Tracy regains his sense of smell and finds an unusual father figure in Liz, while the writers spark a prank war with Jenna.
Eighty-one jokes in 25 minutes: 30 Rock's escalation engine hits peak velocity.
Directed by John Riggi · Written by Lauren Gurganous, Nina Pedrad
WAR
157.9
Wins Above Replacement
“Nothing Left To Lose” ranks #23 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 100.0 — Elite. The episode packs 90 scored jokes at 3.6 per minute, averaging 7.8 on craft and 7.7 on impact, with Tracy landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
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Top Jokes
Tracy: Goodbye, helpful Tracy. Goodbye, daddy-head. Goodbye, only evidence tying me to my ex-wife's disappearance.
Tracy Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Liz · Frank · Toofer: I want to be famous to make people love me because I hate myself. The Jenna I talk to at night in the mirror thinks I should kill myself. Also, I caused that Italian cruise ship to crash.
Liz Frank Toofer Dark/Subversive Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Jack · Pete: Your life is tied to the fate of the ring. It must be destroyed. Are you quoting Lord of the Rings? No, I'm quoting myself talking to Bruce Willis.
Jack Pete Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: All my favorite things: The Knicks, a mop from a strip club, a carefree hobo, a crate with a new giraffe in it, and broccoli.
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: No wonder that tour group kept calling me 'sleep whore-San.'
Liz Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 90 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Jack: My greatest weakness is humility. I'm probably the most humble person in the whole world.
Jack Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Jack: What three words best describe me? The. Complete. Package.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jack: My greatest weakness... Is chocolate.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Liz · Jenna: Jenna's self-evaluation: 'I am the worst person I know. When I used to live with Liz, I would videotape her sleeping and sell it to Japanese businessmen.'
Liz Jenna Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: No wonder that tour group kept calling me 'sleep whore-San.'
Liz Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jenna: I filled it out last night after mixing alcohol with prescription... exhaustion.
Jenna Misdirection Character Comedy Liz: This is the biggest waste of time since NBC's diversity writing program. That was a good idea, but all of our actors are so white. Slap it to me, Daddy-O. Popo popped dookie down by the vacants.
Liz Irony/Sarcasm Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Jenna · Kenneth: It's English director Christopher Nolan. I was shooting blow darts at Maggie Gyllenhaal from a heating vent.
Jenna · Kenneth: I quit this show! To hell with you all! Go to hell! [beat] I just need you to do a quick camera test.
Jenna: I do not understand Christopher Nolan's methods. He's directing a live-action Smurfs sequel, so I went to Times Square, did cartwheels like he asked... We got the whole thing on tape. This was a prank? This isn't body paint. It's a spray they use to kill geese at airports.
Jenna Absurdist Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: What happened, J-Mo? Did you pass out in a goose costume at LaGuardia?
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist Tracy: It's called 'Desire,' but with a 'Z' instead of the second 'E.'
Tracy Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy Tracy: All my favorite things: The Knicks, a mop from a strip club, a carefree hobo, a crate with a new giraffe in it, and broccoli.
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: Yeah, I wouldn't know. I lost my sense of smell years ago. But when one sense goes away, the others make up for it. I have an incredible sense of touch. I feel an old Jack-o-lantern from last Halloween.
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Unknown writer / Pete: It smells like grandma's house at Christmas. That's when we found her dead on the toilet.
Jack · Pete: Your evaluation gave me pause. Are you sure? Those look like hands to me.
Jack Pete Wordplay/Pun Deadpan/Understatement Jack: What if Alexander windowblinds had said, 'no, I don't want to partially see outside'?
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Pete: The last time I tried to put myself out there, the girl turned out to be a cop.
Pete Misdirection Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Pete: What? Like Frasier? But that's fun...
Pete Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Pete: My father was a congressman. I was valedictorian at St. Andrew's, an olympic archer, fourth guitarist in Loverboy... As a teenager.
Pete Character Comedy Escalation Jack: George W. Bush, during his 'let's do coke and buy the Texas Rangers' phase. But he made a decision to be the best president ever and then he was.
Jack Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Dr. Spaceman · Tracy: I can either drill a hole in the back of your head and push it out with your brain... Okay, that sounds good. Or I could just pull it out through your nostril. We'll do the second one.
Dr. Spaceman: You know, they don't tell you this until after you've paid for medical school, but being a doctor is exactly like the game 'Operation.'
Tracy · Dr. Spaceman: My Buck Rogers decoder ring! How long has that been in there? Those things are from the '70s.
Dr. Spaceman: Yeah, you know what else is from the '70s? Women staying quiet.
Tracy: When I was nine, I found it on the floor of the 'G' train. I knew if my foster mom saw it, she would make me sell it at a pawn shop to get our family a cheerio.
Tracy Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Liz: Okay, sometimes I think the stories of your childhood poverty are exaggerated, but continue.
Liz Deadpan/Understatement Reaction Beat Dr. Spaceman: So if you do have an extreme reaction, please try to get it on video for my nephew's funny website.
Kenneth: Liz, are you getting enough vitamin 'C'? May I suggest messily eating an orange while I photograph it?
Kenneth Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Liz · Kenneth: Kenneth, what do you know about revenge? Well, the Bible says it's wrong, but it's the surprise hit of the season on ABC, so I don't know.
Kenneth: From your trash, Mrs. Maroney. The garbage man knows all.
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jenna: I was so young when I got this. Who even remembers 2007?
Jenna Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Kenneth: Kenneth's garbage monologue: 'In this big trash bag, I see everyone's mistakes, their embarrassing secrets, their dreams they don't dare share with anyone.'
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Kenneth: They call me 'the natural.' I'm so good, the other janitors just sit in the basement all day getting drunk and laughing about this idiot they know.
Kenneth Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Liz: Look at us, laughing together, like a couple of Jews watching The Daily Show.
Liz Observational Character Comedy Pete · Jack: Including the one that looked like a terrified Asian man? It was a different time, Pete.
Jack: It's the first sport man ever invented. Except of course, uh, hide and seek. Shh.
Jack Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Jack · Pete: A man who, years ago, was on top of the world, who saw Paula and dragged her back to his cave. Actually she took me that first night.
Jack · Pete: For God's sake, Hornberger, the dummy is winning! Why are you kissing it? I'm submitting to its strength. It's the Alpha.
Jack Pete Character Comedy Physical/Slapstick ★ Rewatch Tracy: Funny, Kenneth. You don't have any smell at all.
Tracy Character Comedy Reaction Beat ★ Rewatch Tracy: Tracy begins singing about smelling, approaching things and people: '♪ Perfume and roses and strong halitosis / Powders and flowers and spicy clam chowders / I can smell, I can smell, I can smell ♪'
Tracy Absurdist Physical/Slapstick ★ Rewatch Liz · Frank: Liz finds Frank's email confirmation for a solo ticket to see Taylor Swift at Nassau Coliseum.
Frank: She writes the songs herself. When she can't cry anymore, she writes!
Frank Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Liz · Toofer: You're the man who took professional boudoir photographs and then tried to mail them to Parade magazine columnist Marilyn Vos Savant. I happen to think that smart is sexy. Our foreplay would be puzzle-solving.
Liz Toofer Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Liz: You don't matter. But if you two dirtbags ever mess with me again, I'll take this to the next level. You don't do 22 episodes of 'Celebrity Outhouse' with Lorena Bobbitt without learning a few things.
Liz Character Comedy Absurdist Liz · Tracy: You're at rehearsal before me? Of course I am, Liz-dad. I'm your good boy. I memorized all my lines, so can I go get dressed for the photo shoot now, so you don't have to wait for me?
Tracy: I know, Dotcom, that's why whenever I smell that jacket, I remember being bored.
Tracy Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Dotcom: Midnight symphony. You are the conductor of your own proud African orchestra.
Dotcom Absurdist Character Comedy Liz: It was discontinued a few years ago, but I bought seven cases of it on eBay from a guy named Reggie.
Liz Character Comedy Observational Tracy: You're still here. You didn't go to the store for milk and heroin and then never come back.
Tracy Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: Orville Redenbacher. Corn is not the only thing he popped, if you know what I mean.
Jack Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Jack: Great men like Richard Nixon, the 1980 Olympic hockey team, my good friend John Rambo.
Jack Character Comedy Absurdist Pete: The other day I was mugged by what I'm pretty sure was two five-year-olds in a trench coat.
Pete Character Comedy Absurdist Jack · Pete: Your life is tied to the fate of the ring. It must be destroyed. Are you quoting Lord of the Rings? No, I'm quoting myself talking to Bruce Willis.
Jack Pete Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: If you can't stand the heat, get off of Mickey Rourke's sex grill.
Jenna: "He is estranged from his son Kellan Lutz from Twilight."
Jenna Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Toofer: He is estranged from his son Kellan Lutz from Twilight.
Toofer Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz · Frank · Toofer: I want to be famous to make people love me because I hate myself. The Jenna I talk to at night in the mirror thinks I should kill myself. Also, I caused that Italian cruise ship to crash.
Liz Frank Toofer Dark/Subversive Escalation Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Tracy: You're not gonna wanna run away and start a new family in Ohio and have a daughter you also name Tracy.
Tracy Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Tracy: This is my Jimmy Fallon impression. Awesome, awesome, I love it! It's my favorite!
Tracy Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Tracy: Just some stuff I needed from home, like my bed. It's a California Kong, which is two California kings tied together with gorilla leather.
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy Tracy: Angie's cooking smells very ethnic, and I definitely can't be around my family. I didn't expect this, but teenage boys don't smell good.
Tracy Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Liz · Tracy: What about baby Virginia? Do you know what she does in her underwear? Something I once did at the Oscars that caused Daryl Hannah to throw up on me.
Liz Tracy Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Misdirection ★ Rewatch Tracy: Philadelphia, 1776. 'John Adams and Mitt Romney enter.'
Tracy Absurdist Irony/Sarcasm Liz: So stupid, Lutz. Disgusting. Why don't you learn your lesson and stop trying? That girl at Starbucks smiles at everybody, Lutz. Everybody! She doesn't want you to kiss her. No wonder people don't include you in things. No wonder Kellan never wants to see you again. You're worthless.
Liz Dark/Subversive Cringe/Discomfort Escalation ★ Rewatch Callback Kenneth: Ms. Maroney, judging is for God and his angels. [beat] So, yes, you are.
Kenneth Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Kenneth: The writers had me clean out their refrigerator today, so the trash smelled like, to use a technical janitorial term, total ass.
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Lutz Reaction Beat Character Comedy Callback Jack: Lemon, I invented business mumbling. You white garbage bag full of pudding.
Jack Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Liz: As a writer, that uncertainty is the fate that always I am to face being.
Liz Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Jack: Sorkinesque Repartee.
Jack Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz: "As a writer, that uncertainty is the fate that always I am to face being."
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Frank · Toofer: We took photos of you and sold them to a garbage fetish website.
Lutz: It's all made up, Jenna. Kellan Lutz isn't my son. He's my grandnephew and we're very close.
Lutz Character Comedy Misdirection ★ Rewatch Callback Jenna: No, I win. On my self-evaluation, I said I'm the worst person I know. But it's not true! Thanks to you guys, I'm the fourth worst. ♪ Jenna's amazing like a star in the sky ♪
Jenna Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Callback Jack: I never should have told you how to live your life like some sort of American Barack Obama.
Jack Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Pete · Jack: Do you know what was under my hair? A birthmark. It looks like a swastika made out of penises.
Pete Jack Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Visual Gag ★ Rewatch Pete: Do you know what it's like to try to have sex wearing a child's little orphan Annie wig?
Pete Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Callback Jack · Pete: Jack: 'Congratulations, I knew I'd make a man out of you.' / Pete: 'Get out!' / Jack: 'There's the confidence. / Please, just leave.' / Jack: 'Pete, you're welcome.'
Jack · Pete: Congratulations, I knew I'd make a man out of you. Get out! There's the confidence. Please, just leave. Pete, you're welcome.
Tracy · Liz: You wanted to see me, smell? [beat] Sit down, champ. [beat] Why are you so heavy? 'Cause so much of me has died.
Tracy Liz Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Liz · Tracy: Liz: 'Sit down, champ.' / Tracy: 'Why are you so heavy?' / Liz: ''Cause so much of me has died.'
Liz Tracy Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: A magnolia tree in spring, the towels at a Miss Hawaiian Tropic contest, the sweat of a terrified Webster as you load him into a cannon.
Tracy Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Dr. Spaceman: Now, full disclosure, I lost your ring at a Bodeans concert, so I'm going to shove this hilarious pencil-topper up there. Get a haircut, or I'm gonna shove you up a black guy's nose.
Dr. Spaceman: Pencil-topper label: 'Get a haircut, or I'm gonna shove you up a black guy's nose.'
Tracy: Goodbye, helpful Tracy. Goodbye, daddy-head. Goodbye, only evidence tying me to my ex-wife's disappearance.
Tracy Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Pete: In five years, I hope I don't have to do this hat thing any more.
Pete Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: Well, I'd like to still be working for NBC, or whatever NBC is in five years. A T-shirt company probably?
Liz Irony/Sarcasm Meta/Self-Referential Lutz: In five years, I'll probably be dead and no one will even notice, and yes, this is my second attempt at writing my self-evaluation.
Lutz Dark/Subversive Character Comedy Callback Liz: My greatest strength is that I'm a good listener. Watch. [beat of silence]
Liz Setup/Punchline Awkward Silence