30 Rock Funniest Moments Ranked

With all the deranged energy of a cartoon and a level of surrealist satire that makes you feel far removed from reality, "30 Rock" deliverd relentless laughs and moments of pure absurdity that remain unrivaled in the world of live-action sitcoms. Of course, the unique atmosphere of the series meant that "30 Rock" struggled in the ratings more during its run than a traditional comedy, but its loyal fans know just how well-deserved its virtually countless awards are.

In fact, if the show's cult following had its way, it would probably receive an award for every other line, not just an episode here or an actor there. (It's not every show that can make a dental procedure or an envelope hilarious.) That's not how awards work, of course — but luckily, we're here to pay our respects to some of the best and brightest (or drollest and darkest) moments "30 Rock" gave us over the course of its seven seasons.

Liz Lemon is a lovable curmudgeon, but she sometimes needs to work on the way she relates to people. Remember when she went back for her high school reunion and found out that everyone had seen her as a bully? It's a surprise to us, too — she's certainly no Regina George. But it was actually the fact that she saw herself as unpopular and nerdy that made her so bitter and cruel to her classmates: She took their genuine gestures of friendship as passive-aggressive jokes at her expense. 

While her snarky attitude might work to her advantage when wrangling an unruly crew of unhinged actors and apathetic, she would do well to remember that the people she works with, however difficult, are human beings.

Tracy reminds Liz of this fact when she marches up to him and immediately calls him a "dummy" and begins flinging accusations. He responds, "Watch your mouth, or I'll show you the back of my hand," and Liz flinches, thinking that he's threatening physical violence. Instead, when he raises his hand, it bears a sticky note that says, "Please be nice to me." This moment is hilarious because it's so unexpected and also so human: It's a message we'd all probably like to wear on our sleeves sometimes, especially when someone is making things more tense than they need to be.

The last time Tracy went on "Late Night," he turned into a self-proclaimed "stabbing robot." But now, with the help of some new medication in "Tracy Does Conan," the 7th episode of "30 Rock," he just might make it through the show without injuring anyone. Or not.

After finding Tracy on the ceiling proclaiming that he's "bugging out" due to his new prescription, Liz Lemon assumes that the "Dr. Spaceman" Tracy names as his physician is just another delusion. That is, until she finds Tracy's prescription bottle, which does indeed bear this unusual name, and calls the doctor hoping to return Tracy to (relative) normalcy before taping begins.

When Spaceman (a wacky Chris Parnell) answers the phone, we learn a lot of important (and absurd) information. First, his name is pronounced, "spah-CHEH-man." More crucially, though, we learn that "medicine's not a science," making us wonder if Liz's initial intuition that Dr. Spaceman isn't a real doctor was accurate. We also finally get a window into Tracy's eccentricity: Erratic behavior and delusion, brought on by excessive notoriety, and exacerbated by Dr. Spaceman's admittedly "wildly experimental treatments."

Of course, Spaceman also admits that he's questioning his own judgment on this phone call due to the influence of some "blue things" he's taken, so we're not sure how accurate any of this information is.

The stars of "T.G.S. with Tracy Jordan" have a problematic history with talk shows. You'd think that someone would have realized by now that all publicity is not necessarily good publicity when you're dealing with characters like Tracy and Jenna. While Tracy may pose a genuine danger to others, like Conan, Jenna's greatest threat is to herself.

Just look at her segment on "Hardball with Chris Matthews." Despite rehearsing with Liz, who attempted to steer her toward more innocuous commentary, she ends up making a horrific gaffe when she confuses the names "Obama" and "Osama," suggesting that America should hunt down the former and vote for the latter.

And the worst part is, she only took the "Hardball" engagement to clear her name after she was misquoted in a magazine saying that she hated the troops. It's hard to imagine why she thought that she could fix things by talking more, but the first-season episode "Hard Ball" is certainly funny (in a cringe-y way) to watch.

"30 Rock" is a satire, and a notoriously surreal one. This combination means that the show uses a lot of meta humor and narrative devices like breaking the fourth wall. It's an incredibly self-referential show, but it finds increasingly creative ways to accomplish this, so that such humor always feels uncannily fresh rather than played out.

One of the best examples is when Tracy, who allegedly needs 14 hours of sleep a night in order to keep himself from going crazy, well, goes crazy. In this episode, "Grandmentor," the eccentric actor is extremely tired and behaving even more erratic than usual. In the background, you can hear him screaming that he's on a show within a show and his real name is Tracy Morgan.

This is, of course, the actor's real name, and the premise of "30 Rock" is indeed that of a show within a show. It's a wonderful background moment you could easily miss, and a perfect example of the show's meta, self-reflective nature both turns people off and makes it beloved in equal measure.

Steve Buscemi's endlessly memeable "How do you do, fellow kids?" moment is actually part of a wider storyline from "The Tuxedo Begins." Buscemi plays Lenny Wozniak, a private investigator looking into Jack's past to see if there's anything that might jeopardize a run for mayor of New York City.

Buscemi's outfit in this scene is, if not impeccable camouflage, impeccable comedy. He's wearing a backwards snapback and a T-shirt that says, "Music Band" written in the style of the AC/DC logo, and he has a skateboard emblazoned with stickers slung over his shoulder.

The still has become internet shorthand for someone who attempts to appear younger than they are: Millennials use it to lament their failed attempts at Gen Z's TikTok dances or to make fun of celebrities who try too hard to be relatable on social media. This one moment has become a cultural staple that outlived its source (though one could argue "30 Rock" is still relevant today), and for good reason: It's hilarious.

Liz's pep talks aren't always the best, but they get the job done. When she counsels Tracy to be grateful for his family and happy marriage, she offers some stark perspective: "You know what I have?" she asks. "A Sims family that keeps getting murdered."

Liz draws quite a lot from her Sims family when she's giving advice. When she finds out that Jack doesn't know who his real father is and tries to get him to open up about it or at least attempt to find out who the man is, Jack rebuffs her. Liz's response is as sage as ever: "I don't have a lot of personal life experience. But if I have learned anything from my Sims family, when a child doesn't see his father enough, he starts to jump up and down. And then his mood level will drop. Until he pees himself."

However, it could be argued that she actually hasn't learned anything from her Sims family, since she keeps getting them killed. So take her advice with a grain of salt.

Some of the most legendary "30 Rock" segments are musical ones, and none are more recognizable than "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah," which LAist described as "a 'Monster Mash' for a new generation." The musical style is certainly similar to the 1962 novelty song that has persisted in our culture for decades — and the "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" music video, which was originally just a cutaway scene, threatens to become timeless in its own way.

The idea came about, according to an oral history in the LAist, because showrunner Robert Carlock kept thinking about how the Black Eyed Peas threw the phrase "mazel tov" into their song "I Gotta Feeling." He figured they did this to up their chances of being played at bar mitzvahs, and that Tracy Jordan would likely make a similar (but probably less subtle) effort. And "boys becoming men, men becoming wolves" is a poetic match made in heaven that seamlessly marries the Halloween novelty song with the bar mitzvah publicity grab — a combo you didn't know you needed.