NBC's Funny Night

Last night's episodes of The Office and 30 Rock did not disappoint. I'm not with my beloved PVR at the moment, so I can't do the exact quotes that I usually do, but I'll point out my fave highlights from the evening.

On The Office, the salespeople go to a special cocktail party put on by a company bigwig, while the rest of the Dundies go to Poor Richard's pub to hang out. Pam decides she's going to be more courageous and honest (after hearing Oscar say the week before that those two things were not her strong points) and she begins finding ways to stand up for herself. These are big moments for Pam, even if they seem mundane to us (like insisting that the regular beer the bartender just handed her should have been a light beer). At the cocktail party, Jan gives Michael a waiver to sign saying that he will not sue Dunder-Mifflin over their relationship. Michael sees this as written proof that they HAVE a relationship, and calls it their love contract, signing his name with a little heart above the "i". At the party, all he does is talk about Jan in a sexual way, but we suddenly see another side of Jan. She pulls him aside, annoyed, but then yanks him into the bathroom, wanting him to take her against the wall and shocking Michael's sensibilities. Which begs the question: What the frak does Jan see in Michael??? It was super-funny, nonetheless.

Meanwhile, Karen runs into an old flame, and convinces Jim that she's slept with pretty much every guy at Dunder-Mifflin, before laughing in his face and telling him he's way too gullible. I'm seriously starting to like Karen, which is wrong wrong wrong... but the writers are doing this to us so the eventual Jim/Pam thing is much more difficult and not so clear cut. A lesser program would be making Karen evil. Dwight wanders around the house giving it a home inspection, and has so much fun he declares it a good party.

Over at the pub, Pam points out a little yellow stuffed duck she likes inside one of those machines where you position the claw over it to grab it (I have no idea what they're called) and Toby spends most of the night trying to retrieve it for her. When he finally gets it Pam tells him she wondered where he'd been all night, and had been looking forward to "hanging out." Then she hands it back and tells him to give it to his daughter. Poor hangdog Toby.

But the most shocking moment of this episode happens when Pam thinks she should be completely honest with Roy about what happened at the casino night. She sits next to him at the bar, and comes clean that she and Jim had kissed, that there had been feelings, and... but she can't get anything else out. Roy picks up his beer, hurls it at the mirror ad behind the bar, and it shatters. As she quickly grabs her things (the acting in this scene was great, and made me forget we weren't watching a reality program) and rushes out, declaring, "It's over" Roy's brother joins in as they go completely apeshit on the place, throwing several bottles and glasses against the walls and other mirrors. It was seriously frightening... And then, in case you turned away and missed the last 2 minutes, Roy sat on the curb outside the pub and said -- sounding pretty serious -- "I'm gonna kill Jim Halpert." ACK.

The episode wasn't so much funny as it was dramatic, really moving the story ahead pretty quickly. Even Kevin blogged that the ending scared him more than the bat.

Best line: Jan, standing outside the party talking to the camera: "Why is this so hard? .... That's what she said. Oh my god, I can't believe I said that."

Over on 30 Rock, the week didn't have the best Jack lines that I'm always waiting for, but it was probably the best Tracy episode yet. Looking for a new member of his entourage, he tells Kenneth the page that what he really needs is someone to harmonize with. When they begin singing "The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow" I could NOT stop laughing. It was topped only at the end by the sound of Tracy's voice singing, "I Will Always Love You" as the two guys from his posse swoop in a la Kevin Costner and save him from the angry mob. Hilarious!

Jack and Liz negotiate Josh's contract, and we see Jack's glee when he gets to haggle for things. He puts them in tiny little chairs and he and Liz sit in giant ones (his "negotiation set" as he calls it) and when it first opens, it's hilarious. Agent: We want a raise of 15%, and a guaranteed 2-picture deal with Universal.

Jack: My counter offer is one dollar.

Which he then drops to 75 cents. Hahahahahaha!

Meanwhile, Jenna has made a flub while posing for Maxim (the scene of her sliding all over the chair because her legs are covered in Italian dressing was awesome). She thought the interviewer was asking her about theatre troupes, but he was actually asking her about the U.S. troops in Iraq, and she said, "I hate theatre troupes," and was misquoted as saying she hated the troops. Liz tries to counter it by putting her on Hardball, but Jenna doesn't really know anything about politics, and declares, "I think George W. Bush needs to hunt down Barack Obama, and stop him. I'm putting all my support behind Osama in the next election." It was priceless. In a last-ditch effort, she sings a song supporting the troops live on the show, dressed in red, white, and blue, and the song is supposed to end with pinwheel sparklers... only the pinwheels don't spin, and instead come off as flaming swastikas. It was a GREAT episode.

Sorry I can't post quotes, but please leave your fave quotes in the comments! They're always the best parts of the shows. :)