Is there really anyone in entertainment as fearless and kinetic as comedian, actor, and ticking-time-bomb Tracy Morgan? Unlikely. Dude is practically the real-life version of his Saturday Night Live character Astronaut Jones: from another planet and a purveyor of ignorant sexual diatribes.
See also
- Tracy Morgan on Biggie Smalls Revolutionizing Rap: "He Made It a Champagne Campaign"
Morgan is probably best known for his role on 30 Rock as the slightly more insane version of himself (very, very slightly) Tracy Jordan. On the show, he is the star of a fictional variety program TGS, written by his caretaker of sorts Liz Lemon. It is a Dada-ist version of reality. Morgan is also well-known for his eight-season residency on SNL where he became a household name with characters like Dominican Lou and Brian Fellows.
To supplement his sketch comedy background, Morgan's talk show appearances (especially from the past two years) have gained him the unofficial Most Likely to Expose Bare Stomach On-Air superlative. His movie appearances include Half Baked, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and How High, a.k.a. the best movie of all time. He's no stranger to controversy, especially with his offensive stand-up. Morgan is an utter bazooka of insults, ignorance, and sex banter. All things of good, great, and bad comedy. You'll be snarfing your rum and coke at his Seminole Casino Coconut Creek stand-up performance, and getting a peek at that beautiful belly, if you're lucky.
Here are our top five favorite Tracy Morgan musical moments.
5. Tracy Morgan Parodies Erykah Badu
During the late '90s, Erykah Badu was deep on neo-soul and singing about triflin' dudes. Single "Call Tyrone" got, as Tracy puts it, a lot of triflin' dudes kicked out of their girlfriend's crib. So he used the stage during his stand up act to do his own version, "Simone."
4. Astronaut Jones and Britney Spears
Britney Spears at her prime ("I'm A Slave 4 U") was the hottest thing on Earth. I'll ask my 14-year-old self to confirm. He says yes. Right around that time, she hosted SNL and did an Astronaut Jones sketch with Tracy. Combine the outspoken-ness of Tracy's Astronaut Jones and the hot naivete of a post-pubescent Britney Spears alien girl, and you get this.
3. Tracy Morgan as The Guy from Cameo, a.k.a. Word Up Guy
You talk to people about Napster now, and some either forgot about it or don't even know what the hell you're talking about. Illegally downloading mp3s is still sorta a problem, but it wasn't part of pop culture as much as it was in the early-aughts with Lars Ulrich going to town hall about it.
Talk about an SNL sketch that's not very timeless at all, "Napster Trial" profiles the concerns of one-hit-wonders, including Right Said Fred, David Lee Roth and, of course, Cameo played by Tracy Morgan. Morgan got him down to tee, especially since all we really associate with Cameo is the phrase "word up." So it's appropriate that these are the only two words in his vocabulary.
2. Tracy Morgan in Totally Awesome
Totally Awesome was this really meh VH1 made-for-TV movie that parodies films like Dirty Dancing and Karate Kid. The centerpiece of the program was dancing, and in the fray was Tracy Morgan's character Darnell -- a cool, jerry-curled fresh boy.
Morgan's character in this isn't directly tied to anything music-related, but his style is very reminiscent of a character from Breakin' 2 Electric Boogaloo. So it fits. Also, he exposes his stomach somewhere in the beginning of this clip.
1. Tracy Jordan - "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah"
It's kind of weird that artists don't really make songs for Halloween like they used to. Crazy, too, since Christmas gets an insanely annoying number of them.
Halloween songs are never really brooding or dark in tone, either. They're more groovy than anything. Take "Monster Mash," or even "Thriller" by M.J. as prime examples of how fun Halloween can get.
It's no doubt that 30 Rock's best Tracy Jordan moment is about 20-seconds long, and parodies the goofiness of a Halloween party track. Tracy dons a brilliant werewolf costume (with Michael Jackson jacket to boot). Not only that, but why not combine the coolness of Halloween with the lonely awkwardness of a Bar Mitzvah? Brilliant.
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