Tracy Morgan Pokes Fun At His Near-Fatal Car Accident During SAG Awards

Comedian Tracy Morgan has never been one to hold back from a joke. So it was no surprise when he took to the stage at Sunday’s 25th annual SAG Awards and made light of the near-fatal car crash that sent him into an eight-day coma in 2014.

Presenting the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a Comedy Series (which Morgan previously won for 30 Rock), Morgan said, “I gotta say, it’s an honor to be presenting this award tonight. It’s a very prestigious award and can be life-changing, and trust me when I say, as a former winner, if you win this award tonight, and get hit by a Walmart truck, and survive with all your arms and legs, you gonna be set for life.” The joke was met with laughter from the audience, and Morgan later took to Instagram to call for a film that would cast him alongside Michael Douglas, Tom Hanks and Glenn Close.

This isn’t the first time Morgan has used the incident for comedic inspiration. After an emotional return to the Emmy’s in 2015, Morgan broke the tearful moment by joking: “when I finally gained consciousness, I was just excited to learn that I wasn’t the one who messed up.” In 2017, he released a new comedy special on Netflix called Staying Alive, in which he openly discusses the accident, his recovery process, and how determined he was to be able to say “I do” and not “F– you” at his wedding following the crash.

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The 2014 incident involved a Walmart truck, which crashed into a chauffeured limousine Morgan was riding in at around 1a.m. on June 7, 2014. Morgan’s friend and fellow comedian James McNair was killed in the crash, and the driver has since pled guilty to death by auto, while Morgan’s ensuing lawsuit with Walmart has come to a settlement. Since recovering from his coma and enduring nearly a year of physical and speech therapy, Morgan has returned to the stage with his new Netflix special, the film What Men Want, and his new television show, The Last O.G. 

In a statement to People, Morgan said that he was determined to continue his career in comedy and planned on drawing inspiration from the accident. “When anything ever bad happened to me I made it funny and I turned it good,” Morgan said. “This was a bad thing that happened to me. I wanted to tell my story, but I also want to continue my standup career because all the great things that ever happened to me in my life came through standup.”