Conscious Socialness

I apologize for the text-overload in the last few posts. This time, I'm going to try a more condensed format, and we'll see how that goes. I'm going to skip "Jack the Writer" and "Jack-Tor," but I just can't overlook my two favorite moments in those two episodes: 

1) Tracy's advice to Kenneth: "LIVE EVERY WEEK LIKE IT'S SHARK WEEK. 

2) Jenna's song "Muffin Top" [everyone knows the best part of the muffin... is the top]. It's been stuck in my head for days! 

Moving on, this episode is "Jack Meets Dennis." Best line: Jack buys a beeper from Liz's obnoxious Beeper-King boyfriend Dennis. When she tells him to take it off, he refuses, saying "I can't. I'm expecting a call from 1983." This episode is interesting, too, in the way that many of the characters acknowledge the constructs of the social groups they belong to and the conscious decisions they are making to remain there. Here's a few examples:

Jenna: Jack asks Jenna her age and she lies and tells him she's 29. Though she passes Jack's series of test questions about her supposed age (teen celebrity crush? Kirk Cameron. movie she lost her virginity to? Arachnaphobia. drive-in or theater? "... what's a drive-in?"), she panics about her stability as a non-character actress. She tells Liz, "when someone asks an actress her age, it's more of an answer than a question." She then gets ridiculous Botox.

Tracy: Tracy is horrified when he sees a photo of himself in a tabloid with the caption "NORMAL." He rants that "If I'm normal I'll be boring, and if I'm boring I won't be a movie star, and if I'm not a movie star I'll be poor, and poor people can't pay back the $75,000 cash they owe Quincy Jones." He shows up to work the next day with a huge facial tattoo of a "Biblical dragon from outer space," which turns out to be fake. He explains to Liz that he needs to maintain his image to keep his "street cred." 

Jack's friend Howard/ Jack Welch: Jack is trying to convince Liz to let him mentor her to becoming more cultured and successful. He brings his old "student," Howard in to meet Liz, and together the two men list Howard's accolades: he's married, has two beautiful kids, and a pool; he makes a seven figure income; he's married to a "swell Filipino gal." Jack also explains to Liz that GE CEO Jack Welch is "the best leader since the Pharoahs" because he integrates himself into both the working and personal lives of his employees. He "introduces us to the finest booze and the most exclusive country clubs, recommends the best private investigators to spy on our ex-wives, and holds our hands during our triumphs and our Senate hearings." By the end of the episode, Liz decides that she's willing to let Jack mentor her rather than ignore what Jack calls her "lack of foresight and addiction to dysfunctional relationships."