30 rock & georgia geography: an unlikely pair
oh, kenneth // nbc promotional photo
As someone who grew up in Metro Atlanta, I’ve always been a little confused about why 30 Rock chose Stone Mountain of all places to represent Kenneth the Page’s hometown. Stone Mountain is an outer suburb of Atlanta, is 69% African-American in population, and isn’t nearly the funniest-sounding town in the state of Georgia.
From how they’ve always depicted Kenneth–and how they depicted his hometown in the episode “Stone Mountain” last week–it doesn’t really make any sense why they chose Stone Mountain.
According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article (thanks, Claire!), a former writer for 30 Rock was a Stone Mountain native and suggested the town as Kenneth’s birthplace. The article says, “His bosses like that name because it sounded hick and Kenneth is kind of hick.”
Research, people! Take a quick look at a map of Georgia and find towns like Snellville, Suwanee, and Lumpkin. Willacoochee, Milledgeville, Zebulon. Any of these both sound way more and are way more country than Stone Mountain.
The AJC quoted the mayor of Stone Mountain as saying, “It was kind of harmless. It was so disconnected from reality, it doesn’t really matter.” The mayor also noted that 30 Rock isn’t exactly his cup of tea.
Which is awfully ironic considering that the whole point of “Stone Mountain” was demonstrating the real or perceived differences between Jack and Liz’s world and “Real America.” And the fact that (A) 30 Rock is disliked by a man who represents the town they misrepresented and (B) the writers couldn’t even make an informed decision about where to make Kenneth from brings the episode full circle by showing, in a very meta way, that there is a disconnect between the two Americas.
It almost makes you wonder if they did it on purpose.
Oh my GAWD. Lumpkin would have been incredible. They could have even made up an event: Lumpkin Pumpkin Festival! So much more fun can be had with that name. I’ve always wished someone would do something with Butts County too, although that’s farther south than the metro Atlanta area. But seriously – that’s a joke waiting to happen.