While “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett indeed maintains a close circle of loyal celebrity supporters, a strong majority of black celebrities have denounced and mocked him for allegedly staging a fake hate crime and then getting away with it. Now joining Charles Barkley and Chris Rock on the anti-Smollett laugh wagon is actor Tracy Morgan.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Morgan appeared on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon on Monday night where he completely trolled Smollett for not only allegedly faking a hate crime but reportedly faking in such a farcical way.
“They gave me a role on ‘Empire,'” Morgan began. “Contractually, they gave me millions of dollars, and all I got to do is not fake a hate crime.”
Prompting laughs from the audience, Morgan was just barely warming up his troll routine.
“You don’t buy that story?” Fallon asked.
“Nah man! First of all, racist people don’t be jumping nobody in the polar vortex. It’s too cold. You be racist in the spring,” Morgan replied. “Racists don’t be watching ‘Empire.'”
Morgan continued by trolling the sheer ridiculousness of Smollett’s staging, pointing out how the actor managed to keep his Subway sandwich despite being jumped by two MAGA supporters.
“There was like 10 seconds of footage, and he disappears for like two seconds, then he reappears with the noose on his neck still holding the Subway sandwich. He didn’t let the Subway sandwich go. I think it was pepperoni and cheese, I don’t know.”
Morgan, of course, is not the only comedian to troll Jussie Smollett in light of Chicago prosecutors dropping all charges against him. Over the weekend, comedian Chris Rock went against advice he had gotten and publicly mocked Smollett on the NAACP Image Awards.
“They said ‘No Jussie Smollett jokes,'” said Rock in front of the audience as he proceeded to mock Smollett anyway. “What a waste of light skin. Do you know what I could do with that light skin? That curly hair? My career would be out of here! I’d be running Hollywood.”
“What the hell was he thinking?” he asked. “You’re ‘Jessie’ from now on. You don’t get the ‘u’ no more. That ‘u’ was respect. You ain’t getting no respect from me!”
Basketball icon Charles Barkley simultaneously characterized the Smollett hoax as a tragedy that will create serious repercussions.
“I think that we all lose. I think my black friends, my gay black friends, I think they lose because there’s all repercussions when you’re a minority. There’s always a double standard. You have to understand that and accept that. For every black, gay person out there, we lost. And it’s unfortunate,” Barkley said. “I don’t know that kid, I wish him nothing but the best … but you always have to look at the bigger picture.”
“We made the cops look really bad in this scenario and there’s probably going to be some resentment,” Barkley added. “And the bottom line is: Everybody lost in this scenario. It’s not good.”
The Jussie Smollett legal defense team is asserting that the “Empire” actor consistently told the truth and is innocent of all charges.