‘30 Rock’ Explains the 2024 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominations

There will be no fresh EGOTs at this year’s Academy Awards. More tragically, there will also be no Jenna Maroney.

Of all the show business-focused sitcoms in TV history, few have taken aim at the Oscars for some playful teasing quite as effectively as 30 Rock. Tina Fey’s masterpiece perfectly satirized the 2000s-era award circuit with a storyline in which Tracy Jordan attempts to speedrun to Oscar gold by starring in a parody of Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire titled Hard to Watch: Based on the Novel ‘Stone Cold Bummer’ by Manipulate. Awards season brings up our best memories of Tracy’s path to EGOT glory, but as was the case on the set of TGS in 2010, let’s not allow anyone’s potential Oscar glory leech away the attention we should be paying to Jenna.

Yesterday morning, Twitter user @myrogeniche posted a helpful catch-up guide on all the films nominated in the Best Picture category at this year’s 96th Academy Awards in the language of a 30-second 30 Rock supercut. And just like the section on Mickey Rourke’s Wikipedia page dedicated to domestic disputes, “30 ROCK as the 2023 Best Picture nominees” is bookended by Jenna Maroney.

We can only imagine that, if 30 Rock was still running today, the casting, production, release and reception of Barbie would Jenna’s defining character arc for at least a season and a half. And if she could see this video, she’d be fuming that the scene for Barbie featured Jack Donaghy instead of 30 straight minutes of Jenna screaming.