Tina Fey says Colin Quinn inspired her 30 Rock episode about the c-word

Tina Fey
(Image credit: Brad Barket/Getty Images)

It's no secret that 30 Rock was always meant to present the goofy, slightly fictionalized version of Tina Fey's experiences as head writer of Saturday Night Live. The season two episode in which Liz Lemon overhears Lutz, a writer for The Girlie Show30 Rock's SNL equivalent — calling her the c-word is no exception.

Howard Stern, being Howard Stern, successfully elicited the name of the colleague Fey based the plotline on: Colin Quinn. Her fellow Weekend Update alumnus dropped the slur in a voicemail message, she said, seemingly for no discernible reason besides his own stress.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.