Remember when Tracy Morgan got all that attention for being taken to the hospital during the Sundance Film Festival? Well, he’d like to remind you. Kimmel had been teasing a major prank that would occur during the telecast, but it turns out it was just a rather disappointing skit involving Morgan coming onstage and Kimmel telling everyone to tweet and Facebook: “OMG Tracy Morgan passed out onstage, turn on ABC now!” In theory, people would turn on ABC to see Morgan lying on stage, from “exhaustion.” The only shining moment from that tired stunt? When Morgan told Kimmel, "Hold my nunchucks," which he then pulled out of his tuxedo jacket pocket.
If you were surfing Twitter instead of watching the Primetime Emmys on TV, there’s a pretty good chance that changed about halfway through the show. At least for a minute or two, anyway.
Host Jimmy Kimmel — famous for his YouTube and Twitter-based challenges to his audience — used the awards show platform to prank the nation on Sunday evening. He urged everyone in the audience and at home to tweet, in unison, “OMG Tracy Morgan just passed out on stage during the Emmys, turn on ABC.”
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To top it off, he even got the nunchucks-toting, sparkly tuxedo-wearing 30 Rock star to sprawl himself flat on the stage for a number of minutes, adding to the effect (and perhaps throwing off presenters Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere).
Viewers followed through, leading to a boom of 25,000 tweets immediately after Kimmel made the request.
Kimmel himself tweeted from backstage, adding to the social media flavor of the evening.
