30 Rock co-star, comedian Tracy Morgan, caused a major scandal after making homophobic remarks during a recent stand-up performance. The story broke after a gay audience member in Nashville took to Facebook and posted a review of the show, claiming Morgan’s routine was “nothing but hate for the gays”.

Kevin Rogers wrote that Morgan made scathing statements, including comments about stabbing his own son if he turned out to be gay, as well as a rant about supposed men-hating lesbians. “There is no way a woman could love and have sexual desire for another woman.” one quote read. “That’s just a woman pretending because she hates a f***ing man.” According to Rogers’ review, the comedian went on to say, “He didn’t f***ing care if he pissed off some gays.”

Tracy Morgan has since made nice in a press release, claiming: “I want to apologise to my fans and the gay and lesbian community for my choice of words at my recent stand-up act in Nashville. I’m not a hateful person and don’t condone any violence against others. While I am an equal opportunity jokester, and my friends know what is in my heart, even in a comedy club this clearly went too far and was not funny in any context.”

The powers that be at NBC, 30 Rock’s home network, have gone into damage control, with openly gay studio boss, Rob Greenblatt, and show creator and star, Tina Fey, both quickly making statements against Morgan’s attack. Fey made a salient point in her own press statement, saying “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.” Ironically the show actually won a GLAAD Media Award earlier this year for a one-off gay themed episode from their fourth season.

In 2006, when actor Isaiah Washington was revealed to have made homophobic slurs about fellow actor TR Knight on set of the drama series Grey’s Anatomy, it led to his eventual downfall and resulted in him being fired from the hit show. Morgan is well known as a comic who constantly pushes the envelope, making a career out of candid, often outrageous comedy; Chris Rock has already come out in his defence and no doubt other fellow comedians will follow suit. It will be interesting to see if Morgan’s career follows the same path as Washington’s or if, as a comedy artist, he manages to come out of this furor unscathed.

On a more positive side note, Kevin Rogers’ Facebook update, and the inevitable publicity that followed, led to him coming out amicably to his own parents this week. There’s nothing quite like outing yourself over a national media storm in which you unwittingly bring down a network television star for hateful anti-gay remarks. Way to go, Kevin!