Synergy became corporate jargon whose absurdity 30 Rock satirized

Evidence

Satirical synergy is seen in a variety of forms within the diegetic world of 30 Rock; the term itself is explicitly mentioned in ridiculous contexts on a variety of occasions, such as Jack’s nonsense excuse for firing staff: “We have to synergize backward overflow.” In an episode set at a “GE Six Sigma” corporate retreat, Liz complains that she hates “those corporate things—a bunch of drunk people talking about synergy.” “First of all,” Jack retorts, “never badmouth synergy.” The show creates all manner of exaggerated faux-synergisms as well, including a plot line for Jenna (Jane Krakowski) in which she is auditioning for a Janis Joplin biopic, leading Jack to proclaim: “I love this idea, it’s great synergy. By putting a TV actress into the movie world we can promote both. It’s like how we’re including a Heroes DVD with every missile guidance system we sell,” a joke that requires knowledge of GE’s minimally publicized military arms production. — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 386

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s graft of corporate finance onto artistic form; here the satire of synergy itself is a fingerprint of GE ownership.