Tracy Morgan’s fainting bit at the 64th Annual Emmy Awards on Sunday night has caused a bit of an uproar on Twitter, though not for the reasons you may think. According to Hollywood.com , the star of 30 Rock and master of ceremonies Jimmy Kimmel put together a scheme to get more viewers to tune into the awards program. After Kimmel told people to post something about Tracy Morgan’s fainting spell on the micro-blogging website, over 25,000 tweets were issued in response.
If you missed last night’s televised awards program, here’s what happened: Yahoo! News reports that after Tracy Morgan appeared on stage, he proceeded to lie down in a very slow and relaxed manner. It was obvious to most viewers that nothing was wrong with Morgan. Once he was comfortable, Jimmy Kimmel instructed viewers to post something on Twitter about Tracy Morgan passing out suddenly at the Emmys. Before long, over 25,000 140-character comments arrived on the service.
“OMG. Tracy Morgan just passed out on stage at the #Emmys. Turn ABC on right now,” the late night chat show host posted on Twitter. “OMG Tracy Morgan” was an instant trending phrase.
The joke was even picked up by a number of celebrities including Community star Joel McHale, Seth MacFarlane’s Ted, and Stephen Colbert, the latter of whom received numerous retweets of his own. Tracy Morgan and Jimmy Kimmel’s stunt apparently worked in the realm of social media, though it’s unclear if this Twitter experiment resulted in extra viewers for the Emmy Awards telecast.
Of course, not everyone used the “OMG Tracy Morgan” trend to help out with the Emmys. Others, it seemed, used it was a vessel for criticism. “OMG, Tracy Morgan is sleeping through the Emmys, like everyone else. Turn off your TV,” one user commented.
What do you think about Tracy Morgan and Jimmy Kimmel’s Twitter stunt at Sunday night’s Emmy Awards? Did you tweet “OMG Tracy Morgan?”
