Tracy Morgan was ‘hurt’ by his own anti-gay rant
30 Rock star Tracy Morgan says he too was hurt by his onstage homophobic rant.
Appearing on the Late Show on Monday evening, he said he was upset that people did not enjoy the show and insisted that there had been a “misunderstanding”.
In June, Morgan shocked an audience in Nashville when he said that if his son was gay, he would “stab that little nigger to death”.
According to one audience member, the comic said “God don’t make no mistakes” and added that gay people should not complain about “something as insignificant as bullying”.
After his outburst, Morgan embarked on a publicity blitz to show his contrition and visited a New York shelter for gay youths.
But speaking this week, he appeared to be more concerned that people had not understood his style.
“At the end of the day, I’m a comedian,” he said. “I try to use my gift that God gave me to help the world, to heal the world, not to hurt anyone. I was hurt by it because people came to the show and were bummed out so I apologise to those folks that came and was bummed out.”
He added: “I just think it was a misunderstanding, I was up there working. Sometimes when you have networks like maybe Comedy Central it’s premise, setup, punchline, premise, setup, punchline. But I came up under the old regime, sometimes I have to get to it. And I guess that became a big misunderstanding.”
Morgan also said comedy audiences should be aware that anyone can be a be a target for a joke.
He said: “I do comedy in the spirit of Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce and George Carlin, and all the people like yourself that came before me.
“I see people sometimes at shows with cell phones, just right there, and I have to tell them please, when you come into a comedy club, that’s a place where we make fun of everything going on out there.”
