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Dan Harmon thinks that the four words, "No you don't, Oprah" is the best joke from '30 Rock.' And for good reason - there’s something that makes this joke special. Tina Fey and the other writers for '30 Rock' were able to write three layers of jokes in this one punchline.
This video breaks down the layers to the joke and discusses other 'layered' jokes from 'Community' and 'Rick and Morty.'
(Thank you for 20k subscribers!)
~~~Below is the text of the (now deleted) original blog post about the 30 Rock Oprah/Sling Blade joke - from the
Grovels & Mumbles blog~~~
Are you laughing right now? No? Smiling at least? No? That’s fine. That’s not how the joke works. You don’t lose your shit when you hear it. The joke is great because it’s so quick and smart and told with so much economy that it doesn’t hit you that there are three different layers to the joke.
The first layer is it pokes fun at the ridiculousness of doing improv. You take in an audience suggestion and sometimes the suggestions are so random because the audience member who suggested it is trying to be funny themselves. Sling Blade and Oprah on a date is a stupid and random premise that the rules of improv dictate that you have to just roll with.
The second layer is the more obvious joke: Jenna thinks that Liz is doing an Oprah impression, not a Sling Blade impression. This layer makes the joke even more perfect, because the joke is perfectly in-line with Jenna as a character. The joke isn’t told cheaply, it takes time to add to the character who gives it.
The third layer is tied into the second layer: Sling Blade is a pretty easy impression that almost everyone can do. It’s obvious that Liz is Sling Blade and Jenna is too stupid to get that.
The fourth layer is tied to the last two: If Jenna thinks that Liz is doing Oprah, then Jenna should be Sling Blade, and Jenna is pretty much just speaking in her regular voice. This joke adds to Jenna as a character too, because we see that she was legit horrible at improv. Jane Krakowski’s delivery of her line is also perfect for her character, because she delivers it with a ridiculous amount of confidence.
The fifth and final layer comes from improv’s number one rule, which is “Yes and…” Jenna should have added to what Liz/Sling Blade said by accepting the premise and finding a way to add to it. Instead, she flat out rejects it.
HOLY SHIT, RIGHT? I’m hesitant to even say there are only five layers. I’m sure there are more that I don’t even get. What made 30 Rock‘s writing so great was that it was great within the confines of network television’s strictness, both in regards to profanity and time. The whole flashback is about 12 seconds long, but there’s so much to those 12 seconds, and 12 seconds on network television is valuable.
There have been better show’s on television (Larry Sanders comes to mind), but when looking at the somewhat lack of freedom that the show had in terms of what it was able to do with time restrictions and other network TV BS, you can make an argument that 30 Rock was the best. I’m suddenly realizing that I need to rewatch every single episode of the show because I’m sure there are a lot more jokes like this that I didn’t get when I watched the show when it was on the air.
Ha ha ha what an incredibly pretentious post.
30 сен 2024
