Joan Rivers Says Tracy Morgan Should Not Have Apologized

Comedian Joan Rivers simultaneously took swipes at Tracy Morgan and
knocked any notion that he should have apologized for making an antigay
tirade from the stage.

“He shouldn’t apologize,” Rivers told The Daily Beast, claiming she would have to apologize after every show if everyone she offended had their way. “Gay fans? What are they doing seeing him anyhow? Why aren’t they watching me and Kathy Griffin? What are they doing at this show?” Then she laughed and said, “He’s lost his gay fan.”

But Rivers said it doesn’t hurt that Morgan has agreed to meet with gay youth to make clear his opposition to bullying and discrimination.

“If they can actually get Tracy Morgan to be coherent and talk against homophobia even if he doesn’t mean it, I think that’d be all right,” she said in the interview. “Because there are people even dumber than Tracy Morgan, who look up to Tracy Morgan as an ignorant role model.”

“I’ll tell you, the biggest crime of all,” she said, “is that Tracy Morgan isn’t funny. You know what he should be apologizing for? For charging $86 to see him.”

Rivers is the latest comic to walk a fine line in defending Morgan’s right to say offensive things onstage while also rebuking him for going too far. She notes that Morgan used the n word in reference to his son — the same one Morgan said he would stab to death if he were gay. Rivers found the racial epithet offensive and under the radar.

Marlon Wayans said Morgan should write more before going onstage to try things out. Roseanne Barr described him as both an “idiot” and a “comic genius.” Chris Rock defended Morgan’s right to say offensive things before later backing off when he read the complete account of what was said from the stage in his recent Nashville performance. Wanda Sykes was among the first to criticize Morgan, implying that his words were so dangerous they should be illegal.