On 30 Rock, Tina Fey’s put-upon Liz Lemon had a multitude of things to manage, with the diva antics of Jenna Maroney, played to perfection by Jane Krakowski, taking up a huge majority of her time. Friends before their work on TGS, Liz and Jenna have a sort of symbiotic relationship: Jenna has a meltdown, Liz fixes it, and the friendship is renewed. It may not be healthy, but it worked for them and provided plenty of hilarious moments for viewers. On a show full of great characters, Jenna stood out as one of the best, with her over-the-top self-obsession and amazingly painful zingers.
Whether she was abusing the writers, feuding with Tracy, or trying to make “Muffin Top” a thing, Jenna was always essentially a living cartoon, and that zaniness made 30 Rock the joke machine that it was. Although 30 Rock has ended, the legend of Jenna Maroney’s diva behavior will live on with these classic moments (and Krakowski’s drier, but still ridiculous, diva antics on Fey’s The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt).
Mickey Rourke
One of the longest running jokes on 30 Rock is Jenna’s constant references to her tumultuous relationship with Mickey Rourke. Whether he’s catapulting her into the Hollywood sign, trying to kill her with a double edged sword, or sending her bouquets of flowers filled with spiders, Jenna’s stories about Rourke became more and more absurd as the gag went on. Sadly, they all proved to be false, but every diva should have the ability to spin an absurdly tall tale from time to time… because they’re bored or crazy or both.
Writer Abuse
Jenna’s relationship with the writers was a complicated one. While she continuously carried an obvious disdain for their non-famous status, she still craved their attention and desperately wanted to be in on the Pranksmen’s jokes. I’d say daddy issues were to blame, but Jenna is basically a giant ball of sexually confusing insecurity, so there’s a lot going on there. Either way, she always had the perfect zinger to put them in their place and to remind them who the real queen of the show was (even if it was only in her mind).
Romantic Mishaps
Jenna often proclaims that her sexuali-tay is one of her greatest weapons, but she usually miscalculates and overreaches when trying to use her womanly wiles for personal gain. While she got nowhere with billionaire “Sad Thad the Skin Tag Lad” Warmaid on Leap Day, she had better luck with the feeble Prince Gerhardt. Desperate to become a wealthy princess, Jenna overlooks the prince’s countless maladies to feign interest and gain a crown. Sadly, she accidentally gives him champagne, and he dies because his body could not handle the grapes. After effectively ending the Hapsburg line, Jenna flees the party, but is none the wiser. What did I just type?!
Celebrity Meltdown
Jenna decides that the best way to get Paul (Will Forte) to come back to her is to stage a fake celebrity meltdown. By feigning public drunkenness, staging some wardrobe malfunctions, and jumping through a glass window in order to escape an interview with Matt Lauer (understandable), Jenna not only gets huge amounts of press and a trip to the hospital, but Paul does indeed end up back by her side. Jenna predicted that a public meltdown would bring old lovers out of the woodwork, and in this case, she was right. The fact that he reveals himself to be her nurse in full drag is icing on the dramatic cake.
The Surprise Wedding
Her whole relationship with Paul, a professional Jenna Maroney impersonator, is fraught with self-absorption, but her wedding really takes the cake. Between her insane demands regarding her bachelorette party to trying to turn every public event into a sort of guerrilla style wedding (the final straw was when she sabotaged an award ceremony that Liz was attending), Jenna was the bizarro picture of a high maintenance bride. In the end, her wedding to Paul (officiated by a man in a gimp suit, natch) occurred immediately after the funeral of Jack’s mother, Colleen, because Jenna’s whole life is thunder.
Reality Show Desperation
The Queen of Jordan episodes are some of 30 Rock‘s funniest theme episodes, and Jenna’s desperation to be a part of the show is truly a highlight. Between hitting up a baby for movie roles and throwing wine in the face of everyone in her vicinity, Jenna has zero reservations when crafting an absurd show persona. However, when she’s in the throes of being taken to rehab for fake alcoholism, Jenna realizes that they actually want her on the show. With that knowledge, Jenna decides that she’s “too good” for the show she so desperately wanted to be a part of and demands that her face be blurred and her voice altered beyond recognition.
The Scottish Play
Jenna’s insistence as an ac-TOR often leads to clashes between her and Liz, and her refusal to do a skit based on Macbeth is one of the better throw downs. Sure, The Scottish Play is notoriously cursed, but I don’t think a version involving Mayor McCheese (timely) falls under the same guidelines. However, when the younger, hotter Cerie is brought in to play Lady McCheese, Jenna manages to put her reservations aside for THE SAKE OF THE THEATER. Surprisingly, McCheese’s “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” monologue is surprisingly good.
The Finale Realization
With TGS crumbling after the Cabletown take over, Jenna has to consider her career options. When she heads out to L.A. to launch the next phase of her career focused on film, she realizes that hot blondes are a dime a dozen in Hollywood, so she decides to revisit her true love, the theater, instead, because a true diva knows when to shut it down. Besides, it’s more fun to crash the Tonys anyway.
