Pop culture has a way of claiming holidays, or inventing them entirely.
“Parks and Recreation” turned February 13 into Galentine’s Day; “Seinfeld” gave us all a Festivus for the rest of us; “Mean Girls” made October 3 a day to tell people it’s October 3; “Miss Congeniality” informed us the perfect date is April 25; and every April 30 Justin Timberlake and ‘NSYNC memes remind us that it’s “gonna be May.”
NBC’s late night TV-ribbing “30 Rock” has its own holiday worth celebrating that comes only once every four years: Leap Day. In the classic 2012 episode from Season 6 of Tina Fey’s sitcom, Kenneth (Jack MacBrayer) and the “TGS” team introduced the world to “Leap Day William.” William is a totally real, not-at-all made up holiday character like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, except that he has gills, lives in an ocean trench and trades candy for children’s tears.
The “Rock” episode is so committed to the bit, the writers even enlisted Jim Carrey and Andie MacDowell to make a brilliant “Groundhog Day” parody in clips from a fake “Leap Dave Williams” movie.
There’s no better way to spend Feb. 29 than by watching the “Leap Day” episode of “30 Rock” (streaming on Hulu now). You could even binge-watch a few seasons of it.
It’s an extra day of the year, why not treat yourself! Oh wait, that’s another “Parks and Rec” holiday.
More to leap on:
- Free food you can get on Leap Day
- The new TV shows in 2020 that are worth your time
- ‘I Am Not Okay With This’ is your next obsession
