Liz Lemon

I love Liz Lemon. 

I'd like to be Liz Lemon when I grow up. Four years ago, Tina Fey ramrodded this "sexy librarian" goofball into my heart with her comedy show head writer character creation. Liz is funny, winsome, super awkward, non-stylish/a total diamond in the rough, insecure, lonely, misguided and lovable. She loves to break out urban dance moves at the wrong times and places. She eats food from street vendors. She wears dowdy cardigans. She is abrasive and appealing. If I knew how to make one of those little heart emoticons, this is the place in the blog where I would place it.

I don't love this show because it has consistently low ratings or because it's a "critical darling." I don't watch it so that I can be one step ahead of my pals at work or so that I can repeat my Arrested Development heartbreak. (Let me note that I really was saddened when Arrested Development went off the air, and did not find weaning myself off of the Bluth family an easy experience.)

I watch 30 Rock because it makes me laugh out loud, hard, repeatedly, even when I'm all by myself. I do relate to the program because Liz is a dynamic female protagonist in her late 30s, sure. She's a striver with whom I strongly identify in certain ways, and I love her glasses. In some ways, of course, we are different, a little: she runs a popular television show and works for G.E. She has presented at the Six Sigma convention, albeit as a last-minute addition to the stage show. She lives on Riverside Drive in Manhattan. She wrote a best-selling self-help guide called Dealbreakers. 

So some similarities, some differences.

My name is Erin, and I'm a pop culture junkie.

I mentioned self-medication a few posts ago. I think we all self-medicate to some degree, whether with substances or sports or beverages or purchases or even animals. Life stings, and I'll take comfort where I can uproariously find it, i.e. this NBC sitcom. Maybe self-medication is too pejorative a term. How about 'coping mechanism'?

Two Christmases ago, I received the 30 Rock Season 1 box set from my parents. Only my brother-in-law Jonathan watched an episode with me, and that's okay, because I quickly realized (once I had harassed my entire family about what they were missing) that I don't need to share this show. The only reason I care if other people watch it is so that advertisers will continue to place their products with Fey & Co. thus ensuring that the show continues production. Side note: I will give Jonathan a few mad props for telling me that I look like Liz Lemon with my new glasses on in the above picture.

Liz Lemon - the name, the woman, the myth - is a divining rod, I think. If I walked into a darkened movie theater and shouted "Liz Lemon," and only one person laughed out loud, I would turn on my flashlight and find that one person. I would then take that one person to the cafe in the lobby and buy her a bagel. If I walked into a darkened movie theater and shouted "Liz Lemon," and no one laughed aloud, then I would slink out and eat that bagel alone.

See this clip? Even Jack Donaghy can't help lovin' the Lemon!