We bet if this poster of James Franco pinned to the ceiling over our bed could talk, it would tell us that Franco chose to appear on the first of 30 Rock’s two episodes last night precisely because the show desperately grasps at popularity with stunt guests, and he’s made meta stunts his art. We appreciate just how unpretentious such gestures ultimately are. There’s no mystery to his wanting to appear on General Hospital, but you gotta admit, the idea’s kinda funny. Whatever his motivation was for appearing on 30 Rock, the end result wasn’t funny — it was hilarious!
Not that the show leaned on him — he just slotted right into an altogether terrific episode. We loved the rough parallel between his plot — he hires Jenna as a sort of beard, to cover up his predilection for Japanese body pillows — and that of Randy, Liz’s gay nephew who comes from Pennsylvania to live with her (and have “SLUT†markered on his forehead at night clubs) after she drunkenly outs him to family over the holidays. Even the potentially tiresome bit where Jack and Kenneth break into Nancy Donovan’s house to erase a voice mail he left (also drunkenly) jumps, thanks mostly to Kenneth’s rapid-fire computer flubs that cause accidentally snapped candids that are then sent off. Tracy, meanwhile, keeps his ridonkulessness at a low simmer — exactly where we like it — weighing whether to name his unborn daughter Virginia or Bathroom at Teterboro Airport (the possible places of conception), and incoherently propositioning a woman only to have an epiphany and ask, “Are you also someone’s daughter?†Now you — who told Jack “You should buy a leather jacket!†and why? Was your favorite line, “You’re being such a non-pillow right now� How about, “Try to look like you just got drilled� That’s the one we put in the video below!
Click ahead below for last night’s other episode, “Black Light Attackâ€!