Eddie Murphy Still Gets Stung By That David Spade Joke On ‘Saturday Night Live’

CNN
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Eddie Murphy reflects on some of the “low blows” he feels he has committed over the years.

The Oscar-nominated actor and comedian — whose new film, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” hits Netflix next week — was asked in an interview with The New York Times whether he felt he had been treated unfairly by the press and his peers over the years.

“They used to be very ruthless towards me, and most of what they said was racist,” Murphy said.

After mentioning that it was “a completely different world” when he was starting out in the 1980s, Murphy brought up an instance “where David Spade said this s—–ne about my career on ‘SNL.’ “.

The segment in question, from a December 1995 episode in which Spade reviewed the year on “Hollywood Minute,” included a photo of Murphy on which Spade commented: “Look kids, it’s a shooting star. Make a wish. Murphy told the Times that the joke was made after his film, “Vampire in Brooklyn,” flopped at the box office.

“It was like, ‘Yo, this is home! I’m family, and you’re king to me like that?’ It hurt me like that,” Murphy said.

He rose to fame on “SNL” as a member of the main cast between 1980 and 1984, and is often cited as the reason the show was at one point saved from demise.

“The producers thought it was okay to say that. Out of all the people who’ve been on this show, you’ve never heard anyone make a joke about anyone’s career. Most people who come out of this show don’t go on to have amazing careers. It was personal,” Murphy added later. “It was like, ‘Yo, how could you do that?’ My career ? Really ? A joke about my career? So I thought it was a low blow. And it was sort of, I thought it was racist. »

Spade later wrote that he received a phone call from an upset Murphy after the bit and felt horrible about his “stupid joke.”

“I’ve come to understand Eddie’s point of view on this,” Spade wrote. “Everybody in show business wants people to like them. That’s how you get fans. But when you get trashed in a sketch or online or whatever, it’s still crap. And it can add up quickly.”

Murphy has mostly stayed away from NBC’s long-running sketch show over the years, though he briefly appeared on “SNL’s” 40th anniversary special in 2015 and returned as host to much fanfare in 2019.

“In the long run it’s all good, it’s gone very well. I’m cool with David Spade, I’m cool with Lorne Michaels. I went back to SNL,” Murphy said this week. “It’s all love…but I’ve had a few low blows!”