conormckeon:

Since its inception, 30 Rock has been one of the most meta sitcoms in television history, and perhaps third only to Arrested Development and The Simpsons. (There will never be a show more meta than AD or The Simpsons.)

But last night’s episode was especially self-referential, and follows a long line of classic shows making a commentary on themselves. Such episodes include:

“The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show” episode of the Simpsons

“S.O.B’s” episode of Arrested Development

“The Pitch” episode of Seinfeld.

Between the 30 rock premiere, Poochie , S.O.B’s, and The Pitch, only the Seinfeld episode did not make mention of the show’s struggles to find a wider audience. I’m pretty confident that if Seinfeld  wasn’t already in the process of becoming an unquestionable hit, the tone of the episode would have been more akin to the others.

Shows have long made singular meta jokes, some better than others. Family Guy has broken the 4th wall several times and dabbled in meta, though with the delicate subtlely of a hammer one would expect from Family Guy, and in an episode of Frasier, Frasier Crane is asked, “do you have any idea what it’s like to play the same character for 19 years in a row?”

This brings me to the question I’ve been wondering for 3 years now: When is The Office going to make mention of the fact that the cameras are still following them around? I have to imagine it’s going to happen relatively soon, possibly this season. One thing is for sure, if it does happen, some idiot is going to blog about it.

Yeah, Chase has said that a few (hundred) times. It really only makes sense.