Liz Lemon's Three-Way With James Franco, Japanese Body Pillow

Last night on 30 Rock, James Franco (who apparently only takes on meta projects now) guest starred as “James Franco,” an actor looking for a fake relationship “with a human woman to dispel certain unsavory rumors.” Of course, Jenna accepted.

You may remember this plot from such shows as The Simpsons, but it seems Franco’s “romantic abnormality” wasn’t inspired by Troy McClure, but a New York Times article from July. As Franco explains, in “Japanese moe relationships socially dysfunctional men develop deep attachments to body pillows with women painted on them.” He claims he doesn’t know that much about it, but it seems “Kimiko” does.

There’s something oddly familiar about seeing the man who recently wrote an essay about guest starring on General Hospital as performance art laying out an elaborate scheme to deceive the public in this clip. Though, the motivation for “James Franco”‘s public performance is much different from James Franco’s… unless Franco’s trying to tell us that the real reason he’s on a soap is to distract from his secret moe relationship!

Franco kisses Jenna on a date, but only because he thinks he sees a paparazzo. The next day Jenna tells Liz the kiss was, “Incredible. Now having lunch with James and the actress who plays my mom somehow seems hollow.” Liz advises her to end the sham and find a real relationship.

Jenna breaks up with James, explaining, “I want what you have with Kimiko.” He finally embraces his love for his body pillow/common law wife, but then runs into Liz, whose gay cousin has taken her out dancing. Sleeping with James Franco isn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened to Liz, but by hooking up with Kimiko-tan she’s definitely “lemoned” her dating track record.

Love In 2-D [New York Times]
Earlier: James Franco’s General Hospital Stint Is Performance Art