Self-referentiality is a staple of 30 Rock‘s satire. Yet, I almost needed a “drop” and a spinning top to resurface from this live episode’s multi-layered meta-humor. The levels of satire unique to this live episode are not neutral self-referential gags. This play with 30 Rock‘s bounded structure is predicated, mainly, on gendered and racial dimensions. The show’s season-high level of viewers implicates the material cultural significance of 30 Rock‘s live episode.

30 Rock is certainly not the first scripted prime-time show to employ the “live-show” stunt (remember those live episodes of ER and Will & Grace?). However, critics have suggested that 30 Rock is comparatively a more appropriate show for a live episode. This notes Tina Fey’s background as a former SNL headwriter and 30 Rock‘s show-within-a-show premise and visual organization, although I would argue that 30 Rock constructs a skit comedy structure by editing in tangential scenes, a tactic made possible by the very fact that it is not a live show. Nevertheless, 30 Rock‘s integral relationship with live skit comedy cannot be overlooked.

The idea for this live episode originated during the 2007 Writer’s Guild Strike while the cast of 30 Rock performed live shows at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade theater. Two and a half years later, NBC announced on July 30th, 2010 that the upcoming fifth season would include a live episode, with a telecast of two versions: one for the East Coast and one for the West Coast. 30 Rock is usually shot on film, with one camera on a stage in Long Island City, Queens; however, sets and equipment were transported to 30 Rock‘s titular address at NBC Studios and the episode was filmed in typical live 3-camera set-up at SNL‘s home, Studio 8H.

Both real-time telecasts last Thursday employed several of 30 Rock‘s reoccurring themes to point to the show’s liveness. The live episode disciplines Liz’s errant femininity as it uses Julia Louis Dreyfus as a “hot-Liz-double” in tangential scenes Fey was unable to get to, and then references this as Jack tells Liz she looks better in her memory. Dreyfus’s performance of Liz employs racialized jokes about Jack’s male Indian-American secretary as she calls him a “Chai-boy” for the East Coast and “Aladdin” for the West. These performances are funny precisely because they point to the show’s liveness, and Dreyfus’s almost unreal and absurd exaggeration of Liz’s (racist) character.

30 Rock‘s altered live structure edits the diegetic FOX News skits and fake commercials into the show’s visual narrative, which showcases Tracy Jordan’s hyperbolic blackness through his “break” from a performance of Obama. This is visually emphasized as each version has a different FOX News caption under Tracy’s Obama that points both to the blackness of Obama Tracy and the liveness of the episode. The diegetic commercials undermine hegemonic masculinity through centralizing erectile dysfunction in Dr. Spacemen’s ad and the mutilation of ideal masculinity in Jon Hamm’s ad. The content of each commercial changes in 30 Rock‘ s two real-time episodes and colludes with “Technical Difficulty” interruptions to point to the liveness of the show, but the overall presentation of diminished manhood is the same. Jenna’s hyper-sexuality is racialized as she threatens to “slip-a-nip” live on TGS, clearly referencing both 30 Rock‘s liveness and Janet Jackson’s live Superbowl wardrobe malfunction.

There are certainly other significant points to be made about 30 Rock‘s live episode, such as NBC’s entire web page of “Live Episode” paratexts (you can take the trivia game on past live television or guess the differences between East and West Coast versions here). However, the most poignant moment of this episode was the insider reference to Rachel Dratch’s long absence on 30 Rock as Liz tells Dratch’s cleaning lady character Edwiga, “Haven’t seen you in a while.” This not only nods to Dratch’s 12 cameos in season one, but to her initial role on the pilot as Jenna DeCarlo – a character loosely based upon her history and friendship with Fey at Chicago’s Second City and SNL. The role was later changed to Jenna Maroney and cast with Jane Krakowski, suggesting that Dratch was replaced in favor of a more sexually appealing (less Jewish looking) actress. This contrasts with Dreyfus’s appropriate and even hot Jewishness,  which ultimately points to the limits of subversive satire amid 30 Rock‘s ambivalent hyperbolic racism and sexism.