Thursday, May 21, 2009

30 Rock's Take on the Stamford Chimp?

Did anyone else feel a little uncomfortable watching a recent 30 Rock episode called "The Natural Order" that featured a gibbon (small monkey) that ended up attacking Jenna? Don't get me wrong, it was one of the funniest episodes I've seen in a long time- it was Tracy Morgan-centric, which always makes for a great show. The gibbon was in a side plot, but it reminded me a little too much of the Stamford chimp (large monkey) attack. Here's what happens:

Tracy brings in a gibbon to replace him to make a statement about how they treat him like a child. He ditches the gibbon after the point is made, and Jenna (played by the brilliant Jane Krakowski) adopts it, names it "Little Jenna," and gives it a baby doll that the monkey believes is its real baby. Near the end of the episode, Jenna and Little Jenna are dressed up as sailors, and Jenna swings her arm, knocking off the baby doll's head. The monkey freaks and tries to "mate with [Jenna's] face." Watch that clip here.

I had to tell myself that surely writer/producer/actor Tina Fey would not condone such a crude joke. Before the chimp attack in Stamford, I never would have known a monkey/chimp/ape/whatever could be violent, and I would have found the image of Jenna fighting off the monkey funny. Instead, I felt a little awkward, wondering if they were playing off that news story.

Watch the full, hilarious episode or a partial clip of Jenna meeting the monkey.

7 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=arbt5asEq5lE&refer=home

Unknown said...

Stinger missiles, FBI and bombs in Stamford.

Stamford Talk said...

Whoa, crazy story! The bombs had been disabled though. Weird.

Chris Preovolos said...

Naw, its a TV show. And I say that having been pretty creeped out when I realized I was standing on a dried pool of blood in the driveway when the Stamford incident occurred.

BTW, This week, This American Life had a cop recounting an incident where an chimp attack was potentially imminent. Sort of.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1296

Streets of Stamford said...

Wifey and I sort of grimaced at each other when we watched that scene. I'd bet it was just a strange coincidence and not at all intentional.

Mary said...

I just watched this episode and googled to see if anyone else was upset by this! I think it was in horrible taste. Not funny AT ALL. And I normally love the show- but this was a huge turn off.