Tracy Morgan, 57, Has a Blunt Health Message for Men Over 50

Tracy Morgan turned a comedy conversation into a colon cancer screening reminder.

In a new Variety interview, Morgan, 57, moved from stories about Eddie Murphy and fatherhood to a topic many adults would rather avoid: colonoscopies. 

While chatting with Saturday Night Live cast member Marcello Hernández, Morgan mentioned that he’d been on Jimmy Kimmel Live in April discussing the procedure. Then, in his usual blunt style, he pressed the younger comic on why the screening matters as people age. “You gonna get your butthole checked when you in your 50s,” Morgan said.

When Hernández reacted with disgust, Morgan did not soften the point. “You better! You don’t want to find out you got … cancer down there or nothing. You better go get checked out.”

The advice tracks with current medical guidance. The American Cancer Society recommends that adults at average risk for colorectal cancer begin regular screening at age 45 and get screened every 10 years. People in good health with a life expectancy of more than 10 years should continue screening through age 75. For ages 76 through 85, the cancer society said the decision should be based on a person’s health, preferences, life expectancy and prior screening history. People over 85 should no longer get colorectal cancer screening.

AARP has also reported on the anxiety that keeps many people from scheduling their first colonoscopy. In a first-person account published in January, writer Eric Spitznagel described years of avoidance before discovering that the procedure itself was far easier than the buildup. His result was clear: no cancer and no polyps that needed to be removed or biopsied. But Spitznagel’s larger point about getting a colonoscopy still holds. Finding and removing polyps is one reason screening matters — some can be caught before they become more serious.

Morgan’s health message came during a wider conversation about survival, work and second chances. In 2014, he nearly died after a tractor-trailer hit the limousine bus he was riding in, a crash that killed his friend James McNair, known as Jimmy Mack.

In the Variety interview, Morgan said fellow comedian Ardie Fuqua was also badly injured in the crash. “That’s my guy. He was in the accident with me. He was in a coma for 20 days,” Morgan said. “I was in it for 10 days. We did a show together that night in Delaware, and we got hit. That truck was doing 70 miles per hour with 85,000 pounds of frozen food in the back.”

The crash has become part of how Morgan talks about time, gratitude and why he keeps performing.

“You know why we do comedy? Necessity,” he said in Variety. “But once you make it, then you surround yourself with people that need to do this as a necessity. You might not have no bills to pay, because you made it. But they got bills to pay, so they got to be funny. I got hit by a Walmart truck, so with the money I got, I don’t need to do this. But I surround myself with people that need to do this and love it.”

Morgan told CBS in 2025 that the crash changed how he thinks about life in general. “You have to cherish it. Cause once it’s done, it’s done,” he said.