I’ve always laughed at Tracy Morgan’s “stoopid” characters - there’s something about the slight speech impediment and the look of honest dumminess that he gets that just totally nails real, earnest stupidity. He’s carried this over into the “Tracy Jordan” character that he portrays on 30 Rock.
But then I realized that I’ve never seen him not be that way, even when doing regular interviews on TV and stuff. Is he really just a kind of bumpling, stupid guy, or is it an elaborate persona that he never drops?
Wow I had never really seen Tracy Morgan in interviews and assumed that the one I linked above was him acting unusually stupid/drunk. I watched a few more on youtube and you’re right, he does act like he’s completely wasted all of the time. He does have some pretty funny lines, though.
Actually, the latter half of that second video reminds me a lot of a scene from 30 Rock where he’s at a country-club for a diabetes fundraiser and he thinks Jack is racist and embarrased by his behavior. At one point Tracy walks up to a microphone, and Jack is horrified at first, but Tracy makes a heartfelt speech about his daughter who has diabetes, which gets much applause and prompts people to donate. After the speech, Jack tells Tracy that the boss Don Geiss wants to meet his daugter, and and Tracy says “Yeah, I don’t have a daughter.” Who knows what’s real and what isn’t?
I love the WGN morning show and it’s hilarious watching Robin and Larry try and deal w/ Tracy. Funny and awkward stuff.
I saw Tracy do stand-up in NYC a few years ago and he was pretty disappointing. Just weird drunk ramblings about all the NBC pages that he wanted to fuck.
About a year or so ago, there was an article about him performing at a comedy club in NYC (Caroline’s?)…at any rate, the show was sold out but it bombed big time. People were standing up and leaving in droves.
The reviewer said it proved that most of his humor was scripted by the writers of 30 Rock, and that as a stand up, he wasn’t all that great or funny with his own material.
Could have just been an off night, or nasty reviewer.
I saw Kathy Griffin doing stand-up recently, and she said that at an event she was seated next to the 30 Rock crowd - specifically, next to Tracy Morgan. The bit went that as Oprah was on stage, doing some solemn tribute to television, Tracy Morgan turned to Kathy Griffin and shouted stuff like, “Kathy! Look at Oprah being all Oprah!” Kathy indicated that Tina Fey just kind of shrugged her shoulders, as if to say, “Yep, that’s Tracy.”
I get it, that it’s stand-up and is probably embellished. But still, it just heightens my suspicions that Tracy Morgan is not living a life of performance art.
The man does have an alcohol problem he doesn’t seem to be dealing with effectively… couple of DWIs and repeated violations while on probation for them.
I’ve been listening for over 11 years, and turned the channel maybe 5 times. Two of those times were the two recent Tracy Morgan interviews. Cannot stand this idiot. I do like Artie’s impression of him, though. “I’m enJOYin’ mah soBRIety!”