On Oct. 17, Tracy Morgan is having a homecoming of sorts. After the horrific car accident that he was involved in back in June of 2014, many thought he wouldn't be able to perform again. He's worked long and hard at getting back to where he was before his life took that turn, not only announcing a new movie he's working on and getting back into stand-up, but also hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend, returning to an institution that brought him the success he's seen today, and introduced him to a huge new audience.
Oddly enough, while many know of Morgan's work on SNL and shows like 30 Rock, it was through his stand-up that some of us first caught a glimpse of his talent. No matter how big he got as an actor, Morgan stayed on the stand-up circuit. His star power, however, meant that he would get asked to do things like local morning show interviews—like this memorable moment on a local station in El Paso, Texas... or like Tracy repeatedly called it, "Texas El Paso."
Now there's one thing to note: while Tracy's past drinking problems have been discussed publicly, it's hard to pin down if he'd had a couple before going on live TV; this could just be trademark Tracy insanity. Either way, this is seriously lit.
Props to the host Robert Holguin, who seems to be a proper SNL fanboy and has followed Morgan's career, at least through the work Morgan did on the show. We don't get more than 28 seconds into the interview, though, when Tracy realizes how "handsome" he looks on the monitor, quipping that he knows why he has so many kids.
This is the point when the snowball starts rolling down the mountain.
Immediately after that, Tracy mentions going to "Jaguars," which bills itself as "the No. 1 gentlemen's club" in El Paso, Texas. With a turnt "OH MAH GAWD," Tracy then informs the women in "Texas El Paso" that one of them might get pregnant (in two days, have you). Judging by the way Holguin and the people off-camera are laughing, Tracy officially owned the segment at this point.
With a Biggie reference, Tracy dubs himself "the OOH chile." Homeboy then stands up and lifts up his shirt to pat his belly ("that's a mating call"), saying he doesn't have biscuits ("I got a loaf a bread, come get this ladies, you gon' eat"). He THEN proceeds to "take the power back" and rip his shirt off. While we don't know for certain, this next image might be what happens when someone in the control room is panicking and saying shit like, "CUT TO SOMETHING ELSE, NOW!"
When they cut back, Tracy's getting his two-step on:
After telling the people that it was "all love" and how he was "Captain James T. Kirk" who went to "VI-EEEET-NAM!," Holugin actually asked Tracy to do some Spoonie Luv, like THAT was better than what he was already doing on live TV. Hopefully people found Tracy at the "Comic Scrip," ("not the Comic Strip, but the Comic Scrip"), and we hope that Holugin wasn't fired.
Oddly enough, this wasn't the first time that Tracy took his shirt off on a morning TV show; in this clip he shouted out Oprah a little bit. It also isn't even the wildest example of Tracy Morgan on live TV (that distinction might go to this Sarah Palin-referencing clip). It is another shining example of how Tracy Morgan isn't just hilarious when it comes to his sketch comedy work; he's just a natural riot.
