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 stunning as were the revelations we had of Sarah Palin over the course of the same timeframe. We don't see or hear the wise-cracks coming, because they are unthinkable, yet real and are unique to these characters. We don't expect the twists and turns of the scene development because they are based on the reactions of characters who are colored perfectly within their environment. The addition of big-name stars to the mix added another level of "toe-pointingness" since we already had a relationship and a history with them. It's something like how Obama is naming his cabinet, one expert after another drawing us in, making us pay attention to what's going on.
The show did to us what the Obama campaign did to the country; it took us out of our daily rounds and showed us a kind of perfection in terms of thought and action. The pupose of the campaign was to re-engage us in our own democratic process; not to elect a black man. The purpose of "30 Rock" was to create something absurd enough to attract attention and common enough to make it impossible not to "get it". It quenched our thirst to be surprised by helpless fits of that sidesplitting, "gotcha" laughter. The awards were never the point. The fact that a black man was elected proves he was a master of the process. The fact that the show garnered a cult following in spite of its non-prime-time place in the world of viewing, proves "30 Rock" always was the Best Comedy. It simply needed some air time.