron Sorkin: What is poking anyway? Why won't anybody do it to me? I'm cool!
Aaron Sorkin · Liz: We make horse buggies, and the first Model T just rolled into town. We're dinosaurs. / We don't need two metaphors.
Aaron Sorkin: That's bad writing, not that it matters.
Kenneth: It is not easy coming up with ideas to save the show, but this morning, I held up this sign in the 'Today Show' window!
Frank: They sent light bulbs to save 'Friday Night Lights,' hot sauce to save 'Roswell,' and douche bags to save 'Entourage.'
Frank Setup/Punchline Escalation Kenneth Callback Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback Devon: These aren't babies. They're organ farms!
Devon Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Devon: I married a shiny black dancer named Cashmere. We mixed our sperm together so no one would know whose baby is whose.
Devon Absurdist Character Comedy Jack: You will be under me, and if there's one slipup, your ass is mine!
Jack Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Jack · Devon: No! You are the spider. I am the sun! I dry up all the rain! / Yes! Freeing me, the spider, to climb up the spout again!
Hank: But that's just a little shrapnel side effect from Vietnam.
Hank Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Hank: We throw him in a ditch!
Hank Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Devon: I tried to call, but somebody spilled milky all over Daddy's phony. Didn't you, little Mykonos?
Devon Character Comedy Absurdist Devon: He threw up all over my jacket, and I just couldn't leave him, but... of course, I didn't want to miss this fabulous opportunity. I'm always just trying to balance work and family. It's kind of what I'm all about.
Devon Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Devon: This isn't even baby vomit on my jacket! It's mine! All mine!
Devon Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Lutz: Just like 'Lean on Me,' in that a guy who looks like Morgan Freeman swung a bat at me.
Lutz Setup/Punchline Misdirection ★ Rewatch Kenneth: unless you're married to it. So I had to marry each envelope and then divorce it
Kenneth Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: Kenneth, do you know what anthrax looks like?
Liz Setup/Punchline Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Sue: Thank you, Mentaalist. It is a gift and a curse.
Sue Callback Character Comedy Callback Lutz: In the TV show, you bang me in a tulip field under credits.
Lutz Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Callback Child · Parent: Mommy, what's that? / It's a toilet or a woman. It's whatever you need it to be.
Liz: People of the sidewalk, we can't give up on the written word! We need stories. Because I don't have a Plan B!
Liz Character Comedy Escalation Liz: I have a degree in Theater Tech with a minor in Movement!
Various: Better to ask who we used to be. Once, I was called Travel Agent. / I was an American Auto Worker. / And I played dynamite saxophone solos in rock-'n'-roll songs.
Travel Agent: Come. We live under the subways with the CEO of Friendster.
Devon: same cheap $300 tie as yesterday
Devon Character Comedy Observational Jack: I was going to take a picture where it looked like I was holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa!
Jack Character Comedy Visual Gag Devon: Do you know what it's like to have triplets? It's just everything times three!
Devon Observational Character Comedy Devon: Three perfect little mouths that smile every time I walk through the door. Three tummies that just want their num-nums and zerberts.
Devon Character Comedy Escalation Frank: Hey, I was bailed out of prison and told to come up here?
Frank Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Devon · Jack: You're like Dora's friend. / Benny the Bull. / Benny the Bull.
Kenneth: And I won't have to be the world's worst hooker! You want to party? It's $500 for kissing, $10,000 for snuggling, end of list.
Kenneth Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Tracy: It's the snowiest winter we had in years in New York... in Africa.
Tracy Character Comedy Misdirection ★ Rewatch Kenneth Callback Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback 