As cancellation looms for "TGS", Liz snoops with Kenneth to find a missing Tracy. Meanwhile, Jack works his magic to ensure the financial success of Jenna's newest endeavor; and an emasculated Pete organizes a manly contest for the writers and crew.
Connecticut small-town absurdism sustains 74 jokes across 41 minutes with escalating character chaos.
Written by Vali Chandrasekaran
WAR
75.9
Wins Above Replacement
“I Heart Connecticut” ranks #68 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 85.2 — Elite. The episode packs 74 scored jokes at 3.1 per minute, averaging 7.2 on craft and 6.9 on impact, with Jenna landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
Get weekly comedy rankings
Join comedy fans getting new analyses, score drops, and the funniest moments each week. Free, no spam.
Top Jokes
Tracy: Because I had worn it to their wedding. It was special to the three of us!
Tracy Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback Pizza delivery person: Large cheese pizza with one slice taken out so I can pretend I'm eating Pac-Man, like my hero Blinky the ghost.
Liz: Go trash a hotel room. Expose yourself to Elmo. Visit O.J. In jail again. Attack the Lincoln Memorial with a hammer.
Liz Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Liz: Hulk Hogan called you a dirtbag. The NAACP once hired someone to kill you. You wore a penis hat to Princess Diana's funeral!
Liz Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jack: We produce more failed pilots than the French Air Force.
Jack Wordplay/Pun Observational ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 74 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Walter: By giving them fresh apple slices.
Walter: Do you know how much our COBRA payments are? And he's the only one that knows the combination to the candy safe. The worst part is being able to see the candy!
Walter Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Walter: That's ironic, because next week's topic is fascism.
Walter Irony/Sarcasm Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Liz: Edward James Almost... who is an Edward James Olmos look-alike that Tracy is friends with...
Liz Wordplay/Pun Absurdist ★ Rewatch Liz · Kenneth: I'm going to go ahead and assume that Bastille is a stripper. As well you should.
Kenneth: Has it really been a year since we were all at the Waldorf eating that cake made out of lizard meal? that we saw Tracy eating from.
Kenneth Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch Jack: Listen to me, I sound like Cagney and Lacey, but without the slutty clothes.
Jack Observational Character Comedy Jack: We produce more failed pilots than the French Air Force.
Jack Wordplay/Pun Observational ★ Rewatch Jack: $15 million, so far, developing a show called 'Who Nose?' About an investigative reporter who can't smell and has to get the story using only his eyes, ears and other senses.
Jack Wordplay/Pun Absurdist ★ Rewatch Actor in 'Who Nose?' pilot: You underestimated me, Congressman, because I can't smell. But you made one mistake: You let me see the documents.
Actor in 'Dad 2.0' pilot · Jack: Your father may be gone, but before he died he programmed me to take his place... No! Shut it down! This is terrible.
Reggie: That's what your wife told me in the shower this morning.
Reggie Setup/Punchline Running Gag Pete · Writers: All right, well, we're all having fun, and it's important that we all be able to laugh together. We're not laughing with you, we're laughing at you, you bald bitch!
Pete: Yes, Reggie, I am bald. I lost my hair at a very early age when I hit that gypsy's kid with my car, but I am still your boss...
Pete Dark/Subversive Escalation ★ Rewatch Jenna: Listen up, fives, a ten is speaking.
Jenna Character Comedy Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Child actors in JennaBabies commercial: Let's just go to soccer practice now! I mean right now! Yes! It's 4:00 in the morning! Let's do it! We own this town!
Jenna: It's called 'Take My Hand.' It's kind of an artsy character study about a young woman who has a lot of holes drilled into her head by a deranged veterinarian named Slaughterface.
Jenna Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Jenna: Exactly. In fact, the producers of this movie rented 'Saw' and watched it.
Jenna Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jenna: On an unrelated matter, does anyone know where I can get intimate bleaching done in Stamford, Connecticut?
Jenna Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Reggie: That's what your wife told me in the shower this morning.
Reggie Running Gag Callback Callback Writer: Can we order lunch from IKEA?
Pete: Okay, we'll have a contest of strength to decide who gets to pick lunch.
Pizza shop owner: Well, then I hate you! 'Cause I'm a Pizza Academy of New York man!
Pizza shop owner: That's right. You correctly answered my trick question. Now I am bound by Pizza Academy tradition to grant you any request.
Frank: According to the transitive property, you just defeated Muammar Qaddafi in arm wrestling.
Frank Absurdist Observational ★ Rewatch Pete: Help, Paula, here comes the big girl! She's got a clarinet!
Pete Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Pete · Frank: Takeout from Hooters! What? That makes no sense! We'll know they touched it!
Connecticut film official: Yeah, no, it's just that we're spending taxpayer money saying there's a veterinarian running around Connecticut trying to make a house out of breasts for the Governor to live in.
Jenna: But there's a positive message at the end of it. 'If you're a woman in Connecticut, Slaughterface will kill you.'
Jenna Irony/Sarcasm Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Pizza delivery person: Large cheese pizza with one slice taken out so I can pretend I'm eating Pac-Man, like my hero Blinky the ghost.
Tracy: Well, well, well. You found me... after I ordered Thai food and gave you this address.
Tracy Misdirection Character Comedy Kenneth: A copy of 'Black Yachts' magazine and a Rubik's Cube that's been smashed out of anger.
Kenneth Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: I'll get in my bra, and you can throw nails at me! I'll dance for you.
Liz Escalation Cringe/Discomfort Kenneth: For the love of God, come back or we'll die!
Jenna · Jack: Jack, can we talk, one ten to another? I'm an eleven, but continue.
Jenna: I met that soccer ball once at a no-hands-allowed sex party.
Jenna Absurdist Cringe/Discomfort ★ Rewatch Jack: $20,000 in first-class flights for the drill,
Jack Absurdist Observational ★ Rewatch Callback Jenna: Okay, we just need to hire some of those ugly people who have the paper and change the shapes on it.
Jenna Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Jack · Jenna: Writers? No. We'll do the work ourselves. Meet me in my dressing room. I'll get a computer from one of the ugly people. And I'll bring the world's greatest encyclopedia, my mind.
Reggie: Hey, is that a to-do list? 'Cause if your wife's on there, I already taken care of her.
Reggie Running Gag Callback Callback Pete: I just have to work around a PTA meeting at 5:00 that I can't miss 'cause this week I'm snack dad.
Jack: Lemon, you look terrible, and I once watched you eat oysters while you had a cold.
Jack Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Liz: I ended up eating a swordfish dinner at a strip club and Kenneth grabbed a cop's gun and shot a blimp.
Liz Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch Liz: Yes. There was some confusion, and I ended up punching the real Le Var Burton.
Liz Absurdist Escalation ★ Rewatch Liz: I hope he's not still in heat. He has gotten my top off before.
Liz Cringe/Discomfort Absurdist Jack: Could you use that to motivate Slaughterface sewing the sheriff's mouth to his own anus?
Jenna · Jack: Of course. Elegant. Should 'Vaginatorium' be capitalized?
Pete: Yeah I am. Last night I had sex with Paula, and neither of us was wearing a Walkman.
Pete Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Stephanie: And we're getting appetizers, 'cause David can afford them.
Pete: Well, of course he can, Mr. Big Shot Pet Photographer! I hope you get sleep at night.
Pete Character Comedy Escalation Frank: I never thought I'd feel sorry for a guy with a tattoo of a leprechaun vomiting on a book.
Frank Character Comedy Visual Gag ★ Rewatch Actress in horror movie: I still haven't tried the famous seafood pizza at Sally's in New Haven!
Director: Let's move on to the scene where Slaughterface centipedes Jenna to the docent of the Danbury Railway Museum.
Wal-Mart executive: I can never find stuff to watch with my kids. Thank you, Wal-Mart!
Reggie: You know what your wife told me in the shower this morning? You're a good guy.
Reggie Misdirection Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Kenneth: 'Ello! I'm a baby!
Kenneth Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Jenna: Merry Christmas! I practice abstinence! Connecticut!
Phil Rosenthal: I did okay. I have a refrigerator that's just for soda, so...
Phil Rosenthal: But thank you for tying your headshot around a brick and throwing it through my window.
Pete · Writers: Ha! I beat you! We're getting lunch from IKEA! IKEA! IKEA! IKEA!
Liz · Tracy: You have been hiding in my apartment for the last 2 weeks? What are you mad about? I'm waiving the $60,000 you owe me in appearance fees.
Liz: Did you really think I wouldn't recognize my college futon with its trademark absence of sex stains?
Liz Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: So where's the last place you would be if you're out trying to save your show? Home. Life lesson from an unlikely source!
Tracy Character Comedy Observational Tracy: 'TGS' is your whole life. So where's the last place you would be if you you're out trying to save your show? Home. Life lesson from an unlikely source!
Tracy Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Tracy: And yet you still don't have the one I'm thinking of! It's red, it says 'ketchup' on it...
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist Tracy: As a time saver, I will refer to the two of you as 'Klemon.' I wanted that next level, Klemon. Now, remember, to save time, you two are 'Klemon.'
Tracy Wordplay/Pun Running Gag ★ Rewatch Tracy: Like the time I got stuck in Temple Grandin's hugging machine at the Golden Globes party.
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: Sean Penn wanted me to go to Haiti with him, and I'm not strong enough for the pain and the human misery of a 3-hour plane ride with Sean Penn.
Tracy Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Liz: Hulk Hogan called you a dirtbag. The NAACP once hired someone to kill you. You wore a penis hat to Princess Diana's funeral!
Liz Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Tracy: Because I had worn it to their wedding. It was special to the three of us!
Tracy Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: Go trash a hotel room. Expose yourself to Elmo. Visit O.J. In jail again. Attack the Lincoln Memorial with a hammer.
Liz Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Movie character · Director: I'm the hero cop and I'm here to say don't do drugs is what I'm here to say! I can't believe that amazing rap is available now on iTunes!
Jenna · Jack: Vote? For what? Isn't this supposed to be a movie? Again, it doesn't matter. People will just do it, and we get 99 cents a text.
Announcer/Jack: To vote for Phil Rosenthal, text Phil to 62288. To vote for Liz Lemon, text Liz to 62288.
