I speak for NBC and myself personally when I say we do not condone hate or violence of any kind and I am pleased to see Tracy Morgan apologizing for recent homophobic remarks in his standup appearance. But is this response, a strong apology combined with a defense of Morgan's true character, with no indication of any remedial action not even a PR-friendly community service tour, or taking up GLAAD on their invitation to meet families who have lost children to anti-gay violence , sufficient?
Fey, comedy's darling, has not been widely criticized for her response. And other comedians have refrained from vilifying Morgan so far. Co-star Alec Baldwin simply tweeted , "Oh that Tracy. Overall, GLAAD responded to the apologies by saying that at the very least, the network "must now push Morgan to tell his fans that such violence is not only not funny, but unacceptable. For Morgan, it was the culmination of a kind of comeback tour.
Everywhere he went, people seemed happy just to see him. His S. He was accompanied by the model Megan Wollover, whom he married in ; their five-year-old daughter, Maven; and Tracy, Jr. Morgan wore a do-rag that looked to be made of velvet, and a champagne-colored Gucci sweatsuit. Several friends were waiting for him in the green room. A tray of mini-cupcakes sat on a low wooden table. Morgan sat on a ratty-looking couch, cracking jokes and going over bits from his set with the comedian Jeff Stilson, a longtime standup with a friendly, weathered face.
Shortly after Morgan got into standup, in the late eighties, he began attending a workshop held on Wednesdays at the Uptown Comedy Club, on rd Street, in Harlem. There he learned the fundamentals of the craft.
In , a television show featuring Uptown Comedy performers onstage began airing on local networks, and Morgan was chosen as a cast member. You can find the set on YouTube. Lawrence introduces Morgan in what looks like a state of astonishment. He acts as a sort of aggrieved emissary from a comic underclass, musing about a new public-housing-themed cologne called Back Stairway and complaining about Puerto Rican neighbors, with their music and the smells of their garlic and adobo.
The set shows his nearness in tone to contemporaries like Lawrence, Robin Harris, and Bernie Mac—big physicality, exuberant profanity, a preference for the stuff of daily life rather than for politics and social commentary—but it also points backward. He talks about blown-off limbs, drug-embattled uncles, dark nipples, genital funk, and crud of all rude kinds. Over the years, his presentation has sharpened; the register of blunt, set-stopping anger is still available to him, but he usually cloaks it in bafflement at the outer world, rather than in exasperation at the particular corner of it that he comes from.
Since the crash, he has tended to steer his comedy in a positive direction. Rather, they acted as emotional conduits, channelling, through vocal and physical mimicry, familiar types: your auntie, your cousin, the neighborhood storefront preacher. Pryor could do those kinds of routines, too; but, then, he could do it all. When they mentioned race, it was less often to lament or point out racism than to describe, almost lovingly, a set of intimate, in-group experiences.
The result was the kind of gut-busting laughter that commentator comics, however clever, often fail to elicit. But neither of them could remember the bit all the way through. Other people started to huddle around, trying to reconstruct the specific wording of the joke and the vocal inflections that made it funny.
He got some friendly shit for the getup. No, no, Theobald corrected, above some crosstalk. All they need is one person. I told you: entertainment is going to Wall Street. Nowadays there are no more Robert Redfords. Nowadays the movie is the star. Morgan looked offended to the point of befuddled pain. Very few! Cruise, maybe. At the mention of Washington and Cruise, people started chiming in with other names.
He looked over at me, grinning. It was his first part on a scripted show. He did his Biscuit routine at the tryout, and he got the job. Some of the actors, she noticed, were sticklers about each beat of the sketches in which they appeared.
When he would say something at the table, or when he would roll out in front of the audience, you could feel that they were predisposed to like him. This is gonna be funny! The sight of him in a dress just made people laugh. When critics pointed out the resemblance, Morgan worried that he might have offended his friend, and he went to Fey. He was the only one allowed to tell the truth. Morgan has never had a problem with jokes that use his own persona as the punch line.
He was given a diagnosis of diabetes, but he continued to eat and drink heavily. Now he supports gay marriage. What's next, a quiet weekend with Barney Frank? Behar -- herself, a big supporter of gay rights -- may be joking about a meeting with Rep. I think it was wrong and disgusting and cruel.
Siciliano said during the hour that Morgan met with two teens and mother Elke Kennedy, whose son Sean was a victim of anti-gay violence, he appeared sincere, listening attentively and relating some of his own experiences to theirs.
To be confronted with the brutal realities of what he was talking about, he felt very remorseful and ashamed. Kennedy told ABCNews. The South Carolina mom shared with Morgan how her year-old son, Sean, was killed in during an anti-gay hate crime. Later, however, Rock changed his tune :.
Martin blogged :. Go listen to some of your favorite comedians and tell me if they said racist, sexist, homophobic stuff about any group. I think many of you would be shocked that you laughed hysterically. Gay blogger John Aravosis responded to Martin:. I grew up hearing lots of n-word jokes.
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