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'30 Rock': The Tracy question
There's a question that comes up pretty regularly in my household as the fiancee and I watch 30 Rock: Is Tracy Morgan a genius, a complete nutjob, or some combination of the two?
I still haven't resolved the question in my mind, but tonight's episode definitely fell on the "genius" side for Mr. Morgan. And the show, too, which easily had its best episode of the post-strike mini-season.
I'll try to keep the spoilers from falling into Uncanny Valley.
The episode was full of palace intrigue, with Jack grooming Liz to be his successor, Devin Banks (hooray Will Arnett) still trying to scheme his way into the CEO's office and Dr. Spaceman running around the studio in a cape.
It was Tracy and Frank, though, that had me just about falling off the couch with their mini-Amadeus drama over Tracy's fervent need to create something that will leave a lasting legacy his children can be proud of. So of course, he's creating a pornographic video game.
Tracy's creation sticks in the craw of porn connoisseur Frank, who has been working for years to crack the secret of Uncanny Valley -- something, he assures Tracy, that "history's greatest perverts -- Walt Disney, Larry Flynt, the Japanese" have never been able to crack. That is, the tendency of realistic-looking animated humans to look creepy rather than pleasant (think Tom Hanks in The Polar Express).
Despite Frank's exhortations, and even after having it explained in Star Wars, Tracy will not be denied. "My genius has come alive," he says, "like toys when your back is turned." (This, by the way, is my new favorite line ever, and I will be making every effort to employ it in everyday conversation whenever possible.)
And wouldn't you know, he's done it. Frank may rage at the inequality of genius, but Tracy has found a way out of Uncanny Valley.
Which brings us back around to the question I've posed at the top. Tina Fey has said more than once that the character Tracy Jordan is sort of like the actor Tracy Morgan, but magnified several times. What's so fantastic about both the way Tracy the character is written and Tracy the actor plays it, though, is that you're never quite sure (I'm not, anyway) where one ends and the other begins. It's that little thought of, "Hmm -- does he really believe/think/do that?" that makes it all that much funnier.
In the nominal A-story, meanwhile, Don Geiss (a returning Rip Torn) tells Jack that even though Devin Banks is about to marry his daughter, he wants Jack to take over GE. Jack, despite telling himself he wouldn't, gets all misty at the news, but Geiss is OK with it: "You get one cry in life; you've chosen well." The only catch is that Jack has to keep his promotion a secret until the board of directors rubber-stamps it.
Jack then decides to groom Liz as his replacement, after seeing security-cam footage of her mauling Devin in an elevator to make up for the fact that she'd just spilled the beans on how she accidentally sold NBC to the Germans a few episodes back. ("To get through it I pretended he was a sandwich," Liz notes.) Jack knows he can trust her, and after taking a gander at the face-slappingly high salary she'll get, Liz abandons her jazz-handy creative persona for the straight-ahead arm-pumping of the corporate life.
She appears to take to it, too, coming up with "Button Classic" for the microwave division and immediately saving the company a few million bucks in research costs. Trouble is, though, she also takes to being "business drunk" ("It's like rich drunk," Jack tells her. "Either way, it's legal to drive.") and forgets to bring Geiss a dessert, causing him to lapse into a diabetic coma. Call Dr. Spaceman!
And so we get Chris Parnell in a cape. There's no reason for it. But it's funny.
Geiss, though, can't be revived, and Devin, seeing an opening, gets the board to approve Don's daughter Kathy, his beard wife-to-be, as the new CEO. Kathy, who was seen earlier in the episode eating flowers and who, Devin says, likes to crawl into the space behind the dryer.
Blurg, indeed.
Presumably the Jack-Geiss-Devin story will continue to play out over the two remaining episodes of the season, and I can only hope Tracy's does too. We'll end this, as we always do, with the bullet points:
- Geiss to Jack: "You hung in there while so many cracked under the pressure. Like Bob Duncan." Jack: The head of the stress-ball division hanged himself."
- A selection of Tracy lines: "I've got to do something important so my kids respect me -- like be a senator, or a wizard." "Eureka! [Griz: "What is it?"] We should call Eureka, she always has good ideas." "Damnit! Why is leaving my children a legacy that will live forever so hard? It's been almost a half-hour."
- Liz's mean streak has really been played up in the past couple weeks, first with Dennis and tonight with her dismissive attitude toward the TGS staff and Devin after she gets promoted. Fey does this stuff pretty well, so I hope we get to see more of it occasionally in the future.
- Jack, wondering when he can share the news of his promotion: "I want my mother to know before she dies so she goes to the grave a defeated woman."
What's your take on Tracy: Genius, madman or both? And how do you see these two stories playing out for the rest of the 30 Rock season?
They overlooked the fact that porn video games already exist! But seriously, good episode, and it was nice to see Will Arnett back.
AC | Apr 24, 2008 10:34:15 PM | #I think Tracy is both, sometimes a little too over the top but when he's on he's awesome. One line you didn't mention that I thought was funny after watching the episode a 2nd time this morning was the Take your Dad to School flashback when he is swaying with his shirt off and holding the banner and he says, "If I'm such a bad dad then why are we all dancing?" Those are the type of total non-sequiter comments that are a hallmark of his brilliance.
Also, in the somewhat ironic department, I beleive yesterday when the episode aired was actually "Take your daughter/child to work day". Nice planning on the writers part since that seemed totally intentional.
sac | Apr 25, 2008 6:13:25 AM | #Porn and video games do exist; just not very well. (See specimen A: "Plumbers Don't Wear Ties")
I agree with TJ being -this- over the top. It seems totally off track and ridiculous and the writers just run with it; like sac said, when you get to the segueway to TJ dancing in boxers in the middle of elementary school (after pulling out a polaroid of his kids hidden behind one of himself) that is madness -- or sheer genius.
I can see Geiss waking up, awarding the the job to Jack, and Liz getting promoted to overseer... or Devin turning NBC into the happiest profit churner... just to rub it in Jack's face.
"Oh God, it's like I died and went into a deeper circle of Hell."
pakopako | Apr 25, 2008 6:24:13 AM | #The take-off on Amadeus had me on the floor as well.
John F. | Apr 25, 2008 6:54:51 AM | #By the way, the "Uncanny Valley" is apparently a real idea, unknown to me as I watched. An explanation is here.
Rick | Apr 25, 2008 8:31:30 AM | #I love this show, the business drunk/rich drunk line was laugh out loud funny.
Lee Richards | Apr 25, 2008 9:19:26 AM | #milf island was funnier.
friday | Apr 25, 2008 10:30:19 AM | #The caped doctor was another Amadeus reference. Loved all the Amadeus references, like the soundtrack, and the lines "are you getting this?" "you go too fast!" when Tracy is dictating as Amadeus did on his deathbed to get the Requiem finished.
Shira | Apr 25, 2008 12:25:00 PM | #NOBODY WATCHES 30 ROCK BECAUSE ITS THE WORST SHOW EVER
TONY | Apr 26, 2008 1:23:31 AM | #THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT WOULD THINK 30 ROCK IS FUNNY ARE THE SAME IDIOTS THAT WOULD VOTE FOR OBAMA OR CLINTON.
TONY | Apr 26, 2008 1:26:33 AM | #Tony, I suspect that nobody on the list cares about your pseudo-fascist comments. If you think 30 Rock is the worst show ever, you are watching WAY too little TV. It is not one of my must-sees but it has some very funny moments. (Anyone remember Jane Krakowski?) And the idea that a TV show appeals ONLY to liberals is as neanderthalic a conclusion as an apparent knuckle-dragging mouth-breather like yourself would be expected to vent. I WATCH 30 Rock without being a FAN (and no, I did not get the Amadeus references and found the writing clever anyway) as I am of others. But as I understand it, this forum is to debate and discuss, not slag or insult, the show---not the viewers, voters or anything else. (However, as a proud liberal from outside your country, I must point out that the world consider people like YOU idiots for anointing---not electing---the current White House Resident twice. Democracy, when it comes to your country, will be a truly wondrous thing to behold.)
I discovered that 30 Rock is way too clever and fast-paced for me to watch without closed-captioning, which, trust me, is a huge compliment. I have no admiration for Tracy Jordan (or Morgan) but think that Fey and Baldwin are nothing short of brilliant in their roles, as they were tonight.
(Was Rip Torn playing the same Don Geis Ed Asner, still alive as of today, and if so, why?)
Assuming Geis survives, how does Jack oust Devin from the "man behind the throne" position? For that matter, when exactly did Kathy eat flowers? (I admit I am not focused on the TV while it is on so occasionally I miss something. Another reason PVRs [we don't have Tivo up here] ROCK!)
And will someone point out to TJ that (as some readers intimate) porn video games already exist, as do carbonated drinks? (Perhaps a carbonated porn video...nah. Too many layers.)
Is it 411 or 911?
HAHAHA!
diabetes repair? i guess.
so funny.
best 30 rock ever.
ryan | May 16, 2008 9:57:58 AM | #
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