The Mailbox

I've been talking about what 30 Rock has to say about political and social issues, so it seems appropriate to ask about the role of the media in society. Does what 30 Rock have to say matter? Is anyone listening? The episode "Rosemary's Baby" has a few answers, or at least a few questions.

Liz's comic idol, Rosemary Howard, the first female writer for Laugh In, a sketch comedy show hosted by Dan Rowan and Dick Martin from 1968 to 1973. Liz says she wrote all the "political stuff" for Donny and Marie, and the show includes two clips written by Rosemary. A guy playing Nixon says "pardon me" as he bumps into someone and a woman says "pardon you? You're already pardoned!", and a young Liz says "it's funny, because it's true!". The other is a "mailbox sketch that shocked America" where a mailbox says "Nothing's wrong here!" and then falls over. Rosemary explains that it's a reference to H.R. Haldeman, Nixon's chief of staff. Later, when Liz calls Jack a mailbox, he knows exactly what she means.

The episode presents a few different opinions on what TV can do:

Liz: "We should be pushing the envelope, making people think." She thinks suits like Jack feed of the creativity of others, and that she isn't like that. 

Jack: "Pushing the envelope is for people without the guts or the brains to work within the system. Letter writers, radicals, Howard Dean." He tells Liz that she's in TV because she's "funny, weird, and socially retarded,"and also because it pays well, making Liz like Jack, not like Rosemary. He also tells Liz that TGS is, at the end of the day, his show.

Rosemary: Rosemary thinks TV should be "very subversive." She suggests that TGS write a sketch that "opens at a New Orleans abortion clinic, with a beautiful mulatto" (to which Liz responds, "I don't think we can use any of those words"). She thinks profanity is okay for TV, and that "live TV is like sex. It's better when everything goes horribly wrong." She also calls race "the last taboo."

So what can TV do? With big corporate interests in play and a need to be politically correct, what can the show say? I honestly don't have an answer to that, but I think 30 Rock does a pretty awesome job of asking the questions. It's like the mailbox: 100% TV-appropriate, funny, and you know what it means.

P.S.: ARHU, did you catch the Howard Dean reference?