Even in a comedy club, there are things you just can’t say. While comedians love to try to push the bar on material and keep things edgy, some comics unwittingly cross the line, and this is what happened at a recent Nashville stand-up comedy show with Tracy Morgan.
What happened was Morgan decided to talk about how being “Gay was something kids learn from the media and programming” and that “gays needed to quit being p*ssies and not be whining about something as insignificant as bullying.”
Good lord Tracy, you just hit on two sensitive topics: gay rights and bullying. According to Kevin Rogers, an audience member who wrote a highly publicized Facebook post about the incident, “The sad thing is that none of this rant was a joke … He was truly filled with some hate towards us. As far as I could see 10 to 15 people walked out.”
Morgan later apologized for the rant, “I want to apologize to my fans and the gay & lesbian community for my choice of words at my recent stand-up act in Nashville. I’m not a hateful person and don’t condone any kind of violence against others,” Morgan said in a statement, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“While I am an equal opportunity jokester, and my friends know what is in my heart, even in a comedy club this clearly went too far and was not funny in any context,” the statement added.
Chris Rock initially reacted to all this in a Tweet, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live in world where Tracy Morgan can’t say foul inappropriate s-t.”
The next morning, Rock wasn’t quite as defensive as he was gearing up to be a presenter at the Tony Awards and clearly didn’t want to get beat up. “Tracy Morgan is a tad off we all know that,” wrote Rock on Sunday. “So when Tracy says something I usually don’t take it any more serious than I would a statement from Gary Busey or Flavor Flav . When I first heard the statement I thought it was offensive, but it also reminded me of my father saying I’ll kill you if you ever bring home a white girl.”
“But after reading everything Tracy said,” He added, “Wow I get it, that s-t wasn’t called for and I don’t support it at all.”

In closing, Rock wisecracked, “Now can i please go to the tony awards without getting my ass kicked.”
Morgan’s co-star Alec Baldwin, also presenting at the Tony Awards, simply Tweeted, “Oh that Tracy.”
It seems as though whatever fan base Morgan had in the gay and lesbian community is going to be drastically reduced for a while. While Morgan will likely continue to do his signature style of comedy at stand-up shows, one thing is for sure: he won’t be opening for Lady Gaga anytime soon.