Gotta love when a good show throws down a few gaming references.
The episode of 30 Rock titled “Mamma Mia” that aired last week (May 7, 2009), included three noticeable nods to video games within a couple minutes. (Can you tell I’m a week behind with my TiVo?)
Around 35 seconds into the show, Tina Fey’s character tells Alec Baldwin’s character to stop being so “Irish:”
“Be Italian for like one second. [In fakey Italian accent] ‘I’m Jack, I dunno who m’ father is. I’m so emotional I’m gonna smash these barrels.’”
An obvious nod to our mustachioed Mario there. After a brief conversation, around the 1 min. 25 sec. mark, Fey’s character says,
“Look, Jack, I don’t have a lot of personal life experience, but if I have learned anything from my Sims family, when a child doesn’t see his father enough, he starts to jump up and down and then his mood level will drop [intentional pause] until he pees himself.
After the show’s official intro (about the 2 min. mark), Tracy Morgan’s character exclaims:
“Come on in Jack, I’m just I’m playing Sim City.”
Or, at least I think he said “playing.” It sounded a bit like “hacking.”
Fey, who produces, writes and stars in the show, is no newb to geekdom, although she has said in interviews (including an interview with me for Geek Monthly magazine) that some pop culture references are also added by some of the show’s other writers.
Here’s the Hulu video of the entire episode for you to enjoy (blame them for the ads):
Site [30 Rock]
I thought Tracy said "Come on in Jack, I'm just practising sitting"
Hmm, that could be very possible. Maybe the previous game references set up the cognitive expectation for me to mishear it.