io9: 30 rock

Ranking The Creep Factor Of Human CGI: The Uncanny Valley Effect

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:42:49 PST

The more realistic a CG human is, the creepier they become. There's nothing spookier than a half-computer half-child CG face on the big screen. We've ranked all the worst CG humans, in order of creepiness.

Just in case you are unfamiliar with the Uncanny Valley, we've added the 30 Rock Clip which expertly illustrates this phenomenon.

Additional reporting by Julia Carusillo.

JJ Abrams' Loose Lips Sink Lost On 30Rock

Graeme McMillan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:30:00 PDT

The perils of introducing your more popular friends to your favorite television shows were laid bare in last night's 30Rock. Now all we have to do is hope that the show's writers didn't have any real inside information.

Timbaland Takes A Page Out Of Stephenie Meyer's Book

Graeme McMillan — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:00:00 PDT

Okay, we're officially calling Time of Death on the whole vampire thing. True Blood and Robert Pattinson love we could stomach, but Timbaland telling interviewers that his new single will follow the Twilight trend? It's gone too far.

Talking to Angry Ape, the uberproducer explained what to expect from the first single from his upcoming Timbaland Present Shock Value 2 album:

This record, it's interesting, [i]t's very interesting - this new artist on my label called SoShy from Paris [stars on the song]... We're both rapping. The song, I can't describe it, it's so different. It's not different for me, but I can tell you this - it fits everything going on with the vampire theme. It fits everything with 'Twilight'.

Mr. Baland - can I call you Mr. Baland? — listen. You're supposed to be the one shaping trends, not following them. And especially not when said trend is vampires. If you were really on top of your game, you'd be moving on to different classic monsters already. What is the world coming to when Tracy Jordan is more up to date than you are.

Timbaland Making 'Twilight' Themed Single [Angry Ape]

30 Rock Salutes Science Fiction: Every Great Clip

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:22:40 PDT

We've all seen the big spoofs of scifi classics. Family Guy just recreated Star Wars and the Simpsons' Prisoner tribute was perfection. But nobody salutes science fiction better than 30 Rock's sly one-liners, which just slip it in there.

We're madly in love with the writing on 30 Rock, mainly because each wickedly clever line is laced with loads of nerd-only humor. Sure, Big Bang Theory is cute and full of genre arguments and pop-culture showdowns, but I have much more respect for the show that can slip in a Star Trek/Boston Legal joke with out flinching. To show our appreciation, we've rounded up the best of the best 30 Rock geek moments — feel free to suggest your own.

The embrace of the genre way isn't a new thing for non-genre shows. Below I've collected a few moments from the leading contenders that also excel in dropping BSG riff after Rocky Horror joke. Please add on your favorites in the comments.

Veronica Mars
Veronica and friends really knew how to turn a phrase into a layered geek out dialogue session, here's just a taste of best.

The Big Bang Theory
The series is about nerds...so not really fair but they did really hash a lot of real life genre arguments.

The Office
Dwight represent!

How I Met Your Mother
We actually wrote an entire about this dillema, can you love someone that doesn't love Star Wars?

Additional reporting and gathering by Julia Carusillo.

Tina Fey Uses Her Jedi Mind Powers

Nivair H. Gabriel — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:00:00 PST

Liz Lemon, the sexy comedienne played by Tina Fey in NBC's 30 Rock, knows a foolproof way to get out of jury duty every single time her number is up. It involves a Princess Leia costume and a dash of mind control; if you missed it, you'd better check out this 7-second video dose of hilarity. In fact, last Thursday's episode "Believe in the Stars" was loaded with sci-fi references: In it, unkempt writer Frank sports a giant "ALIEN ABDUCTEE" hat, and movie star Tracy Jordan admits he watched nine episodes of Boston Legal before he realized it was not the new Star Trek. Whoops! Happens to the best of us, I suppose ....

Thanks to YouTube user ninjamoke for the clip.