Determined to prove his marriage has survived Avery's kidnapping unscathed, Jack asks Liz to officiate their vow renewal. Meanwhile, Criss tries to convince Liz that he's worth sticking around for. Tracy meets with Cornel West to discuss his influence as a black celebrity.
Season finale escalates character chaos into 65 jokes across 42 minutes—near-elite density.
Directed by Michael Engler · Written by Tina Fey, Matt Hubbard
WAR
122.4
Wins Above Replacement
“What Will Happen To The Gang Next Year?” ranks #85 of 138 30 Rock episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 96.6 — Elite. The episode packs 77 scored jokes at 3.4 per minute, averaging 7.7 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.
Get weekly comedy rankings
Join comedy fans getting new analyses, score drops, and the funniest moments each week. Free, no spam.
Top Jokes
Tracy: Darth Vader, ninjas, some black licorice I tried to make into the shape of my dad.
Tracy Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Tracy: For instance, in Pixar's upcoming movie about trash, I'm doing the voice of a lazy bottle of grape-flavored soda named Funky Bobo.
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Kenneth: Well, where will you sit patiently in the dark while you wait for the next day to start? I mean, sleep?
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Jenna: I have something to say. / I played Avery Jessup in 'Kidnapped By Danger,' now available on Sega Genesis.
Jenna Character Comedy Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Kenneth: Friendly and loyal like a well-trained female dog. But she isn't a bitch. She's a meaniepants.
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Callback All Jokes — 77 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Liz · Criss: You didn't whisper in my ear and kiss me to wake me up like you always do. / I've never done that.
Liz Criss Setup/Punchline Deadpan/Understatement Liz · Criss: You named your van after the guy from Dawson's Creek? / I've seen everything he's ever been in except for that.
Liz: I am still watching Smash, Criss.
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Hazel: Fine, I'll go first. Since I had to move out of Razmig's place, my living situation's been a little in flux, and obviously I can't go to a homeless shelter. I mean, the people there can be a little sexually conservative for my tastes.
Hazel Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Hazel: Can't hack it in the big city? Gonna move to the bay area now, pretend that that was your dream the whole time? Have fun always carrying a light sweater.
Hazel Character Comedy Observational Jenna: I look forward to reading your obituary, 'Least famous person in the world dies.'
Jenna Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Jack · Liz: Lemon, didn't you get ordained online and perform a lesbian wedding last summer? / Yes, I married Becky and Dee because love is love and there's no reason they shouldn't experience the joy of marriage like any other couple. / I'm not going to the container store. This is my Saturday.
Jack Liz Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack: You just turned into your father.
Jack Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Liz: What Bill O'Reilly erotic novel are you living in?
Liz Setup/Punchline Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Jack: I suppose our situation is most reminiscent of 'The Commodore's Lust' from the 'Patriot's After Dark' series.
Jack Character Comedy Absurdist Callback Liz · Jack: I get your Yankees tickets on A-Rod bobblehead day. / And I'm gonna throw that thing in front of a train. / Go Phillies!
Liz Jack Character Comedy Setup/Punchline Unknown: Stop, drop, and roll! Let me out! Let me out!
Dotcom · Tracy: You were named 'Man of the Year' by the 'Journal of the Aryan Patriot Party.'
Tracy: Did they say when the banquet is? Because I'm kind of between tuxes due to weight fluctuation.
Tracy Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Tracy: For instance, in Pixar's upcoming movie about trash, I'm doing the voice of a lazy bottle of grape-flavored soda named Funky Bobo.
Tracy Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Tracy Reaction Beat Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Avery · Scott: Scott and I saw each other every day at work, but we're forbidden from speaking. / I was living in an exact replica of Cinderella's castle that Kim Jong-Un had built for his shoe collection. / And I was kept in a pit where they made me beat my best friend to death.
Morning Show Host: Awkward. / Wow. What an ordeal. / And I know a little bit about suffering because I work out... A lot! / I think we have a clip.
Avery · Scott: The slow-reveal clip of Avery and Scott's news broadcast where they tap a coded message to each other, with Kim Jong-Un winning Miss Universe mentioned in passing.
Avery · Scott · Morning Show Host: The repeated rewinding of the broadcast as Avery keeps saying Scott's name with increasing feeling while Scott tries to complete the sports highlight, and the audience decodes 'It's a code!'
Hazel: I was gonna come in here and cry 'cause I didn't get back into the page program. But instead I'm being brave.
Hazel Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Hazel: I'll have to go back upstate to that cult. Oh, God, I had so many husbands.
Hazel Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Kenneth: Well, where will you sit patiently in the dark while you wait for the next day to start? I mean, sleep?
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Kenneth: Have a good day, Doris. / [High-pitched] 'You have a good day too, Kenneth.' / Whatever, Doris. Grow up.
Kenneth Character Comedy Visual Gag ★ Rewatch Jack · Avery: Ah, so... How was your day? [Long pause — 07 seconds until next line]
Jack Misdirection Deadpan/Understatement Jack · Avery: "I miss you at night. I think about you all the time. I couldn't get through this without you. Check out Kim Jong-Un's pants. Where's the flood?"
Jack · Avery: [Raises voice] I'm not even angry anymore! / Nor am I! / Do you wanna watch Downton Abbey tonight? / I'd love to! Maggie Smith is a treasure!
Criss: I had no idea the Shmuley Israel Memorial Parade was a predominantly Jewish event.
Criss Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Criss: You know what kind of women in their 40s have never been married, Liz? Uggos, crazies, and bailers. You're not an uggo. And you're 'ha-ha' crazy, not 'oh, boy' crazy, which means you bail.
Criss Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Liz · Criss: Planty, no! / I don't care about that.
Hazel · Jenna: Hazel does an impression of Kenneth for Jenna — gasping, snorting, groaning. Jenna calls out 'Doris!'
Hazel Jenna Physical/Slapstick Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Jenna: I'd admire you if you weren't brunette.
Jenna Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Hazel · Jenna: I'm a natural blonde. / That's insane!
Two characters — likely Tracy and Dotcom or Tracy and Cornel West: Stop looking at my ass. / Stop pointing your ass at my eyeballs.
Tracy · Dotcom: It's an honor to finally meet you, Questlove. / Tracy, this is Dr. Cornel West.
Tracy: Darth Vader, ninjas, some black licorice I tried to make into the shape of my dad.
Tracy Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Tracy · Dr. Cornel West: But where should I look? / Might be closer than you think. Maybe right under your own nose. / Under my own nose. Like a mustache. A mustache. Tom Selleck!
Dr. Cornel West: You've got to go to a civil rights museum. / I'm praying for my brother.
Cornel West: I'm praying for my brother. [Cornel West's reaction after Tracy misses the point entirely and runs off to find Tom Selleck]
Liz: Diana! The ceremony's not for a little while. You might wanna pace yourself.
Liz Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Scott: One day we made love while tapping. It was beautiful. No butt stuff.
Scott Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Liz: Jack and Nancy. / No, do not do anything.
Liz Character Comedy Running Gag Waiter: Kim Jong-Il is dead. I'm only waiter. I'm greatest waiter of all time.
Waiter Absurdist Character Comedy Diana · Scott · Waiter · Liz: Three different people independently asking Liz whether she's going to do the 'speak now or forever hold your peace' part of the ceremony.
Jack: To quote George W. Bush, Lemon, 'bring 'em on.' / He said that to me in Galveston when a busload of drunk debutantes tried to get on his boat. It was named 'Mr. Water Boat.' / Did it sink? Yes. Because there were too many people on it. But the spirit of his words lives on.
Jack Character Comedy Absurdist Kenneth: Oh, are you talking about Hazel or the raccoon that won't let me into my kitchen? Either way, the answer is 'wonderful.'
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Kenneth · Jenna: This isn't my application. This isn't even my handwriting. / Do you know whose handwriting it is? / Hazel's. / She sabotaged you so you won't become a threat. / And to think I thought Hazel was a bitch!
Kenneth: Friendly and loyal like a well-trained female dog. But she isn't a bitch. She's a meaniepants.
Kenneth Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Callback Liz: Police are reporting that a bank on Jackson Avenue was robbed this afternoon by a lone suspect — a white male in his 30s. Security cameras caught the getaway van heading West towards Manhattan. / Nerf-herder!
Liz Setup/Punchline Misdirection Dotcom · Tracy: What about Frederick Douglass? / A guy with two first names? Next.
Museum Guide · Tracy · Dotcom: That dress belonged to Rosa Parks. She's one of my personal heroes. / I think I found my role model. / Good choice. / Shut up, Dotcom. I'm not talking about her. I'm talking about me looking funny in this reflection.
Tracy: I'm gonna do a movie where I play someone's fat old aunt and I say stuff like, 'Whoo-wee!' And 'Sweet child, sit yo' black ass down!'
Tracy Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Liz: You can't go to prison, you idiot. They will ravage you and your beautiful woman face.
Liz Character Comedy Setup/Punchline Liz: I can handle prison. I have a mean face and I can will myself to sleep in any environment.
Liz Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Criss: I sold the van this morning... to a really nice young guy on meth.
Criss Setup/Punchline Deadpan/Understatement Liz · Criss: You sold Van Der Beek? For me? / I sold Van Der Beek... For us.
Liz Criss Character Comedy Setup/Punchline Callback Criss: I don't wanna wait for our lives to be over.
Criss Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Liz · Criss: Have you ever had a girlfriend willing to Thelma and Louise with you? / No. Never. / But come on, Bonnie and Clyde. Okay, I'm a boy. I'm a boy, Liz.
Unknown Guest: Also, I hear Pippa Middleton couldn't come today because Avery was borrowing her ass.
Diana · Scott · Waiter · Liz: The 'speak now' moment: Diana, Scott, the waiter, and other objectors all groan — then Scott greets his ex-fiancée Teresa; the waiter leaves because he has a shift.
Liz · Avery: Great! So no one. / Are you people kidding me? Seriously, no one has anything to say? You're all cowards.
Jenna: I have something to say. / I played Avery Jessup in 'Kidnapped By Danger,' now available on Sega Genesis.
Jenna Character Comedy Meta/Self-Referential ★ Rewatch Jack · Avery: I forgot about the TV movie that whitewashed our love story. / I was dating another woman. / And I wasn't ready to get married. / Both: We only did it because... / She was pregnant. / I was pregnant.
Jack · Avery: The only thing you're bad at is quitting. I kept my sea monkeys alive for 30 years.
Jack Avery Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Avery · Liz: I mean, if we wanted this thing to succeed, why would we ask Liz to officiate? / Because I'm good at blending humor and heart?
Avery Liz Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Jack · Avery: I'll always care for you. / We'll split assets and custody equally. / I'll take our friends 'A' through 'L.' / You'll get 'M' through 'Z.' / Liz, divorce us.
Liz · Jack · Avery: By the power vested in me by the website instaminister.Estonia, I now pronounce you divorced. / [Laughing] Yeah! Divorce! Whoo!
Liz · Criss: This would make a great room for a baby. / You said 'baby' instead of 'plant.' / Now say 'man cave.' / Never!
Liz Criss Character Comedy Running Gag Callback Jack: It's the remote control holder you wanted from SkyMall.
Jack Character Comedy Observational Liz · Jack: Because we are thinking about having a baby... Together... That will emerge from my vagina. / Or a Chinese vagina. / Okay.
Liz Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jack: I've been, uh... Divorced... twice. Engaged two other times. I'm... a mess.
Jack Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Jack: But any child would be lucky to have you be the mother it loves then hates for a few years, then loves again, then half-heartedly defends to its spouse, then puts in a home.
Jack Setup/Punchline Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Jack: If you decide to have a child, you are going to make an excellent mother... as long as you follow Jack Donaghy's 25 Pillars of Motherhood. Number one: don't overthink the names. Stick to Kings and Queens of England. There will never be a President Ashton or a Dr. Katniss. Or a non-sexually confused Lorne.
Jack Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Tracy: Ah, we had a good time tonight. I wonder what will happen to the gang next season.
Tracy Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Tracy: Will Liz have a baby? Will Jack become supreme leader of Kabletown? Will Kenneth... No, I don't care!
Tracy Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy Tracy: All I want is Jack and Liz get together. On Friends, it was so satisfying. They do on Cheers, they do on Moonlighting. Everybody do it! Don't overthink it, writers. Whoever you are.
Tracy Meta/Self-Referential Observational ★ Rewatch 