Jack must appear before Congress to discuss NBC's merger with KableTown. He hopes that he will charm celebrity members, but one Congresswoman, Regina Bookman, demands more diversity in its programming lineup. Jack quickly enlists Tracy to come up with some new development ideas. Meanwhile, Liz is fed up with the flack her writing staff gives her, and Jenna helps Kenneth reapply to the extremely competitive Page Program.
Five-minute cold open escalates from wedding planning to pure absurdist chaos.
Directed by John Riggi · Written by Jack Burditt
WAR
99.6
Wins Above Replacement
“Lets Stay Together” ranks #83 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 96.8 — Elite. The episode packs 60 scored jokes at 2.6 per minute, averaging 7.7 on craft and 7.7 on impact, with Liz Lemon 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
Jack Donaghy: Jack's immigration speech escalates to: 'The third generation... snowboards and takes improv classes.'
Jenna Maroney · Kenneth Parcell: Jenna calls Kenneth 'a Houston foreclosure of a human being'
Congresswoman Bookman: Bookman's grandstanding congressional speech: 'The future and America... Now I may have lost my train of thought several minutes ago, but if I continue to talk like this, no one will notice, and when I stop, you will applaud my energy. Thank you.'
Congresswoman Bookman: Bookman on Kenneth's qualifications as a diversity hire: 'That young man is a hillbilly with a girl's middle name and, because his county never rejoined the union, a foreigner.'
Jack Donaghy · Congresswoman Bookman: Jack casually drops that he had dinner with Don Imus, who told him a joke — and immediately hangs up on Bookman: 'Good-bye, congresswoman.'
All Jokes — 60 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Liz Lemon: The writers have posted a photo on Liz's door mocking her for showing up to work after a chemical peel, wearing a red and green sweater and a fedora — labeled 'Lez Lemon'
Liz Lemon · Writers: The writers' rapid-fire nickname game: 'Fart Barfunkel' / 'Indian food' and 'Paul Simon' / 'I don't get that, but it hurts.'
Liz Lemon · Jack Donaghy: Liz attempts to quote Rodney Dangerfield about respect, is immediately interrupted before she can finish
Jack Donaghy: Jack's post-apocalyptic assessment of Liz's social utility: 'Traveling bard. Radiation canary.'
Jack Donaghy Absurdist Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Jenna Maroney: Jenna asks Jack to ask Congress where they put the USA network because she's been looking for Monk for three months
Jack Donaghy · Liz Lemon: The corn chip / diarrhea medication vertical integration explanation, culminating in the implication that the company might make chips that give you diarrhea to sell more medicine
Jack Donaghy: Jack on who gets elected to Congress: 'Former athletes, washed-up actors, and women.'
Liz Lemon · Writer: The only approved replacement name for Johnny Appleseed is 'Jerry Bananaseed' — and even that's off the table because someone with that name killed a bunch of nurses
Page Candidate: The NBC page program interview featuring a singing interviewee: 'Inside Schwartz 21 / Hill street blues, wings is fun / Golden girls, quantum leap / Outsourced is the new friends'
Kenneth Parcell: Kenneth: 'Just a pageant? That's like saying a guy is cool because he has just a speedboat.'
Jenna Maroney: Jenna's pageant coaching speech: 'my mother told me there's three things standing between you and winning: Your breasts and wanting it bad enough.'
Jenna Maroney Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Misdirection ★ Rewatch Jack Donaghy: Jack's comeback to the anti-vertical integration argument: 'I guess that's why big oil and Microsoft are such great American failures.'
Jack Donaghy Irony/Sarcasm Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Jack Donaghy · Congressman: Jack's dramatic declaration: 'Mark the time, ladies and gentlemen, that congress put a bullet in the head of the American farmer.' — and the congressman immediately folds: 'No! You win!'
Jack Donaghy · Rob Reiner: After Jack has won the hearing, Rob Reiner's parting shot: 'The acclaimed director of When Harry Met Sally would never do that.' — Jack replies 'As always, it's been a pleasure.'
Page Candidate: Another page program candidate's audition: 'Oh, everybody born before Jesus is in hell, they went straight—' cut off
Jenna Maroney: Jenna's coaching philosophy: 'I'm gonna have to reinvent you. Break you down completely and build you up from scratch. Just like Mickey Rourke did me to sexually.'
Kenneth Parcell · Jenna Maroney: Kenneth's accent getting worse when he thinks about it: 'I don't know, ma'am. You made me think about it, and when I get to thinkin' 'bout it, it juh get worse.'
Congresswoman Bookman: Congresswoman Bookman's description of her district: 'from the hard-working moms and dads of Smithfield to those spoiled jags at Brown to a thriving, flourishing Italian criminal community in Providence.'
Jack Donaghy: Jack defending NBC's diversity by citing Sunday Night Football ('features many black players and coaches') and Anthony Anderson on Law & Order — immediately interrupted by his own team: 'Why did we cancel that? That doesn't make any sense.'
Jack Donaghy Irony/Sarcasm Escalation Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Background Extras: Extras in the background muttering 'Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb. Peas and carrots. Rhubarb. Peas and carrots.' — the traditional actor's filler for background crowd noise
Dotcom: Tracy's production company name: 'Dotcom Productions. That's Tracy Jordan spelled backwards.'
Dotcom Character Comedy Absurdist Tracy Jordan · Grizz: Tracy asks for 'someone around who's not just a yes man' — Grizz immediately responds 'Whatever you say, Tray.'
Jack Donaghy: Jack's diversity speech: 'The Chinese built the railroads, the Irish built and then filled the jails... A guy named Juan built my armoire.'
Jack Donaghy Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Escalation ★ Rewatch Jack Donaghy · Liz Lemon: Jack: 'I was too busy trying to remember the name of the black kid on Community. D'nall Glover.'
Congresswoman Bookman: Bookman's grandstanding congressional speech: 'The future and America... Now I may have lost my train of thought several minutes ago, but if I continue to talk like this, no one will notice, and when I stop, you will applaud my energy. Thank you.'
Jack Donaghy · Liz Lemon: Liz on Toofer: 'I mentioned this to you 100 times, but he went to Harvard.' Jack: 'So we know he's smart and superb at masturbation.'
Liz Lemon: Liz on Toofer eventually taking over from her: 'I always figured he'd take over for me when I die at my desk.'
Liz Lemon Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jack Donaghy: Jack: 'You are not doing a sketch on the Appleseed family. Monty Appleseed and I share a liquor locker at the opera.'
Jack Donaghy Character Comedy Absurdist Deadpan/Understatement Callback Jenna Maroney · Kenneth Parcell: Jenna approaches Kenneth with hair extensions and 'a body shaper with a reinforced penile sleeve'
Jenna Maroney · Kenneth Parcell: Jenna calls Kenneth 'a Houston foreclosure of a human being'
Kenneth Parcell: Kenneth: 'He's not even recycling properly.'
Tracy Jordan: Tracy's showrunner reacts to the cancellation of Law & Order: 'Why? It was a tentpole! A tentpole!'
Tracy Jordan · Jack Donaghy: After a heartfelt pitch for a serious dramatic show about an African-American family in Detroit, Tracy asks: 'What if there was a talking dog?' — and Jack replies 'I'd like to see that incorporated into your rewrite.'
Announcer: The NBC promo song ends: 'A top-ten network.' — then a long beat — 'Smile.'
Unknown: Translation caption for Spanish word: 'It means the badger in Spanish. I'm not sure who did it.'
Liz Lemon: Liz's reaction to seeing Toofer has a 'head writer' sign on his door — 'Tejon face'
Liz Lemon Reaction Beat Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Tracy Jordan: Tracy on the Let's Stay Together read-through: 'The only thing that worked in the read-through was the dog.' — followed immediately by 'How's production going, Tray? Good. And there's a lot of buzz. Can you hear it too? Or is my tinnitus acting up?'
Tracy Jordan Callback Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback TGS Crew Member: TGS crew member complains about Dotcom Productions' separate food: 'But they don't have women's sports bars. Men can have cramping too, you know.'
Congresswoman Bookman: Bookman is in New York doing a 'Sex and the City walking tour' and specifically mentions 'Magnolia Bakery? Oh, sorry, hips.'
Jack Donaghy · Congresswoman Bookman: Jack casually drops that he had dinner with Don Imus, who told him a joke — and immediately hangs up on Bookman: 'Good-bye, congresswoman.'
Jenna Maroney: Jenna fully inhabits her mother's persona, telling Kenneth: 'If I hadn't seen you come out of me in that parking, I'd swear you weren't my daughter.'
Jenna Maroney: 'You'll be practicing in the garage until the school boat comes.'
Jenna Maroney: Jenna promises to get Kenneth's job back: 'or my name isn't Yustrepa Gronkowitz. I mean, Jenna Maroney.'
Rutherford Rice · Liz Lemon · Toofer: The Right On cable show host introduces Toofer as 'James Spurlock' and Liz as 'someone named Elizabeth Lemon'
Shirley Thomas · Liz Lemon: Host Shirley Thomas to Liz: 'I like your dress. Do you have to wear a bra with it?'
Rutherford Rice · Toofer: Toofer is awarded 'Right On's Arthur Ashe of the Week' — for being head writer for one day
Liz Lemon · Rutherford Rice: Liz objects to the show's framing: 'You know what? I get it. I shouldn't be here. I should have realized that when I saw the masks, the picture of black Jesus.' Host: 'That's me in college.'
Liz Lemon: As Liz tries to leave the set, she encounters who she thinks is 'her boss' but is told: 'That's a security guard. That's not great.'
Liz Lemon Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Reaction Beat Jonathan: Jonathan defends his presence near Bookman: 'But, sir, I was born in Palo Alto.'
Tracy Jordan: 'We met at the congressional black caucus fundraiser you crashed your moto into.'
Jeffrey Winerslav: Jeffrey Winerslav's announcement: 'I'd like to tell you that we filled the minority slot in the NBC page program with a native American fellow named Wants To Get Sandwiches, but you made me hire that guy instead.'
Congresswoman Bookman: Bookman on Kenneth's qualifications as a diversity hire: 'That young man is a hillbilly with a girl's middle name and, because his county never rejoined the union, a foreigner.'
Jeffrey Winerslav: Jeffrey notices Kenneth's shoelace is now untied and asks: 'Now you're untied? Have you two been talking?'
Congresswoman Bookman · Toofer · Liz Lemon: Bookman asks Toofer how long he's been head writer. 'One day.' / 'And who is the real head writer of this show?' [long beat] 'I am.'
Congresswoman Bookman · Liz Lemon: Bookman to Liz: 'Tell me, you obviously lonely and tired woman. Do you have to put up with this nonsense every day?'
Tracy Jordan: Tracy's inspirational speech to the crew: 'Freedom, troops, America, flag. Now I might not know where I'm going with this, but I know we will get there together! Who loves pizza?'
Tracy Jordan Character Comedy Meta/Self-Referential Absurdist Callback Jack Donaghy: Jack's immigration speech escalates to: 'The third generation... snowboards and takes improv classes.'
Tracy Jordan · Kenneth Parcell: Tracy off-screen: 'I'm cutting that fat cracker's head off.' Kenneth: 'I'm part Eskimo. Hate crime!'
Let's Stay Together Characters: The Let's Stay Together pilot opening: a character lamenting a layoff — 'I gave those people 30 years. I didn't even get a watch. All I got was this pink slip.' / 'You think you got it hard, I've got two dates tonight.'
Let's Stay Together Characters · Grizz: 'Stanley, even for a dog, you are a dog.' — followed by 'Great fix, Grizz.'
