30 Rock: An Analysis

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30 Rock and Race Issues

30 Rock has shown to be problematic with its depiction of race, such as multiple uses of blackface, racial stereotypes, and seamlessly censored racial slurs. One of the main characters, Tracy Jordan, emulates comedy's typical portrayal of black men: "lazy, stupid, foolish, cowardly, submissive, irresponsible, childish, violent, sub-human, and animal-like" (Horton, Price, & Brown, 1999). In the sitcom's pilot episode, one of Jordan's first lines highlight how his character is presented, " You know how pissed off I was when U.S. Weekly said that I was on crack? That's racist! I'm not on crack - I'm straight-up mentally ill!" These negative portrayals continue on throughout the sitcom.

Perhaps the issues are not with the show itself, but with the writing. In 2015, 30 Rock writer and actress Tina Fey released a new TV series: The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. This series follows Kimmy Schmidt, a victim of a kidnapping who has just began to experience life outside of a bunker. This show includes characters that portray stereotypes of Asians, homosexuals, and black men...which may not be far off from portrayals on 30 Rock (with Tituss Burgess appearing in season 5 of 30 Rock (as a gay hairdresser) before his role in UKS (as a gay performer)). Jane Krakowski, who played Jenna Maroney on 30 Rock, was also cast on UBS, as a Lakota woman. Understandably, viewers were upset about creating a comedic spin on real struggles. To which Tina Fey responded, “I feel like we put so much effort into writing and crafting everything, they need to speak for themselves. There’s a real culture of demanding apologies, and I’m opting out of that” (Fey, 2015).

When the writers of the past continue to write in our present day, the same issues that occurred in the past subsequently happen in present day. Although 30 Rock has finished producing new episodes the writing (specifically writers) of the show continue to prevail in our current society. Just as the winners write the history books, the winners of television continue to write.