It seems like just this morning that “30 Rock” star Tracy Morgan was being condemned for his “jokes” about how homosexuals choose to be gay and how he’d stab his son to death if he talked like a queer. Probably because it was this morning. But I’m happy to report that Morgan’s PR team sounded general quarters and the damage control team is working to salvage the USS Tracy Jordan.
Tracy Morgan issued a statement to The Huffington Post through his representative: “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. 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.”
Ah, there we go. All better now. Back to the status quo.
Not to get all long-winded about this, but this reminds me of the discussion that Vince and I had on the FilmDrunk Frotcast a few weeks ago about Lars von Trier’s comments in Cannes about sympathizing with Hitler. Vince’s take is that von Trier’s a crazy Danish director who makes weird and sometimes offensive films, so you can’t really be shocked by the inevitable Nazi sympathy. I can’t say I agree fully, but I understand his point.
The same thing goes with Tracy Morgan. I don’t agree with what he said, but he’s built his career on being an insane person speaking without a filter. He gets laughs and applause and demands that he say more crazy things, and then when the topic come to gays, he says crazy things and people freak out. I don’t excuse anything Morgan said, but I’m not exactly surprised that he said it.
