30 Rock fans think Taylor Swift's new song 'Anti-Hero' features a funny reference to the show
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Taylor Swift is a 30 Rock fan... confirmed?
Swift's 10th studio album Midnights was just released, and with it, the record's first official single, "Anti-Hero." The music video for the track about Swift grappling with her insecurities was released Friday morning, and one lyric from the song in particular has caught people's attention.
Near the song's end, Swift sings, "Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby, and I'm a monster on the hill. Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city. Pierced through the heart but never killed."
When taken at the surface, the metaphor the singer-songwriter is making is pretty clear: She feels like everyone else is the pretty, young thing, while she's some untouchable monster. (Swift had said previously in a behind-the-song explainer on her social media that "Anti-Hero" was "a guided tour" of her insecurities, including her worries that her life "has become unmanageably sized.")
But, fans of the beloved sitcom 30 Rock were quick to catch on to the "sexy baby" lyric in particular. In season 5 episode 16 of the show, titled "TGS Hates Women," Tina Fey's character Liz Lemon hires a female comic named Abby (Cristin Milioti) as an addition to the writers' room to combat claims of misogyny at the show, but is put off by Abby's style and demeanor. In a hilarious moment between the two women, Liz confronts Abby about her childish look and baby voice, telling her, "You can drop the sexy baby act." To which Abby memorably responds, "The sexy baby thing isn't an act... I'm a very sexy baby." Watch the scene in the clip below.
If the lyric is a not-so-subtle wink to 30 Rock, it would be an interesting feather in the cap of a years-long joke war between Swift and Fey. It started after Swift told Vanity Fair in 2013 that "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women" in response to that year's Golden Globes hosts, Fey and Amy Poehler, poking fun at the singer's string of rumored romances, joking she should stay away from Michael J. Fox's son, who was serving as Mr. Golden Globes that night.
At the Globes the following year, Fey made a call-back to the incident while hosting, telling Poehler on stage, "I love you, and there's a special place in hell for you!" And, in 2016, Tituss Burgess' character Titus Andromedon on Fey's show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt even says, "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women," another likely reference to the earlier issue.
At the 2020 Golden Globes, Poehler and Swift seemed to officially end the feud from seven years prior when they presented together. On stage, the pair did a bit that played up tension between them, but ended with them coming together over a mutual love of animation. This seemed to put an end to all the spoofing, at least, until now... maybe. Swift does love her Easter eggs and pop culture references, after all.
Reps for Swift, Fey, and Milioti didn't immediately respond to EW's request for comment.
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