by Lucie Shores

Created on: December 30, 2008   Last Updated: January 05, 2009

Awards for "30 Rock" sit on the shelves of the hallowed halls of hilarity with 69 nominations and 20 wins to its name. Even the character outtakes and spin-offs are winning attention with "Kenneth the Web Page" being nominated for an award. Whether watched on the flat screen, the big screen, the screen in the hand or elsewhere, it hit the ground running this year. The funniest show on TV, cable, internet and the planet in general, in 2008, turned recent discussions to the "toe-point" factor of this show, referring to the feeling of a wave of uncontrolled laughter washing over one from head to toes forcing one to point the toes to get the full effect. Among those present, it received most toe-points of the year.

No other comedy has come close to touching the success of "30 Rock", which reminds one of nothing if not the exquisitely planned and executed political campaign of Barack Obama. In both of these phenomena no one person takes the credit, (although it is pushed on Obama and Fey). The set-ups, (issues) are centrally positioned to the hard-core followers (hard-core followers) of the sit-com, (the Democratic campaign). All the players continuously stepped around each other in a sort of dance, allowing the tightly wound scenes, (campaign strategies) to play out one by one, hitting the audience, (the constituants) with the full effect of a cloudburst in a parched land.

This comparison is warranted, because of the authority expressed and felt in the behavior of the players. No matter what role is played in "30 Rock", casting has been perfectly matched to the concept or the character. Each word, phrase, scene and show unfolded like some ludicrous flower that one stumbles over in the jungle. No one ever thought of it before. It is astounding, hilarious, makes you want to take pictures of it, show it to everyone and ultimately take it home with you, or at least steal one seed, (quote one line). Even the strangest scenes were made believable by the down-to-earth tone or the histrionics displayed, each in turn. They were made completely relevant and more hilarious, because of how suddenly and perfectly the realization of the absurd, the recognition of irony, the punchlines, the quirks of behavior hit home.

Beyond the design of the plot came character development, which is woefully limited in most comedy. Ken's coffee addiction, the white on black contest, the sandwich-day fiasco, the absurdist drafting of the daughter of limited talents as the director of GE, were as

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