Comedy star Tracy Morgan has opened up about his early struggles on ‘Saturday Night Live’.
Tracy Morgan felt like he was being “culturally isolated” after he joined ‘Saturday Night Live’.
The 56-year-old comedian joined the cast of the hit comedy show in 1996, but Tracy has admitted that he initially struggled to adjust.
He told ‘SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night’: “I wanted to show them my world, how funny it was. But the first three years, I felt like I was being culturally isolated sometimes.
“I’m coming from a world of blacks. I’m an inner city kid. To be on the whitest show in America, I felt by myself. I felt like they weren’t getting it.”
However, Tracy’s outlook changed following a conversation with Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator.
The comedian explained: “Lorne Michaels had that talk with me. He said, ‘Tracy, I hired you because you’re funny, not because you’re black. So just do your thing.’ And that’s when I started doing my thing.”
Meanwhile, Will Ferrell previously hailed ‘Saturday Night Live’ as the “hardest but most fun job” of his career.
The actor starred on the long-running comedy show between 1995 and 2002, and Will now looks back on that period with a lot of fondness.
Will – who is one of the biggest comedy stars in Hollywood – told PEOPLE: “I had a wonderful seven seasons on that show, where I made lifelong friends.
“I knew in that moment it would be the hardest but most fun job I would ever get to do, and I still look back on it that way.”
‘Saturday Night Live’ is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025, and Will feels proud of the role he’s played in the programme’s success.
He said: “It’s really an amazing thing that you have this live television show that still continues to put its finger on the pulse of what we’re all thinking about, and it’s a real credit to Lorne for having thought of it in the first place.”
Tracy Morgan felt ‘culturally isolated’ on Saturday Night Live
