As Newsbusters noted, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and Tucker Carlson made an appearance on NBC’s 30 Rock Thursday night. The episode partially revolved around Jane Krakowski’s character, Jenna Maroney, mistakenly insulting the troops while posing for Maxim. Because the photographer had the music cranked up, Jenna mistook a reporter asking about the “beleaguered troops” for “theater troupes” and hilarity ensued. She then began a diatribe against that scourge of humanity and junior college drama programs everywhere—theater troupes, but the interviewer applied everything she said to our “beleaguered” troops.

Jenna: Ugh, I hate the theater troupes. They think what they do is so important! It’s just a bunch of gay guys that like to get in silly costumes and prance around.

Thinking that Jenna insulted the troops, a conservative-ish harridan called for a boycott. After the boycott, Jenna’s boss, resident dysfunctional liberal smarty, Liz Lemon, played by ex-SNL head writer and star, Tina Fey, tried to take the blame and sits down with Jenna in the office of fake NBC veep and Liz’s boss, Jack Donaghy, marvelously played by notorious Bush-hater, Alec Baldwin. To make up for Jenna’s gaffe, Jack decided that Jenna would go on Hardball.

To make sure that everything goes well, Liz rehearsed what Jenna would say to apologize for her comments. Jenna professed her love for the troops but then stated that she “just wants the troops to kill everyone and come on home.” Liz responded that since it is Hardball, Jenna “might want to be more specific” and gave her some tips:

Liz:You could say that you support the troops but feel the war was poorly planned and started under false pretenses and that we should have used those resources to hunt down Osama Bin Ladin.

When Jenna worried that she would sound like she didn’t know what she was talking about, Liz tried to pump her up.

Liz: Hey! Would Sharon Stone worry about that. Would Richard Gere? Then you go out there and you voice your opinions like a star. What are you going to do if they ask you about ’08?

Jenna: Of course I want Hilary to be the first woman president.

Liz: Ugh. No, Obama. You support Barak Obama. Remember? You liked those pictures of him at the beach?

Jenna: "Obama.” What is he, Hispanic?

Liz: No, he’s black.

Jenna: And he’s running for president? Good luck.

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The Hardball scene opens with Chris, Tucker and Jenna comprising the panel. Chris played Jenna’s comments and threw it to Tucker for a comment who asked, "Why do we care what she thinks about anything. This woman strikes me as another empty-headed, self-involved member of the Hollywood ignorati." Jenna dimly zinged back:

Jenna: You know, for someone who’s super, super hot, you’re really cranky. I have just as much right to my opinion as you or chris. If the President is so serious about the war on terror, why doesn’t he hunt down Barak Obama before he strikes again. It is time for a change, America! That’s why I’m voting for Osama in 2008.

To Chris and Tucker’s hanging mouths, Jenna high-fived herself by saying to the two MSNBC pundits, “Oh, no comeback? You’re burnt!”
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To make up for that gaffe, Jack ignored Liz’ idea of a New York Times op-ed in Jenna’s name that would put “the media on trial,” and instead insisted that Liz put together an overly patriotic song and dance number.

While watching the song and dance number, a producer on the fake show shared his surprise at how well Liz did on the skit but spoke too soon.

Liz: Why do you sound so surprised? I love America. Just because I think gay dudes should be allowed to adopt kids and we should all drive hybrid cars doesn’t mean that I don’t love America.

As Jenna twirled around, flapping her red, white and blue cape, Liz began to panic because the pinwheels weren’t spinning, and when they don’t spin, they look exactly like swastikas. Cut to throngs of protesters out front which resulted in a hilarious take off on the The Bodyguard, with Tracy Jordan in Whitney Houston’s role.
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Liz misses the point. Most conservatives think people are "un-American” when they root for the people who are bombing us and have vowed to destroy us, even embracing, sometimes literally, those enemies. They disingenuously claim that Iraq is not part of the greater war on terror and do not want us to win. We also think people are un-American for saying troops are mercenaries with “obscene amenities” or for posing for a picture, during a war, with the enemy’s anti-aircraft gun. Compared to that, not too many people care about those smug-producing hybrids, other than Cartman and Kyle.

When 30 Rock doesn't annoy me with conservative stereotypes and , I often enjoy this show. The part where Jenna mixed up Obama and Osama had me choking on my popcorn, and she was right about one thing; theater troupes really are insufferable. They need to go.