take down : This article was originally published on Leap Day , February 29th , 2016 .
Happy Leap Day ! It ’s so swell to see all of you here get into your merry blue and yellow , eating your slices of traditional Leap Day rhubarb , and preparing to cue up Jim Carrey ’s holiday classic , Leap Dave Williams .
If you have no idea what I ’m talk about , then give yourself a hard Leap Day poke in the middle , because it ’s time to refresh yourself on one of the best holiday - themed jape ever pen : the30 Rockepisode " Leap Day . " While30 Rockwas in its sixth time of year and entering Rachel - dates - Joey shark - jump territorial dominion at this point , this 2012 episode was a late - series gem , gifting us with one of the most ingenious made - up holidays in late memory .
NBC
In " Leap Day , " Liz Lemon ( Tina Fey ) hold out to the office , only to find that everyone is celebrating Leap Day , a home vacation that she , like us , never knew existed . The holiday ’s mascot is Leap Day William , a man with branchia who emerges from the Mariana oceanic abyss every four years and trades children ’s binge for candy . Celebrants are supposed to dress in traditional blue - and - yellow dress ( if you forget to , you ’ll get a poke in the eye ) , run through rhubarb , and taste things they ’ve never tried before , because nothing that pass off on Leap Day matters and " real life is for March ! "
Much like a substantial vacation , mass holler about it being too commercial-grade and the emotional state of the vacation being spoiled by PC culture . It ’s so convincing that can practically get a line President Trump condemning the liberal media ’s War on Leap Day as we speak .
The vacation even has its own cheesy tie - in movie , Leap Dave Williams , a cross betweenLiar Liar , Groundhog DayandThe Santa Clausethat stars Jim Carrey and Andie MacDowell , and ends with Carrey ’s uptight - attorney - turned - amphibian shouting , " I saved Leap Day ! And connect with my son ! And I solved a bighearted case of slaying ! " The attention to ( fictitious ) item is so telling that if you do n’t watch this episode and find yourself getting unreal flashback to your own childhood Leap Days , I ’ll eat my seasonally appropriate blue boater lid .
" Leap Day " is n’t the only memorable fictitious vacation – who could forgetThe O.C. ’s Chrismukkah orSeinfeld ’s Festivus ? – whileParks and Recreation , The MiddleandModern Familyhave all had their own Leap Day - themed episode . But it’s30 Rock , & with its many visual gags and balls - out consignment to absurdity , that give us the version we ’ll always recollect . In add-on to progress an original mythology , the sequence is a vicious skewering of the sappy vacation tropes we know all too well : Jack ( Alec Baldwin ) visits his Leap Day Past , Present and Future after eating tainted rhubarb and ultimately learns to be a nicer mortal , while Leap Dave Williams is a outstandingly ego - aware parody of the crappy Christmas flicks that studios churn out with regularity .
As an sequence , " Leap Day " represents what30 Rockdid good , build up a idiotic counter - Earth that behave as a funhouse mirror of our own , reflecting and distorting our own ethnical idiosyncrasies . It ’s so damn clever because you could totally imagine Leap Day existing , even as you recognize how stupefied its components are . But hey , is it really that much of a leap from a candy - toting fish - valet from the Mariana trench to a chimney - sliding fat guy rope from the North Pole who rides a flying reindeer ?
So on this February 29th , 2016 , we raise a glass of rhubarb punch to , Liz , Tracy , Jack , Kenneth and the rest of the30 Rockgang . We salute to live every day as if it ’s Leap Day and every Leap Day as if it ’s our last .
