When you're so good at writing that you put three jokes in one punchline (30 Rock)

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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.
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The best joke from 30 Rock is Tracy saying, “I finally understand the ending of Sixth Sense! Those names are the people that worked on the movie!”

DantePlaysOldGames
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Tracy not being sure how he feels about his mood ring being stolen is my all time fave.

Q_Basic
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Tracy Morgan saying “Your boos are not scaring me, I know most of you are not ghosts!” got a full belly laugh from me too. The jokes that betray a more subtle misunderstanding by a stubborn character are really funny

trebotski
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One of my absolute favorite jokes from 30 Rock is when Tracy says "you better watch what you say to me or I'll show you the back of my hand!" And his hand has a sticky note on the back of it that says "please be nice to me" 😂

bananalanz
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30 Rock’s jokes-per-minute rate is insane.

steamyrobotlove
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To me, the funniest part of the joke isn't any of the layers you mentioned, it's just the idea of Anyone responding to someone else saying they love a food by going "No you don't"

GypsyScot
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my fave line is when Jenna references OJ and he "says" to her "if you are alive who did I kill". the line slays me even as I type it

getrealnow
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It still blows my mind that we actually had an era of TV where Community, 30 Rock, The Office, and Parks and Rec were all on at the same time on the same night. I don't think there's an era of TV that can beat that many classic shows back to back.

nofx
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The two lines of 30 Rock. “Excuse me, there’s a line here buddy.” “There’s two lines.”

GiaMarieCarangi
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I always loved Liz singing Night Cheese lol then goes to the door pretending she was woken up and Jack just says “I heard you singing Night Cheese”

elliotfrank
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I also think of Jenna’s line to the writers when they’re asking her to help win a drinking contest against the teamsters and she replies “a drinking contest? What am I, 12 and at my boyfriends frat party?”

shpidoinkleboy
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Not layered, but the rural juror, was always the funniest long running gag throughout the show

kblk
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I LOVE how Jenna keeps talking about how Mickey Rourke did this and that to her, and then on the final season she breaks the fourth wall and confesses, "I never even met Mickey Rourke". That joke takes ENTIRE EPISODES to land. Doesn't get more layered than that.

AlexDogwalker
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There's at least a fourth layer here, in that Jenna delivers the line outside of the 'scene', expecting immediate validation

robm
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My favorite multi layer joke in 30 rock is Dr Spaceman. First it just is something funny Tracy says and sounds like him being him. Next it pays off and his pill bottle literally says Dr. Spaceman. NEXT is finding out that it’s pronounced Spa-Che-Min. It’s three payoffs in one joke.

laurengabriel
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Tina Fey has made this world just a little bit better. I love her

themr_wilson
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My favorite joke on 30 Rock is the show “Homonym”, which is a two part joke, and the payoff of the show being broadcast in a different language is well worth it

ejhproductions
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I would argue another layer of the joke is Tina Fey reciting Sling Blade's line from the movie, which is the opposite of improv

buddyhound
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I agree there's more than 3 layers but not in the way the blog described it. the fact that it's in character for Jenna counts as a fourth layer of the joke because Jenna is clearly trying to steal the show and during her line faces the audience looking for approval, to me thats the funniest part. Also the fact that Liz's Sling Blade impression is pretty bad is also funny lol

TJ
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As another layer to the R&M joke: Rick says he refuses to answer a literal call to adventure in a way that suggests he won't take part in an obvious Hero's Journey template, but the fact that he refuses ironically plays right into it! In Hero's Journey, a Call to Adventure is (typically) followed by Refusal of the Call, and that's what he's doing here.

blacxthornE