The first version, from December of 2000, is the simplest and sets the ridiculous tone perfectly (Why’s Tracy Morgan there? Why not?).

RELATED: Great Moments in Caroling: Jimmy Fallon and Maya Rudolph Sing ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ As The Chipmunks

One year later, the quartet reunited to play the song again. Listen to how loudly the audience roars when it becomes clear what song is actually being played. Also, look at Fallon’s hair. Yikes.

We skip forward now to 2009, the year Fallon began to host Late Night. The show has become famous for its musical performances as well as its callbacks to the host’s SNL past so it shouldn’t have been any surprise that Sanz would stop by to perform the song. However, things got even better a verse in when Julian Casablancas joined in to rock things up.

Casablancas actually released a single version of the song that year. It’s pretty great.

And then, finally, we get to this past Saturday when the original four got back together. Horatio Sanz is skinny, Jimmy Fallon has a good haircut, and Christmas was good again.

Fun stuff.

However, to wrap things up, here’s a bonus SNL Christmas treat. As great as “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” is, it might not be the best recent holiday tune the show has done. In the humble opinion of this writer, that title would befall 2005′s “Christmas for the Jews.” Written by the brilliant Robert Smigel, the song is a pitch perfect parody of Phil Spector classics and its even sung by Darlene Love (who, of course, already has one Christmas classic under her belt). As funny as Chris Kattan’s goofy head nod is, claymation wins every time. Check it out!

Now, Morgan has returned to Nashville to apologize not only to Kevin, the man who posted the original Facebook note and brought mass media attention to Morgan’s rant, but also to other audience members (despite reports that not everyone in attendance that night reacted to his statements with contempt or offense), his friends, his family, and “everyone in every community” whom he may have offended. Morgan likens his change of heart to fellow comedian Richard Pryor‘s experience visiting Africa and noting that, although he often used the word “nigger” in his act, he “didn’t see any niggers in Africa” and was thus inspired to change his relationship to that particular word. (Personally, I don’t find the two situations particularly comparable, but that’s a rant for another day. Or for LiveJournal, I guess.)

In any case: Tracy Morgan is sorry.

Watch his press conference below, courtesy of CNN:

30 Rock actor Tracy Morgan is attempting to perform a complete 180 in order to make up for a series of homophobic comments he unleashed during a recent show in Nashville. The comedian had informed his audience that, were his son to ever come out, he would “pull out a knife and stab that little [slur]” and that gay people shouldn’t take offense because if “they can take a [verbing] [noun] up their [noun]… they can take a [verbing] joke.”

Morgan’s comments garnered a wave of attention after a young man who attended that show posted a very descriptive note about Morgan’s performance on Facebook and alerted LGBT organization “Truth Wins Out” about the rant.

Morgan eventually apologized for the tirade, even telling our sister site GossipCop that he “clearly went too far” and that his comments were “not funny in any context.” Besides, you guys, his friends know what’s in his heart.

To further make amends (or, you know, improve his public image), Morgan has now announced his desire to attend a rally in favor of same-sex marriage. In an interview with GlobalGrind conducted by Russell Simmons, Morgan says that he would likely love his son even more were he ever to come out:

The truth is if i had a gay son, I would love him just as much as if he was straight… I might have to try to love even more because I know of the difficulty that he would have in society.

Now this really and truly is some bull[noun].

I don’t care what’s in your heart, Tracy Morgan. I don’t care what your family or famous friends believe is in your heart. I don’t much care to hear you spit euphemisms about your inner state or how wonderful you are as a human being, really pinky promise. And I don’t actually care about whether or not you hate gay people. What I care is about is the impression you seem to have that any community – in this case, the gay community and its allies – would be so completely stupid and gullible and easily placated as to buy the act you’re attempting to sell.

You have displayed a history – not one isolated instance, but a pattern of behavior – of bashing gay people, but, when faced with scorn and disgust, when presented with the consequence of delivering hate speech, you suddenly turn around and announce you’re suddenly pro same-sex marriage? It doesn’t work like that. Sociopolitical issues wrought with tension and history are not yours to use as strategic game pieces to win back favor with the public and the media. This is an issue that matters to people, and it matters beyond what supporting or denouncing it might mean for their popularity and paychecks.

You’re apologizing to save face and, hey, that’s fine. You have a career and a reputation to think about, and there are times when individuals in the public sphere have to hide their true feelings behind a mask that’s palatable and marketable. But don’t use same-sex marriage as your pet project to try and win back favor and then walk away from it as soon as the frenzy around your colossal hatred dies down and America can go back to laughing and sighing at your antics as Tracy Jordan.

You’re not a warrior for gay rights; you’re a hypocrite trying to save face in addition to acting as a symbol of an extremely flawed celebrity culture. And I think – I hope – the American public is intelligent enough to know the difference.

h/t GlobalGrind

Many Hollywood celebrities (and political pundits) have been weighing in on Tracy Morgan‘s controversial anti-gay remarks in the middle of a standup routine in Nashville, and now the fallout has reached the office of Congressman Allen West.

The Scissor Sisters, an alternative rock group, tweeted the following to the comedian last Friday:

Dear Tracy Morgan’s son: if you are gay, you can TOTALLY come live with me. We’ll read James Baldwin & watch Paris is Burning. XxANA

This message was retweeted over one hundred times, including from Rep. West’s Twitter account. This was particularly odd, considering West’s previous comments opposing gay marriage. As it turned out, an intern retweeted the message without West’s knowledge. As soon as West’s staff found out about the retweet, it was immediately deleted and the following was posted from the Congressman’s account:

Very sorry about the unauthorized RT. We were not hacked, an intern made an error. Apologies to all.

The intern has since been fired. When the Scissor Sisters found out their tweet showed up on West’s wall, they tweeted:

Thanks for the support Congressman West!

In the past, West has made it very clear that he is opposed to gay marriage and allowing gays to serve openly in the military. He said that “gay marriage is an oxymoron” and that gay service members “can change behavior.”

h/t Roll Call

You can read Rogers’ full account from that night on Facebook, but here’s the gist of it (note that the language used – I’m leaving it uncensored – may be offensive to some readers):

He said if his son that was gay he better come home and talk to him like a man and not [he mimicked a gay, high pitched voice] or he would pull out a knife and stab that little N (one word I refuse to use) to death. He mentioned that Barack Obama needed to man up and quit being all down with this just because he has a wife and two daughters. All of this being followed by thunderous cheer and “You go Tracys”. Tracy then said he didn’t fucking care if he pissed off some gays, because if they can take a fucking dick up their ass… they can take a fucking joke.

The sad thing is that none of this rant was a joke. His entire demeanor changed during that portion of the night. He was truly filled with some hate towards us. As far as I could see 10 to 15 people walked out. I had to fight myself to stay seated, but I knew if I got up… he won. He wanted to piss people off and get a rise.

Rogers later contacted “Truth Wins Out,” (an organization committed to, in its own words, “fighting anti-gay lies and the ex-gay myth“), which promptly issued a release on its website calling for Morgan (and 30 Rock producer Tina Fey, who has long been a supporter of LGBT causes) to respond to Rogers’ account of that night. So far, Morgan’s people have responded with a simple “No comment.”

This isn’t the first time Morgan has been called out for going on an anti-gay rant during a show. Back in 2009, Morgan’s performance at New York City’s Carnegie Hall inspired several in the audience to walk out. Of course, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether the walk-outs happened because he announced his belief that homosexuality is a choice or because those in attendance were unfamiliar with Morgan’s live act, knowing him only as his absurd yet cuddly TV alter ego, Tracy Jordan.

The incident brings up many questions about the nature of comedy and the difference between making a joke about homophobia (or racism or sexism or what-have-you), and making homophobic jokes and whether being given a platform to make people laugh (and, occasionally, think) runs the risk of allowing a performer to use what can be perceived by some as hate speech. And, of course, there’s the matter of whether, as a public figure, Morgan owes anything to his fans, be it an apology or a concerted effort to change his act in accordance with negative reaction from a segment of his viewership.

We’ll let you know whether Morgan or Fey’s people offer any additional response.

Update:

Our sister site GossipCop has a comment from Morgan about the incident:

I want to apologize to my fans and the gay & 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 kind of 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.

Read the rest of this entry »

First of all, the producers of TNT’s pre-game show must have known that when you invite Morgan on live air for an unscripted interview, you are asking for trouble. And yes, the objectification of both Palin and Fey is not to be encouraged by media personalities. Finally, Ms. Palin is white hot right now (for reasons that are both good and maybe not so good) so it stands to reason that she would gets a ton of attention (not all good mind you.)

Morgan completely demurred when asked of Fey, but had no problem sharing his honest affection of Ms. Palin, which impossibly seemed to even shock the hard to rattle Charles Barkley.

Watch the clip from TNT below:

(h/t TheBigLead)

In his real life, Doonan is the Creative Director of the New York department store Barneys, and is responsible for, among other things, the store’s street-level window displays. Earlier this week, the store revealed its displays for the season the theme of which, in the grandest of holiday traditions, is Saturday Night Live. If you find that to be an odd choice, I’d guess you’re not alone.

The displays are heavy on allusion to various characters, scenes and personalities from the series’ 35 years – but deciphering each of those references is hindered by the primary mode of presentation, papier-mâché. (Or, as Americans say: paper mache. Barney’s generally prefers the fancy French spelling.) I can’t help but suspect that this medium was chosen primarily to evoke sympathy – after all, it’s possible, if not probable, that they were actually made by a class of  fourth graders. If their teacher saw fit to distribute gold stars for their hard work, who could possibly mock them?

Well, me. I’ve done my best, below, to identify the references in each of the four windows.  I have done poorly. Therefore, I appeal to you, Internet, to help fill in the blanks as much as these somewhat dark and small photos will allow. Hop to!

Window 1

Let me demonstrate my immense SNL knowledge right off the bat: this is primarily about the Coneheads. (Don’t be intimidated by my powerful intellect folks. Just do your best.)

In the close-up, at right, you can see how I pieced this one together. The mouth full of cigarettes, the six-pack of beer, the capes – all hints toward which long-running gag this pays testament to.  Also, the shape of the heads.

(You may not have known, though, that the Coneheads were also big fans of Vanity Fair. Is it possible that a similar cranial structure is what’s buried beneath all that hair?)

Window 2

This one is a bit more complicated. Will Ferrell as Janet Reno, while an odd choice, is easy to spot, as is Dana Carvey‘s Church Lady and Brian Fellow, whose name is helpfully written (and misspelled) on his glasses. Father Guido Sarducci is between these two, in the center back.

There are five other floating heads here that are near incomprehensible. For example, the one behind Brian Fellow appears to be Matt Foley, though I only guessed that because, underneath him, it says, “In a van down by the river.” It also says, “Suck it, Trebek,” though, so who knows.

Oh, I just realized that the two in the upper left of the small photo are Wayne and Garth. Good luck on the two remaining.

>>>NEXT: Paper-mache Tina Fey, Sarah Palin, Gilly and Pat

It’s Friday, which means it’s time to separate the chumps from the champs in Mediaite’s new “Winners and Losers” — our scorecard of who rocked and who flopped in the week’s headlines.

This week’s contenders include: Tracy Morgan, dropping F-bombs on former co-stars, Rush Limbaugh, dropped from his NFL bid, and Meghan McCain, threatening to drop Twitter. Our picks:

The Bronze Loser: Tracy Morgan

The 30 Rock star conveniently joined Twitter this week, after some urging that went viral, and just in time to promote his new autobiography I Am the New Black. But it looks like he’s found an even classier way to sell books: ripping into old colleagues! In the book, he basically calls former SNL-ers Chris Kattan and Cheri Oteri washed-up (“that bitch can’t even get arrested”), and things get even uglier in the audio-book version. Seems like someone’s 30 Rock role as a spoiled, unmanageable sketch-comedy star just might be type-casting.

The Bronze Winner: Mayor Bloomberg

The would-be mayor-for-life is having a swell week, amassing Business Week into his media empire and reconnecting with old pal-turned-rival Rudy Giuliani. But the real win came for Bloomberg Tuesday night, when he took on rival Bill Thompson in the first general election debate of the NYC mayor’s race. It was anyone’s game until Bloomberg’s masculinity prevailed in the crucial “lightning round,” when he gave the only right answer to the pivotal policy question, “Have you ever had a manicure/pedicure?” (No.)

The Silver Loser: Meghan McCain

McCain caused quite the internet stir when she posted a Twitpic of her “quiet night in.” Now she’s threatening to dump her mass Twitter following (and priceless self-promotion tool) over some cyber-insults. Okay, the “slut” stuff hurts, but come on, did she really think that pin-up pose would sit well with the Values Voters? Besides, this is politics — perhaps she’s merely needs a thicker skin (and a higher-cut top). Like they say: If you can’t stand the tweet…

The Silver Winner: Rush Limbaugh

Losing his shot at NFL ownership might have sucked, but the failed Rams bid is still a score for the talk radio host: he’s once again a victim of the left-wing conspiracy, and the right-wingers are rallying behind him! Pat Buchanan compared his bid denial to the Communist witch hunts of 1950s Hollywood. Redstate.com sympathetically declared “Tonight, we are all Rush Limbaugh.” Even CNN interrupted its Afghanistan discussion to break in with the news. The truth is, the big divisive mouth that cost Rush his football dream is the same mouth that’s made him a far-right hero. And a rich one at that. At the end of the day, he can’t really lose.

The Gold Winner: Cable News

The major broadcast outlets got taken for a helium-powered ride yesterday afternoon. All of cable news went wall-to-wall for over an hour, chasing what turned out to be an empty drifting balloon. And the whole thing might have been a ruse! But the story has a happy ending of sorts: Balloon Boy was found safe in his attic. Wife Swap got a major plug.  And because the saga was the most captivating dayside coverage we’ve seen in forever, the ratings are sure to be sky-high.

The Gold Loser: GOP.com

The Republican party took their rebranding effort viral this week, launching a revamped GOP.com. And much like the party itself, the site had some serious content and design flaws. You probably couldn’t get it to load, so here the the awesomely bad highlights: First, there’s Chairman Michael Steele‘s hip new blog, originally titled “What Up?” Then you have the “GOP Heroes” page, featuring the late great Jackie Robinson (Robinson was actually an independent who once likened appearing before a Republican National Convention to being a “Jew in Hitler’s Germany”). And the kicker? The Future of the GOP page — initially a dead link. Oh, the irony!

Celeb-tracking website OMGICU — as in, “OMG, I see you, and I’m going to tell this website where you are!” — wants to change that. They’ve actually made it quite an issue, creating a web page and making a video featuring OMGICU founder Hugh Dornbush (below, and yes, that’s his real name, not the name of his first pet and the street he grew up on). Dornbush and OMGICU unveiled the concept last night at the always-well-attended New York Tech Meetup, and today they have launched, sending the call out to Twitter for pickup via influencers in the tech scene. It’s how grassroots is done these days (especially when you’re repped by a social media-savvy PR company like Attention, which sent Twacy.org our way this morning) (and yes, it IS a dot-org. Nice touch, that).

It’s not a hard sell though — Tracy Morgan is hilarious, and does seem to have that perfect lack of a filter to make him a delight on Twitter. The tweets themselves are eminently retweetable:

@OmieNice: “Where are the french fries I did not ask for? You guys need to anticipate me!” Bring Tracy Morgan to Twitter. http://twacy.org #twacy

@ovelocityo: Bring Tracy Morgan to Twitter. http://twacy.org “Tell her that you want her privates and your privates to do a high five.” -TM #twacy

@shelbyhot97: Bring Tracy Morgan to Twitter. http://twacy.org “I may hug people too hard and get lost at malls, but I’m not an idiot” –TM #twacy @omgicu

@whizhouse: “Have we lost our moral center? It just makes me want to pee on someone.” Bring Tracy Morgan to Twitter. http://twacy.org #twacy @omgicu

Etc. etc. If they seem neatly pre-programmed to you, it’s because these kids know what they’re doing — I specifically asked if Dornbush and OMGICU had sent their pals pre-written tweets to send out, and they in fact did not. Apparently they knew that there were enough Tracy Morgan quotes out there to galvanize the troops on their own. It takes a village.

Will this get Morgan on Twitter? Who knows. What it is doing in the meantime is (a) getting buzz for OMGICU, which seems the purpose of the campaign (I mean, aside from bringing the voice of Tracy Morgan to the masses) and (b) Showing that 30 Rock Twitter feed how it’s done. If you don’t believe me, check out the #twacy hashtag. At this rate, it won’t be long before it’s twending.

We’ll get to that. But first, the video: They did talk about another TV show, 30 Rock, on which Hamm guest-starred as Tina Fey‘s handsome doctor paramour. Hamm didn’t have any scenes with any other cast members, but described meeting the gang at the table read — particularly Tracy Morgan. Said Hamm: “Everyone should have the experience of meeting Tracy Morgan for the first time…he is just a spectacular human form of chaos.” They also cracked up just looking at a picture of Jack McBrayer. Oh, also there’s a clip of Jon Hamm playing baseball. You’re welcome. Watch below:

A note on this interview: It was fine but boring. Not Jon Hamm’s fault — he was animated and chatty and came ready to play ball. But did Conan miss the part where everyone is excited about Mad Men? Where Mad Men avatars completely took over Twitter? Where people like Judd Apatow are talking about how excited they are? Where the New Yorker is running Talk of the Town pieces and Jezebel is playing Kremlinologist on Season Three photos? How about all the reviews and previews and tie-ins excuses to write about Mad Men because people love it? Sesame Street is doing a parody this year, for God’s sake. Conan, wake up!

It’s not like Jon Hamm won’t talk about the series — he did just that in the Chicago Tribune. But there’s got to be room for that after talking about another TV show that isn’t about to premiere to crazy fever pitch. Yes yes, Kenneth the Page is great. But how about having a picture of JOANIE ready to show? Do you want your show to be irrelevant?

I can’t emphasize enough what a missed opportunity this was. Mad Men has a lot of people very excited — in August, the slowest new months. Bloggers and critics also love Mad Men — and these are the people who pick these clips up the next day and give them new life. That all plays back into ratings — which Team Conan should be worried about. Shamelessly exploiting Jon Hamm should be a no-brainer. The Internet could not want him more.

I’m not kidding: when grabbed, this video had been played just 193 times. On the website of The Tonight Show — what should be a huge juggernaut, what once was a huge platform. Conan has to figure out how to use it better, unless he wants that to be just another piece of television history.

Update: It’s 11:14 a.m. and the video has a whopping 351 views. There is no mention of Mad Men anywhere on the page, and the tagline says, “Jon talks about playing celebrity softball against Andy, and meeting Tracy Morgan!” There is NO MENTION OF MAD MEN ANYWHERE ON THE PAGE. By contrast, if you search Twitter, there are a few results for “Mad Men” every MINUTE. Conan, wake up!