What kind of movie haven’t you done that you still want to do? I haven’t done porno. [laughter] I have not done a porno. And I think that would shake people up right now if I made that twist. Nobody in Hollywood has a gift for answering questions and breaking celebrities in the funniest way possible quite like Eddie Murphy.
And the wild part is most of the time he isn’t even trying like when he came for Michael Jackson here. He got so famous Michael went on television and and every you think he says the public believes went on television and said I don’t have because of my religious beliefs and the public believed it. I don’t brothers like get the out of here.
From the moment Eddie got on the stage he didn’t stop making people laugh about people’s reactions to Michael’s claims. And white people going that Michael’s a special kind of guy. He’s special. I mean he’s good, clean, and wholesome. While other comedians worked hard to land punchlines, Eddie just opened his mouth and the whole room fell apart.
Did y’all make Bill give his back? No, cuz I know there was a big outcry from people that was trying to get Billy give his trophies back. You know you up when they want you to give your trophies back. And it wasn’t just the words, it was the timing and the way he could switch from one character to another mid-sentence leaving everyone absolutely speechless. I love to make him laugh.
It’s nothing It’s nothing uh more rewarding than to say something and have Richard Pryor [laughter] That’s how he laughed. [gasps] [laughter] When Richard did that you would be like Even in his very earliest stand-up shows, Eddie had a way of saying things that nobody else would dare to say out loud and somehow making it funnier for exactly that reason.
What the hell was you doing at his house today? You know what the man said? What me? I’LL SPIT IN YOUR FACE. WHAT ME? I WON’T BE A FOOL, RIGHT? HEY. WHAT DO YOU MEAN? But what makes Eddie truly dangerous is that the jokes always had a target, and here it was Mike Tyson. As producers of the show, the producers of the show was hoping you’d have a little more feeling of more Mike you know, a little bit more Mike Tyson.
You have more Mike Tyson-ism like you like Hello ladies and gentlemen, Sammy and I Mike He was dissecting celebrities, public figures, and even Michael who never saw it coming. Michael Jackson would be there. He watch cocoon there? He was behind the door at first cuz there was too many people. Too many people in the room.
He was hiding behind the door. He said, “Eddie, come on.” I went behind the door when I was standing behind the door and I was like There’s so many people in here. What’s interesting is that Eddie’s funniest moments don’t get boring even when scripted. Who the are you? Who the are you? You must not have got the memo.
You didn’t hear about the Winnipeg trade? I’m the new man up in this Some of the wildest things he has ever said happened completely off the cuff, mid-interview, or mid-performance, and the laughters from everyone said everything. Eddie, what what are you doing with all your money? Are you are you investing it? Uh no, I just bought this suit.
[laughter] Talk show hosts quickly learned that inviting Eddie Murphy onto their shows was a gamble. You know, so they all started screaming. Yeah, screaming. [cheering] Let me ask you a question. Do you see yourself as sexy? No, cuz I see me in the morning when my hair is like this.
Because Eddie didn’t follow the normal interview rules. He’d redirect questions, flip the entire conversation, and have the host lose control of their own show within minutes. green stuff in my eye. Then you want to scream, come there in the morning. And when interviewers start losing control and have no clear questions, Eddie knows the funniest unexpected ways to steer the conversation.
I seen Spike on the show last week and WOMEN SAY, “WOW!” [screaming] AND SPIKE LOOKS LIKE A CRICKET. AND THEN THE RANDOM roasting gets so perfectly timed that it leaves everyone in the studio stunned. He’s a brilliant filmmaker. His movies are brilliant. He’s He’s hysterical. He’s He’s wonderful on camera.
But Spike is not fine. Wow! One of the craziest things about Eddie is the range. 1 minute he’s talking about something else and the next he’s bent on humbling Spike Lee. And then Spike is who we’re THINKING “I’M FINE.” [cheering] HE COULD be hilarious whenever he wanted and then surprisingly disarming in the next as he moves from Spike to dissing himself.
When I was in junior high school, they used to call me big nose Ed. And my nose is still big. SO I HEAR “WOW!” [screaming] AND SO women go “Oh, big nose Ed.” Which made him impossible to prepare for. You know what my nickname was when I was in grammar school? I shouldn’t even say You know what my nickname was? And no it used to hurt cuz I was one of them kids It was My nickname was peas.
Cuz my hair I don’t have what that hair that you comb it and your hair say “I’m not doing anything.” He even mentioned how the girls hated being associated with him because of his nickname. And the girls would fight and say “That’s why peas is YOUR BOYFRIEND.” MY BOYFRIEND AIN’T NO PEAS. AND FIGHT HIS FUNNY RANDOM MOMENTS ARE ON a whole different level.
Eddie didn’t just do comedy. He created an entire world on that stage. One dude called me Buckwheat and I got kind of I was like “Hey man.” He I said “Hey I look like Buckwheat.” And the dude looked me in the eye said “Man you look like Buckwheat to me all my life.” [laughter] He was like that’s falling in that that I was mad.
And the performance is all layered on top of each other in ways that felt almost impossible to do live. And my brother was like you know you should go down there and get your and do your own show and get that money. [laughter] So he just let’s down there and do Stevie Wonder and do that Muhammad Ali impression you win there.
[laughter] So I went down there and did it and I won it. It’s super obvious that one of his biggest targets back then was Michael Jackson. Who happens to be the most popular doll this Christmas? The Michael Jackson doll. You can take his glasses off. You can do everything and the doll is supposed to be anatomically correct.
Now I’ve seen Michael Jackson in person. This doll is a bit heavier than Michael Jackson is okay. And here’s where it gets genuinely fascinating because Eddie didn’t mock Michael to be cruel. Well if you look at the stuff that I did on Michael was never mean-spirited. It was always, you know, funny stuff cuz I knew him. I never really made fun I never made fun of him.
He mocked him because he actually understood him and Michael knew it. [screaming] Thank you very much Eddie Murphy. Eddie and Michael Jackson getting to be on stage together and what happened next left the audience absolutely floored. First I’d like to thank um Could you lift that up please? [laughter] Oh Eddie, I need you to help me.
It ain’t working man. He poked fun at Michael for asking him for help and nobody in the building could breathe from laughing. It’s like been there. First I’d like to thank um He said Eddie pull it up like I was working for him or something. Even Michael Jackson couldn’t stop laughing. [applause] Hey that started to do it to other yes Michael.
Their friendship was one of the most well-known in Hollywood and in 1992 it produced something nobody expected. Michael Jackson called Eddie to appear in the music video for Remember the Time, a 9-minute short film set in ancient Egypt with Eddie playing Pharaoh Rameses.
And on that set Eddie somehow still managed to be the funniest thing in the room. Eddie got startled by one of the trained animals on set and responded with such fast unfiltered commentary that the entire cast and crew completely lost it. I’m there and I don’t want y’all think that that I’m running and I’m a [laughter] cuz cuz the mind didn’t move from the bird.
He even had something to say about the ways people could react. But it’s two ways to react in a situation like that. [laughter] You can run or be real still. And she’s just being real still. But she’s as horrified as I am. [laughter] Michael Jackson, who famously kept his composure, was reportedly laughing harder than anyone.
And since she was raised in East Africa, she knows if the eagle go crazy, be real still. I’m from Brooklyn, so you run. But outside of that friendship, Eddie was breaking every other celebrity he came across. And he had a very specific skill for it. He never went mean, he went precise, and that precision is what made it so devastating.
Lady, this is your fiance. Yeah. She’s very lovable. Thank you, Grandma. Listen, it’s all about you, though. Don’t be checking my ass. Down in the sass. Well, he got the award and everybody stand up going to try to rap. But Hey, man, so who’s this with you, Ed? [laughter] Even when Eddie was with other celebrities, he never failed to make a funny impression of Michael.
Don’t go over there, Eddie. Uh did you go to his house? Yeah, a few times. And the chimpanzee going crazy. Is that Bubbles? He said, “Yes, don’t go near the cage.” Really? I thought Bubbles was chill. Mhm, don’t go over there. Eddie never stopped being funny, even as he stood before the entire industry, thanked everyone properly, acknowledged his long career, and then calmly told the room he had a three-part blueprint for success.
Just do these three things. Pay your taxes. Mind your business. And keep Will Smith’s wife’s name. Mom! Funnily enough, Will isn’t the only celebrity whom Eddie targets in his jokes. That’s why you watch a a Sidney Poitier movie and his hair is not combed. Go watch any Sidney Poitier movie, his hair is not combed.
But we never know, we didn’t even know that. That’s how good an actor he was. He just acted like his hair was combed. Eddie has a way of making the entire room laugh, sometimes without even trying. Hey, is that water cool? Can I drink that? This is for you. Yes, sir. Cuz I didn’t want to just drink it and it’d be some crap water.
[laughter] Oh, we not playing with you. They’d be like, “Who he drink that water? Lord, he drink that [laughter] water.” His impressions of other celebrities are in a category entirely of their own. Yeah, what’s your problem, man? Well, how come you keep PUTTING ME DOWN, HUH? What’s all the JOKES? YOU DON’T LIKE MY JOKES? WHAT THE WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM? When Eddie does an impression, he gets everything perfectly down to the voice.
I would like to talk to some of the people who fail. [laughter] The specific way a person holds themselves when they think they’re being watched. So, what kind of rinse are you using in your hair? Cuz my hair is black. And I was like I was like, “What?” What kind of rinse? What kind of rinse are you using? He understood people in a way that made his impressions feel almost documentary.
And Johnny Cash said to me, when we were talking about the party, he said, “You coming to the party, Eddie?” [laughter] I said, “I don’t know.” He said, “Because June and I sure do love you.” There’s no celebrity Eddie can’t make an impression of. He said, “I went over there, HE MADE ME FRENCH FRIED POTATOES.
” THAT’S WHY I’MMA ALWAYS BE COOL WITH EDDIE CUZ HE MADE ME THEM FRENCH FRIES. AND he took the one for James Brown too seriously. Thank you for being with us tonight, Mr. BROWN. I’M DEAD. LOOK AT THAT. NO ONE IS SPARED WHEN IT comes to Eddie, as he not only makes impressions of other celebrities.
My Uncle Sonny, he didn’t like it. No? Yeah, my Uncle Sonny, he cuz he used to talk like, “Yeah, man, get back over that bridge, you stuck out here. Go back home to Chris.” His wife’s name was uh Chris. And uh he used to say, “Yeah, okay.” Whenever he came around, I’d say, “Uncle Sonny, how you doing?” And he used to get annoyed.
He’d be like, “Yeah, okay, that’s enough.” [laughter] And then there’s the laugh, because if you grew up watching Eddie Murphy, that laugh is burned into your brain. That was my real laugh. [laughter] Then I realized a little bit along that they were laughing at my laugh, and then it became like, you know, part of It was like, “All you have to do is do that laugh,” and they would laugh, and it was like, “Oh, no.
” What most people don’t know is that Eddie made a deliberate decision to drop it. And I really made myself stop laughing. Like, I don’t laugh like that anymore. At some point, he just stopped using it, not because it wasn’t funny anymore, but because it had taken on a life of its own that had nothing to do with how Eddie actually laughed.
It’s a strange thing as a human being to have to adjust something as natural as that, where you go through, “I can’t laugh like that cuz people Yeah. always look over and say, “That’s all that’s it.” And the way he talked about this, and the explanation alone is hilarious.
But here’s where it gets genuinely funny. Someone once asked him, completely out of nowhere, whether his iconic laugh was fake. And once I was going into a hotel, and a guy came to me and said, “You still got that laugh?” And I was like, “What?” He said, “You still got that laugh?” And I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Hey, man, was that computers?” And Eddie’s reaction to that question is everything.
He asked me was it computers. I didn’t even know what to say. I just Because only Eddie Murphy could be asked if his own laugh is real and somehow turn the answer into a comedy moment all by itself. I feel like I’m still standing there, where I didn’t know what to Like he said that, I just kind of and just kind of walked away.
He was telling me He was He said it all like sotto voce, you know, like, “Hey, this is between you and me.” [laughter] Was that done with computers? That’s the strange reality of being Eddie Murphy. Even the involuntary things like his laugh and the way he reacts became so iconic that people started thinking they weren’t real.
His SNL skits also stand out. on your hands. LISTEN TO THIS ELF RIGHT HERE. WHEN POLAR BEARS ARE ATTACKED OUT OF [laughter] THE FATTEST MAN IN THE NORTH POLE IS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. HE’S MIA. THAT’S what separated Eddie from everyone else. I had a car with nice hubcaps on. I came back one night and my hubcaps were gone, you know, and I took somebody else’s hubcaps.
[laughter] But it’s it’s But I was on TV already. That was still popping hubcaps. [laughter] Not that he pushed the line, but that he understood it perfectly. He knew exactly how far to go and when to stop, and that precision is what made him the greatest ever to do it.
