SNL's Shane Gillis scandal is reminiscent of a 30 Rock episode

W Magazine

Variety's report that Saturday Night Live hired Gillis because it was seeking a conservative-appealing cast member reminded some 30 Rock fans of the Season 4 episode "Stone Mountain," which aired 10 years ago next month. "For those who don't recall, season 3, episode 4 of the show finds Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) and Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) on the hunt for an actor to join the cast of TGS with Tracy Jordan, a sketch comedy (show)," recounts Stephanie Eckardt. "While Liz initially searches in coastal cities like New York and San Francisco, Jack insists they find someone who'll appeal to viewers in middle America, leading them to pay a visit to Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer)'s small hometown of Stone Mountain, Georgia. Jack soon settles on a local ventriloquist named Rick Wayne (Jeff Dunham), plus his dummy Pumpkin (Bubba J). The latter repeatedly insults Liz in misogynistic terms, which eventually leads to his demise. From the look of it, that's also essentially what went down in real life." As one Twitter user put it, "So Lorne Michaels executive producer of 30 Rock didn’t learn anything from the episode 'Stone Mountain'?" As Eckardt notes, "30 Rock solved its casting problem by hiring a man who played a robot in Times Square instead, but there's no indication yet that SNL will replace Gillis before the season starts."