Gallows humor

More Season 4 fun ... I watched the third DVD in my 30 Rock boxset and really enjoyed the following moment(s) from one of the episodes included. A recurring plotline on the show is that Tracy Jordan (played by Tracy Morgan) is trying to earn an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar & Tony). Toward that end, his entourage has encouraged him to make a hard-hitting movie over his summer hiatus about growing up in the South Bronx, instead of playing the title role in "Garfield III: Feline Groovy" ("The title is a pun," says Tracy, "Since cats have grooves in their paws." LOL!) However, Tracy is not willing, initially, to revisit his memories of growing up neglected in foster care in the South Bronx.

The series has already touched on Tracy's troubled past. In Season 1, Tracy takes Liz to his old neighborhood, for example, and earlier in Season 4, a joke is made about not being able to locate Tracy's mom for a special Mother's Day episode.  ("But I told you what I remembered about her," says Tracy. "Yes, you told us 'She was wearing a red shirt in 1984'," replies the show's producer Pete, with an eye roll.)

After his entourage (Kenneth and Dot Com, no Grizz in sight) finally drags him up to the South Bronx, Tracy sees a familiar stairwell and experiences a kind of breakthrough ... his repressed childhood memories come flooding back and he is overcome with emotion, sharing the various horrors he lived through.


p.s. I know it's not especially funny to joke about terrible childhoods, but I think the show does a good job of keeping it funny. My favorite line just might be the one about a pack of wild dogs taking over and successfully running a Wendy's. Or the one about finding a child's shoe in his burrito.