Tracy Morgan Rant Stirs Controversy

Last week at the Ryman auditorium in Nashville, Tenn., 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan offended some audience members with anti-gay remarks that were more ranting than comedy. The June 4 show was not the first time Morgan has publicly commented on homosexuality, but some feel he crossed the line in Nashville.

Morgan’s set included comments that homosexuality is a choice but turned especially nasty when he said he would stab his son for speaking in a high-pitched voice. That remark led to a Facebook post by audience member Kevin Rogers titled, “WHY I NO LONGER "LIKE" Tracy Morgan.” In the post, Rogers admitted that some of the show was funny and that he was “well prepared for a good ribbing of straight gay humor.”

However, Rogers noted that Morgan’s demeanor turned to anger when he began speaking about gay people and that none of the comments were put forth as jokes. Rogers' post has spread across the internet over the last week, and now that the mainstream press has seized on the story, there is speculation that NBC, the network that airs Morgan’s hit show 30 Rock, may be pressured to respond to Morgan’s string of off color comments.

In a 2009 performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Morgan made similar remarks saying that being gay is a choice. Morgan’s comments at that show put the audience on edge, according to the New York Daily News, and it seems from Rogers’s Facebook post that the Nashville audience was equally as uncomfortable.

There has been no response yet from NBC or from either of Morgan’s 30 Rock co-stars, noted gay rights supporters Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin. But Morgan’s history of crossing the line with suggestive, confrontational humor hints that we haven’t heard the last of this story.