30 Rock Inspired Dog Names

While dogs don’t play any truly significant role in 30 Rock, the writers were certainly still able to use canines to their comedic advantage in several different episodes. To be fair, most dogs are funny to begin with, from their reactions to their behaviors, and the trained ones chosen for the show, as well as the context they’re portrayed in, easily lend to the humor that much more. Very few happen to be recurring, but each individual dog does a great job playing into the show’s jokes and on even helps transcends the world of television reality. 

For instance, Abattoir is a great example. The frilly-looking Shih-Tzu owned by Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) appears in only one episode but just so happens to be owned by Krakowski’s character Jacqueline Voorhees in an episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt as well. While there is limited on-screen time for the dog, any fans of the latter show are familiar with the true “elegance” with which the dog lives. In the Kimmy Schmidt episode, viewers learn that the dog’s rear end is “purely decoration”, as the dog is said to never use it, and that its water dish is actually filled with lemon water, lending its identity and comedic context to 30 Rock as well. 

Dogs are also used to frame other individual characters in the show as well, including the soft, positive and obedient NBC Page Kenneth Parcell. To posit him as secretly a little crazy, Kenneth admits in one episode that he has the ability to talk to animals, or rather take orders from them, a likely reference to killer David Berkowitz, who claimed that “talking dogs” told him to commit numerous crimes. In another, Kenneth volunteers at a dog shelter. When warned not to get too attached to the dogs, he admits that he grew up on a farm with pigs and claims to know that animals are just animals shortly before an extremely cute and fluffy dog starts to melt him as he begins naming all of the dogs within his view (namely Bandit, Reggie and Digger). 

Dogs are used to frame Tracy Jordan’s character as well. Almost universally considered crazy by both the media and fans of TSG with Tracy Jordan, Tracy is convinced by Kenneth in the episode titled “Rosemary’s Baby” that he can do anything he wants except dogfighting. To prove the thoroughness of his recklessness, Tracy is then found dogfighting to which he tells Kenneth that Kenneth is not his father.