Tina Fey slams Tracy Morgan for his homophobic jokes

Response to Tracy Morgan's recent homophobic standup routine has been mixed. Vulture's got a pretty good roundup; Morgan's 30 Rock costar Cheyenne Jackson wrote a strong denunciation of Morgan, while Alec Baldwin was more glib, Tweeting, "Oh that Tracy." Tina Fey made a statement this weekend, and it's (unsurprisingly) strong, thoughtful, and ethically sharp.

I'm glad to hear that Tracy apologized for his comments. Stand-up comics may have the right to "work out" their material in its ugliest and rawest form in front of an audience, but the violent imagery of Tracy's rant was disturbing to me at a time when homophobic hate crimes continue to be a life-threatening issue for the GLBT Community.

It also doesn't line up with the Tracy Morgan I know, who is not a hateful man and is generally much too sleepy and self-centered to ever hurt another person.

I hope for his sake that Tracy's apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian coworkers at 30 Rock, without whom Tracy would not have lines to say, clothes to wear, sets to stand on, scene partners to act with, or a printed-out paycheck from accounting to put in his pocket.

The other producers and I pride ourselves on 30 Rock being a diverse, safe, and fair workplace.

Classic Fey; despite the nastiness of Morgan's remarks, her response actually manages to be both forceful and dryly funny with just a hint of "stern parent" tone around the edges. Morgan has professed great respect for Fey in the past, so her criticism may mean more to him than a lot of people's. I'll be interested to see, too, if 30 Rock finds a way to address this when it returns for its sixth season next year.