Sketchy Comedy

Speaking of Pulitzers, Nancy Franklin asks for one in her piece on “30 Rock” in this week’s New Yorker (“Yoo-hoo, Pulitzer Prize committee, over here!”). I definitely agree with her central point:

The show’s true claim to fame, and a reason never to miss an episode, is Alec Baldwin, whose comic magnetism is so strong I’m surprised it hasn’t caused weather disturbances. He doesn’t steal scenes; he makes them rise and shine. Baldwin has to know how good he is, but he wears it lightly, and you actually take pleasure from how much pleasure you’re taking from his performance—just as you do, say, when Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby sing that put-’er-there-pal number “Well, Did You Evah?,” in “High Society.” They know that we know who they are, and Baldwin knows that we know who he is. And yet he plays well with others, and allows the star of the show to be the relationship between him and Liz.