Tracy Morgan’s Colleagues Weigh In On His Homophonic Standup Rant.

Friends and colleagues of Tracy Morgan are speaking out about the homophobic remarks Morgan made at a Nashville comedy show. Among them, two of his fellow SNL alums:  ’30 Rock’ creator and co-star Tina Fey, and Chris Rock, who initially supported him, but has since changed his tune.

Among Morgan’s remarks onstage: “if his son told him that was gay he … would pull out a knife and stab that little n***** to death, (he also took on a high pitched voice to mimic the a ‘gay’ way of talking – noting that it would infuriate him if his son were to speak to him in that way while coming out.) He also expressed that being gay is a choice because “God don’t make no mistakes” and that lesbians are “just pretending” because they hate men. 

Tina Fey has since released a statement that starts out kindly but then hits appropriately hard on Morgan:

“I’m glad to hear that Tracy apologized for his comments. Stand-up comics may have the right to “work out” their material in its ugliest and rawest form in front of an audience, but the violent imagery of Tracy’s rant was disturbing to me at a time when homophobic hate crimes continue to be a life-threatening issue for the GLBT Community.

It also doesn’t line up with the Tracy Morgan I know, who is not a hateful man and is generally much too sleepy and self-centered to ever hurt another person.

I hope for his sake that Tracy’s apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian coworkers at 30 Rock, without whom Tracy would not have lines to say, clothes to wear, sets to stand on, scene partners to act with, or a printed-out paycheck from accounting to put in his pocket.”

According to the Washington Post, Chris Rock initially tweeted in support, but perhaps after a response from comic (and open lesbian) Wanda Sykes, he took a more clear, pointedly different stance.

First Rock said: “I dont know about you, but I dont want to live in world where Tracy Morgan cant say foul inappropriate [expletive.]”

Wanda Sykes, who is openly gay, responded to Rock, tweeting “I Do! U Keep the world, just break me off an evolved country.”

Rock continued to mull the whole thing over, then clarified: “Tracy morgan is a tad off we all know that so when tracy says something i usually don’t take it anymore 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 ill kill you if you ever bring home a white girl but after reading everything tracy said . wow i get it that [expletive] wasn’t called for and i don’t support it at all. now can i please go to the tony awards without getting my [butt] kicked.”

Morgan has apologized via a statement, saying:

“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.”