“30 Rock” just edited out a Season 3 joke about Chris Brown, and it’s about time
In case you *somehow* managed to miss the news, 30 Rock left Netflix in October, sparking the greatest Twitter meltdown ever (err, okay, of the day). But just as we were beginning to think all was lost, we learned that 30 Rock was heading over to Hulu on October 1st, meaning we wouldn’t have to say goodbye, after all.
But now that it’s on Hulu, we’re noticing a serious change to a particular 30 Rock episode, and honestly, it’s definitely for the better.
Fans of the NBC hit sitcom re-watching the series on Hulu will notice that a Chris Brown reference from the Season 3 episode, “Goodbye, My Friend” has been edited out.
So what does Brown have to do with 30 Rock? In the original edit of the episode, Liz Lemon is at a doughnut shop where she strikes up a conversation with Becca, a pregnant shop employee. Becca reveals to Liz that during the adoption process, she’s keeps meeting prospective parents who “don’t even know who Chris Brown is.” Well Liz, who probably doesn’t know much about Chris Brown but is attempting to come off as cool, belts out a few bars of Brown’s song, “With You,” to show that she, in fact, know’s Chris Brown.
The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the change, noted that the scene now has Becca complaining that people don’t know who Ne-Yo is. And instead of singing “With You,” Liz’s singing is distorted and largely inaudible.
While the change is certainly warranted, it’s a little bit confusing as to why the episode is just being re-edited now, especially considering the episode first aired on March 5, 2009, the same day Brown was charged with felony assault after assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna a month prior.
While, according to THR, a few Redditors believe the episode was re-edited for the Season 3 DVD, which was released in September 2009, it remains largely unknown why the Hulu version of the scene is different from the one shown on Netflix. Well, as Kris Jenner once said, “This is a case for the F.B.I.”
