With a lead character who has been almost literally living under a rock for years, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has an interesting library from which to draw pop culture references. It puts an emphasis on the past, so anything from the last 15 years has to be deliberate. However, there's one Jon Hamm joke in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt that Mad Men fans will love — or maybe love to roll their eyes over. Comedy is subjective!
It's hard to forget Jon Hamm's Season 1 role as the show's goofy Big Bad, a man named Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne who locked Kimmy and three other women up for 15 years in a bunker. I'm thrilled that he's back for Season 2, even if just in flashbacks. We already had one Mad Men connection on the Netflix series when Kiernan Shipka, Mad Men's Sally Draper herself, showed up as Kimmy's younger half-sister. However, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt couldn't help but poke fun at Hamm's role in a few self-referential ways while the character is physically locked away.
In Episode 4, fellow former-mole woman Cyndee calls Kimmy and introduces herself by saying, "Remember me? We put a madman in jail together." Get it? Like Mad Men? See what they did there?
Ah yes, there's the smart and biting Tina Fey humor that everyone loves. I'm kidding! It's a dumb joke, a cheap shot, but I love it all the same. It's Deadpool levels of meta. The joke was pretty obvious, but I'll allow it. Plus, it's always nice to take down someone as looming as Jon Hamm and a show as revered as Mad Men with a simple one-liner. It's a sign of respect, for sure. There's another, slightly more subtle Don Draper joke later in the episode, where Kimmy mentions that the Reverend tried to convince them that he invented the "buy the world a Coke" commercial — but that first nod was so much sillier and perfect for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Images: Netflix; Giphy
