Man, 2012’s gonna be a rough year. First Mount Rushmore is gonna explode in a tsunami, or something, and then Alec Baldwin is gonna retire from acting:

Men’s Journal quoted Baldwin as saying it was “pretty much it for him” after “30 Rock”, “in a couple of years or so”. He told Playboy Magazine this year he was “done” with his career in 2012 and would retire at “30 Rock”’s wrap party.

Great. That gives us two more years before we lose one of the, like, three good mainstream tv comedies on the air. And we’re losing Alec Baldwin, one of the funnier and most universally likable personas in Hollywood. Why can’t the article be about this dude?

Baldwin’s self-critique goes deeper:

“I consider my entire movie career a complete failure,” he told Men’s Journal. “The goal of movie-making is to star in a film where your performance drives the film, and the film is either a soaring critical or commercial success, and I never had that.”

Ouch. Did he write his own asinine Youtube comment about himself? Why so glum, future host of the Oscars and winner of as many Emmys as seasons he decides to remain on 30 Rock? Does this also mean no more SNL guest appearances?

Maybe we’ll get lucky and Baldwin’s retirement announcement will just be another huge, indescribable meta-joke, only funny this time? You better sign Steve Carell to a 10-year extension while you still can, NBC…