A curse strikes TGS. Liz dares to be different after realizing that the same things happen every year, and Jack vows to wow Hank Hooper.
Absurdist density peaks at 89.2 with 69 jokes across 42 minutes of controlled chaos.
Directed by Stephen Lee Davis
WAR
90
Wins Above Replacement
“The Shower Principle” ranks #28 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 89.2 — Elite. The episode packs 69 scored jokes at 2.9 per minute, averaging 7.5 on craft and 7.1 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
Jenna: Do you know how many mirrors I've smashed just thinking it was a blonde woman mocking me?
Jenna Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Jack: I went and took a shower at the Racquet Club, where I saw Lou Dobbs step on his own testicles
Jack Absurdist Visual Gag ★ Rewatch Tracy: I took all of my money and put it in my pool and froze it
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy Hank: So we boiled the skull, and made a tea kettle out of it
Hank Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jenna: I was trained in stage acting and game show pointing at the Royal Tampa Academy of dramatic tricks
Jenna Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 69 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Liz: I started eating the lettuce on my plate under my onion rings
Liz Character Comedy Observational Liz: I'm actually eating the onion part of my onion rings
Liz Running Gag Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: thanks to my exciting relationship with Carol, who is a man. Although we have done nothing that lesbians could not do
Liz Character Comedy Absurdist Liz: thanks to my boyfriend Wesley, whom I hate
Liz Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Howard: Every morning I get up and come to this office while my wife cheats on me with Jared
Howard Dark/Subversive Deadpan/Understatement Jack: I remember Mrs. Doyle pulling me aside to talk about it in the seventh grade
Jack Misdirection Character Comedy Jack: I was in the shower when I finally got the title of the movie Face off. Face off, face off.
Jack Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: Nerd alert, nerd alert
Liz Reaction Beat Irony/Sarcasm Hank: To sit on their couches, and hear stories. Here's one. 1968. We were on patrol somewhere near the Cambodian border.
Hank Character Comedy Misdirection ★ Rewatch Hank: So we boiled the skull, and made a tea kettle out of it
Hank Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Unknown: Everyone hide your bones. Dogbeard the pirate just sailed into woof harbor
Unknown: Because I think Corka-Coola brand diet banana lime causes 'tum nungnuss'
Jack: we got a 'jeers' in Corporate Blimps Weekly
Jack Absurdist Wordplay/Pun ★ Rewatch Jack: a white man who still buys Cadillacs
Jack Observational Character Comedy Liz Physical/Slapstick Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: Cut it out, you perverts. I know what you're doing. It's the first warm day of the year, and women are starting to take off their winter clothes
Liz Character Comedy Observational Hazel: Eyes down here, boys. I have breasts, you know.
Hazel Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Liz: Button up. Cerie, put on one of my soup ponchos
Liz Character Comedy Visual Gag Cerie · Unknown: Take a picture, it'll last longer. Here you go.
Liz: because her lines didn't have any 'K' sounds, which she thinks is the funniest sound
Liz Character Comedy Absurdist Liz: My cousin Karl crashed his car, and now he's in a coma at the Kendall clinic
Liz Wordplay/Pun Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Callback Pete: But I just bought a Letterman jacket with 'the German' embroidered on it. It's not refundable if you personalize it!
Pete Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Jenna: You never say that name in the theater. It is curs-ed.
Jenna Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Jenna: I was trained in stage acting and game show pointing at the Royal Tampa Academy of dramatic tricks
Jenna Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Jenna: Where I studied theater superstition, under Professor Duane 'Crawfish' Kenny
Jenna Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: a timely satire of MacBeth, where mayor McCheese and his wife, an ambitious pickle, murder king Ronald
Jenna: Do you know how many mirrors I've smashed just thinking it was a blonde woman mocking me?
Jenna Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Cerie: I just have to be out in time for my band to be on Letterman
Cerie Character Comedy Absurdist Hazel: I bought a groupon for a couples' massage at a resort in the Catskills where Henny Youngman used to take his mistresses
Hazel Character Comedy Absurdist Hazel: As the doctor said to me after my hepatitis test, 'you got it, sweetheart.'
Hazel Dark/Subversive Misdirection Tracy: I don't trust my accountant. I think he's lying to me about being Jewish. I step on more wine glasses than he does.
Tracy Character Comedy Observational Tracy: I was gonna tell Dotcom I loved his novel as an April fool's joke
Tracy Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Jack: I went and took a shower at the Racquet Club, where I saw Lou Dobbs step on his own testicles
Jack Absurdist Visual Gag ★ Rewatch Liz: Still trying to get the ol' jumper cables on the tires of your brain muffler?
Liz Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Jack: You have to talk like this! You can only say what's essential! And you get to point at things!
Jack Character Comedy Physical/Slapstick Jack: 'Summer horse grave'?
Jack: Meditation is a waste of time, like learning French, or kissing after sex
Jack Character Comedy Observational Accountant: thanks to his frequent scratch-off lotto victories, finding all that treasure on the island he owns in the Caribbean
Accountant: And designing Kate Middleton's wedding gown. She was wonderful. Collaborative, fun, and a little dangerous.
Accountant · Tracy: Five dog now five. No, that's just the confusing title Disney gave the fifth Snow dogs movie. The 'S' s are fives.
Tracy: I took all of my money and put it in my pool and froze it
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy Jenna: Like Lady McCheese, I will 'screw my courage to the sticking McNugget.'
Jenna Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy Callback Liz's Meditation Vision: a state of pure inner peace, where all pants have built-in underwear
Jack: Is it, 'time to make the donuts'?
Jack Character Comedy Meta/Self-Referential Liz's Meditation Vision: Is it, 'time to make the donuts'?
Liz: Buy me a drink first. Ow.
Liz Reaction Beat Irony/Sarcasm Jack: shower me, Lemon. Shower me in the inane waters of television, food, and feet
Jack Character Comedy Absurdist Callback Jack: I once pantsed Deepak Chopra while Craig T. Nelson taped it
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy Frank: It can't be done. Oh, God, the carpet. Somebody hold my hair back.
Frank Physical/Slapstick Callback Callback Hazel: I've seen people killed with shoes, but never like that
Hazel Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Jenna: like I need another curse. Too busty.
Jenna Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Jack: My casserole's burning! My casserole's burnt!
Jack Character Comedy Physical/Slapstick Hazel: You know what they'd thought when I saw up your skirt. Nice. Someone won the crotch jackpot.
Hazel Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Hazel: sing Motown together into hairbrushes, have a pair of vintage Jordache jeans that we share
Hazel Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Hazel: I can't afford a third strike
Hazel Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Jenna: you made the same mistake Mickey Rourke made on that catamaran
Jenna Absurdist Character Comedy Jenna: You made the same mistake Mickey Rourke made on that catamaran.
Jenna Absurdist Character Comedy Hank: If I get thirsty, I'll just drink the water from lunch I saved in my cheek
Hank Character Comedy Absurdist Hank: If I get thirsty, I'll just drink the water from lunch I saved in my cheek.
Hank Character Comedy Absurdist Hank: Taking my original buttocks wasn't enough for those bastards
Hank Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Hank: Taking my original buttocks wasn't enough for those bastards.
Hank Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Hank: I fell asleep at a Raymour and Flanigan last week, and a black family tried to buy me
Hank Character Comedy Absurdist Hank: Not buying the Phillies, not marrying my wife sooner, and not surprising you any quicker with this hug
Hank Character Comedy Escalation Tracy: so I said I had a bomb
Tracy Dark/Subversive Escalation Hazel: Liz and I, or 'Lazel,' are really worried about you
Hazel Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Liz · Kenneth: You're just another weird page, and I already have one of those. Aw, thank you.
Liz: Jack, the rats have my meditation stool. Help! Shoot it free! Let her go, you bastard!
Liz Physical/Slapstick Escalation Callback Kenneth: It is a tail told by an idiot, full sound of furry, signifying nothing
Kenneth Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy Kenneth: Would you like to try our apple dippers?
