The "TGS" crew anticipate their summer vacation. Liz lands in the Hamptons for some rest and relaxation, but she gets the summertime blues when Tracy moves in next door. Elsewhere, a lonely Jack latches onto Kenneth for company; and Jenna's new job impacts her relationship with Paul.
Season finale escalation delivers 67 jokes in 23 minutes, anchored by character chaos and absurdist peaks.
Directed by Don Scardino · Written by Ron Weiner, Hannibal Buress
WAR
156.4
Wins Above Replacement
“Respawn” ranks #60 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 98.1 — Elite. The episode packs 99 scored jokes at 4.3 per minute, averaging 7.6 on craft and 7.5 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
Kenneth: Back in Stone Mountain, people lose their spouses all the time. Mumps, Hill People attacks, cave collapses... both business and residential.
Kenneth Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Tracy: Can I borrow a cup of sugar? I'm trying to get a hummingbird to drink out of my penis.
Tracy Misdirection Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Kenneth: It's an old Parcell family recipe. But I like to replace the Union-soldier meat with boiled potatoes.
Kenneth Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Spanish Audio · Liz: The sad woman has been trapped by the idiot. / La mujer triste ha sido atra...
Jack: I can hardly drink my morning-shower Scotch.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 99 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Doctor: Doctor uses a melted popsicle as a tongue depressor
Liz · Doctor: I get them when I'm stressed out. / They're nothing to be ashamed of. / I get them from prostitutes.
Liz Doctor Misdirection Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Doctor: Sounds like you could use a little R and R — rum and Ritalin.
Doctor Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy Doctor: Gross! (in response to Liz asking for a mouth ointment)
Doctor Reaction Beat Character Comedy Callback Doctor: Doctor's four summer goals: 'but they're roommates, so it's tricky.'
Doctor Misdirection Dark/Subversive Callback Doctor: Here's a prescription for your cold sores, and here's a blank one for the weekend.
Doctor Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Doctor · Liz: Why aren't you wearing pants? / The other doctor told me to take them off. / Other doctor? That's my brother Randy! Tomorrow he's going to jail for the rest of his life.
Doctor Liz Escalation Absurdist Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Doctor: You want to go to Taco Bell for lunch? (immediately after learning Randy goes to jail for life)
Doctor Deadpan/Understatement Reaction Beat Callback Jack: I know that people are feeling sorry for me because my wife was kidnapped by Kim Jong-il — but I do not need your pity.
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy Tracy: Hey, I know what you're going through. I once kidnapped a woman.
Tracy Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack · Liz: Stop talking like that, Lemon. / I'm trying to, but I'm kind of locked in, sweetie.
Jack Liz Character Comedy Reaction Beat Jack: I can hardly drink my morning-shower Scotch.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Jack: We would go to Strawberry Fields in Central Park and kick hippies' hacky sacks into the bushes.
Jack Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Jack · Liz: Normal? I don't know what normal is anymore. / Normal is a woman and a woman getting married and having a child.
Jack Liz Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Liz · Jack: Bush is a war criminal! There's so much texting going on these days and no communicating! / Carbon tax! / Please leave! / That's the spirit!
Liz Jack Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Jenna: The Wool Bowl on ESPN 34, with the lyric 'You can't spell America without W-O-O-L'
Jenna Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: Every year, my aunt sends me a wool sweater for Christmas. We get it, Aunt Alice, you're a sheep.
Liz Setup/Punchline Absurdist Jenna: Paul and I can finally buy that time-share in Betasten Bos, Amsterdam's premier private sex garden. There have genetically-altered men there with minotaur heads that chase you through the brambles.
Jenna Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: Okay. Well, good-bye, my closest female friend.
Liz Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Liz · Frank: Frank, you have a girlfriend. / And Lynn wants me to give up video games 'cause she thinks I need to grow up. / How's this for grown up? Last night, for dinner, I put milk in my Apple Jacks.
Frank · Toofer: I distracted you, and you died. Game over. / No, I shot my bazooka at the ground to kill myself 'cause Toofer had me cornered. Now I respawn and start over.
Frank: So you're killing yourself rather than let someone else win? That's why everyone has zero kills and we've been playing for 18 hours.
Frank Escalation Absurdist Callback Toofer: I'm wearing a diaper, like a baby would.
Toofer Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Ina Garten · Liz: Hi, neighbor. I'm Ina Garten. My husband, Jeffrey, is away... / I'm alive!
Liz: All I have left is to pay the fine that I incurred for committing a hate crime against what the city is now claiming was a Jewish tree.
Liz Absurdist Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Liz · Lutz: Lutz, what are you doing? / Don't look at me!
Jenna: In the past, I was the face of Clinique, a French-Canadian anal-rejuvenation clinic, and I was the feet of FilthyLittleFeet.com.
Jenna Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Jenna: Paul is a gender-dysmorphic bigenitalian pansexualle.
Jenna Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jenna: Our relationship is everything that wool is about... love, warmth, chafed skin.
Jenna Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Eugene: No high jinks, no farce — not just for the sake of your relationship with the National Wool Council, but for the sake of my wife, whose parents were killed in front of her while an episode of Three's Company was... You know what? I'll let her tell the story at dinner.
Eugene Setup/Punchline Dark/Subversive Misdirection ★ Rewatch Wool Council Rep: Wool-come, Jenna.
Kenneth: I know your wife was kidnapped by some convenience-store owners...
Kenneth Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Kenneth: Back in Stone Mountain, people lose their spouses all the time. Mumps, Hill People attacks, cave collapses... both business and residential.
Kenneth Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Kenneth: It's an old Parcell family recipe. But I like to replace the Union-soldier meat with boiled potatoes.
Kenneth Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Jack · Kenneth: That was her chair. / Oh, I'm sorry. / No, please sit. You two have similar-shaped buttocks.
Kenneth: Deer God, thank you for this venison.
Kenneth Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy Kenneth: Onion God, thank you for these onions. Carrot God, thank you for the carrots.
Kenneth Escalation Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: Spanish for Older Women, Lesson 12, Emergencies. / Disaster approaching. Desastre inminente.
Liz Visual Gag Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Tracy: Fore! / Oh, my God! Liz? It's Tracy, from work!
Tracy Physical/Slapstick Setup/Punchline Tracy: I just bought everything around this house. It's supposed to be a nice area, except for the 'new element' everyone keeps talking about.
Tracy Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Tracy: Look, I got a long night of shooting guns in the air ahead of me. Do you mind if I take a nap here?
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist Tracy: If I start screaming in my sleep, do not wake me up. I will attack you.
Tracy Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Tracy: Wake me up! Free me from this!
Tracy Escalation Physical/Slapstick ★ Rewatch Callback Kenneth: There's a lot of drawings of Ms. Maroney eating celery that men are giving to her with their hips.
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Jack: My house is full of white cockroaches.
Jack Deadpan/Understatement Visual Gag Paul: I got you an early anniversary present. It's a new leash for when I walk you through the park like a dog. Weather's supposed to be nice and muddy tomorrow.
Paul Character Comedy Absurdist Paul: I hate to be the stereotypical man, but this is my home, and I want to wear this blouse.
Paul Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Paul: I'll cancel the sitter for tonight, tell him he won't need to come sit on us after all.
Paul Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Jonathan: Oh, you've just made a very dangerous enemy, Kenneth.
Jonathan · Jack: What are you doing? That's my job. / Jonathan volunteered to clean up so you could come over again tonight, right, Jonathan?
Tracy: Can I borrow a cup of sugar? I'm trying to get a hummingbird to drink out of my penis.
Tracy Misdirection Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: I give up. Of course I'm not allowed to be a human being.
Liz Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Tracy: I don't think it will affect my behavior next season.
Tracy Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Spanish Audio · Liz: The sad woman has been trapped by the idiot. / La mujer triste ha sido atra...
Jack: Since you've just been staring at me like that for the last 20 minutes... I'm gonna scoot on out of here.
Jack Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Jack: Don't go, Avery. I mean, Kenneth.
Jack Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Jack: Put on these earrings.
Jack Cringe/Discomfort Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Jack · Kenneth: Jack and Kenneth role-play a domestic evening — Kenneth in earrings, telling Jack about his 'day' including a 'soft yes from Jonathan about my birthday party' and an 'uncomfortable dinner.'
Paul: I am in the restaurant business, and I really love... golf playing.
Paul Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Eugene · Paul: What's your handicap? / Oh. Well, I don't have one myself, but I do like a girl with a limp.
Paul · U. Jean Gremby: So, Mrs. Gremby, you're also named Eugene? / Oh, no, dear, it's U-period-Jean. My first name is U. Jean, with a U.
U. Jean · Eugene: Oh. That's a nice blouse. It definitely goes with your eyes, don't you think, Jenna? / Golf, blouses. I'm just so impressed with how normal this dinner has been. Very wool.
Sitter: Greetings, slaves! Who's ready to get sat on?
Sitter Setup/Punchline Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Paul: don't spew your statistics on the health benefits of weekly sittings or its wide acceptance in Eastern cultures
Paul Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback Eugene: To tomorrow's photo shoot and wool.
Eugene Deadpan/Understatement Irony/Sarcasm Liz · Frank · Toofer: Unbelievable! You're still here? / It's still 0-0-0. / To 0.
Lutz: I did it! I spoke! / This didn't get mailed.
Lutz Character Comedy Running Gag Frank · Lutz: Speaking of trapped, I got you, Lutz! / Nope. Grenade. Blowing myself up.
Liz: That's what I have to do. I can be a normal person. I have to blow myself up.
Liz Meta/Self-Referential Absurdist Callback Liz: No, Your Honor, I'm not disputing the fine. I'm refusing to pay it. / Grenade, respawn!
Liz Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy Callback Liz: This is a sham, Your dis-Honor! Nay, a mockery! I put the system on trial. You can't handle the truth! / I'm out of order? You're out of order! / Victor Sifuentes! Hoo-ah!
Liz Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Judge: I lost my gavel over the weekend, but it doesn't mean you can talk to me like that.
Judge Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Liz: Talk to who? I just see an empty robe.
Liz Irony/Sarcasm Setup/Punchline Judge · Liz: Do you honestly not see me, or are you being rude? / I'm being rude.
Judge Liz Deadpan/Understatement Setup/Punchline Callback Liz: Freedom! / For me. Probably not you guys.
Liz Irony/Sarcasm Deadpan/Understatement Kenneth · Jack: Mr. Donaghy, where are my clothes? / Sherry must have put them in the wash while you were showering. Now, give us a twirl.
Kenneth Jack Cringe/Discomfort Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: Now, what do you say you put on some of Avery's perfume and we head over to Strawberry Fields and whip pennies at the drum circle?
Jack Callback Dark/Subversive Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Kenneth: I don't like to swear, sir, but no, thank you.
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Kenneth: Maybe I haven't had a wife who was kidnapped, but I have seen The Brady Bunch where Tiger runs away.
Kenneth Character Comedy Absurdist Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Jack: I had the perfect woman. Gorgeous. Brilliant. Always let me be the hat in Monopoly.
Jack Character Comedy Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Jack: God, are you punishing me because my hair is better than yours?
Jack Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Kenneth: Kenneth's Kenneth-as-Avery monologue: 'Listen to me, Jack! You don't want people to pity you? Well, they should, because you are pitiful... He may be a chinless piece of human garbage, but he will never fill the void that I left behind.'
Kenneth Character Comedy Escalation Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Callback Jack · Kenneth: He's gonna ask me to go to his birthday party. / Hey, Mrs. Dongy, you wan' come on down my birfday party?
Jack: And, uh, thank you... Avery.
Jack Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Callback Eugene · Jenna: Here's to you, Jenna Maroney. Even with your back to me, I can definitely tell it's you. / I'll turn around later. / Perfect. I'll keep talking. / Mmm, wool.
Eugene: My wife, U. Jean, is out of town visiting her parents' graves. Maybe we could meet later for a drink and you could show me your front.
Eugene Dark/Subversive Cringe/Discomfort Callback Jenna · Paul: This is our normal, and this is what we think of your morality clause. / Give Mommy some beard. / Oh, you've got some crumbs in here. / Oh, eat it.
Jack · Liz · Liddy: Good God! Lemon? / Liddy, say, 'Good God, Lemon.' / Guh gah, Lem.
Liz · Jack: I did it, Jack. I got my dream vacation. / You're on a chain gang. / I'm outdoors, I'm wearing comfortable clothes, I'm gardening, and I'm learning Spanish.
Liz Jack Callback Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Héctor: I vuelve a tu trabajo, Limona! Esa bolsa no está llena.
Héctor Running Gag Character Comedy Callback Jack: It's nice to see that we're back to our version of normal.
Jack Callback Deadpan/Understatement Callback Paul · Jenna: Jenna? / Oh, Jenna, no. / There you are! Bad dog! You'll go in the crate tonight.
Tracy: Hey, guys! It's me, Tracy, the black guy from work.
Tracy Character Comedy Meta/Self-Referential Callback Tracy: I hooked a ball onto a truck on the Long Island Expressway. And Tracy Jordan does not take mulligans.
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist Tracy: Good thing you had to move out of that house. Some idiot rammed his boat that I was driving into it.
Tracy Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Unknown: You see all the good that is in them, how much capacity for love? Yes, I know. I just need more time with them. Give me more time, Jacob, I beg of you!
Frank · Toofer · Lutz: No, I see you. I'm killing myself. Respawn. / Respawn. / Damn it!
Tracy: Hola, everyone. Are you ready for Season 6?
Tracy Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy Frank: Oh, my God. Wait, how long have we been here?
Frank Running Gag Meta/Self-Referential Callback 