Ahead of Beverly Hills Cop 4 premiere, Eddie Murphy is looking back on some of the slights he endured throughout his career, including a Saturday Night Live (SNL) joke that sparked his longtime feud with David Spade.
Murphy and Spade have buried the hatchet, with the latter acknowledging the impact of “rough jokes” in his 2015 memoir. However, in a new interview with The New York Times, the Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F star recalled the incident when asked if he felt he’d ever been treated unfairly by the press and his co-stars.
Eddie Murphy noted the industry in the 80s was “relentless” in deriding him with comments that he felt were “racist stuff” before stating “there was no Black Hollywood. There were no rappers or hip-hop. It was the ’80s.”
Eddie Murphy, a regular cast member of SNL from 1980 to 1984, said it stung when, years later, David Spade took a jab at him on the show after he struggled his way to stardom in the 1990s.
The Dr Dolitte star was referring to the “Hollywood Minute” sketch in which David Spade showed a picture of Eddie Murphy before quipping, “Look, children, it’s a falling star. Make a wish,” after his 1995 film Vampire in Brooklyn tanked at the box office.
Eddie Murphy told the New York Times that he was startled by the jibe from the show that he helped succeed in the 80’s. Murphy said, “I’m the biggest thing that ever came off that show. The show would’ve been off the air if I didn’t go back on the show, and now you have somebody from the cast making a crack about my career?”
Murphy called out Spade over the jibe, saying, “Yo, how could you do that?” My career? Really? A joke about my career? So, I thought that was a cheap shot. And it was kind of racist, I thought — I felt it was racist.”
Murphy said the show never went after former cast members’ careers, and the joke felt like a personal attack. The Shrek star added, “All the people that have been on that show, you’ve never heard anybody make a joke about anybody’s career. Most people that get off that show, they don’t go on and have these amazing careers. It was personal.”
Murphy also called out SNL over greenlighting the remark, saying, “I know that he can’t just say that — a joke has to go through these channels — so the producers thought it was okay to say that,”
Murphy told The Times it took him years to forgive the quip before noting he’s now on ‘good terms’ with Spade and the show creator Lorne Michaels.
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