Bill Cosby’s spokesperson called Eddie Murphy a “Hollywood slave.” The remark comes after Murphy said “disparaging remarks” about Bill Cosby on Saturday Night Live over the weekend. Murphy made his triumphant return to the iconic sketch show and brought back several fan-favorite characters. The comedian was clearly enjoying himself, even breaking character a few times to laugh, and accidentally even shouted “sh*t!” during one sketch. However, Cosby’s spokesman Andrew Wyatt is focused on one particular joke.
During Eddie Murphy’s opening SNL monologue, the legendary comedian brought up Bill Cosby, who is currently serving a prison sentence over three counts of indecent assault. “If you told me 30 years ago that I’d be this boring stay at home house dad and Bill Cosby would be in jail, even I wouldn’t have took that bet,” Murphy joked. “Who is America’s dad now?” he continued while doing a Cosby impersonation. The joke went over well with the audience, but Andrew Wyatt took offense. You can read part of his public statement below.
“Mr. Cosby broke color barriers in the Entertainment Industry, so that Blacks like Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappell (sic), Kevin Hart and et al., could have an opportunity to showcase their talents for many generations to come. It is sad that Mr. Murphy would take this glorious moment of returning to Saturday Night Live and make disparaging remarks against Mr. Cosby. One would think that Mr. Murphy was given his freedom to leave the plantation, so that he could make his own decisions; but he decided to sell himself back to being a Hollywood Slave.”
Eddie Murphy has been open in the past about Bill Cosby contacting him on the phone to change up his act in the 1980s. Cosby urged Murphy and other African American comics to stop making their routines so vulgar. Obviously, this has come off as more than a little hypocritical over the years as more and more allegations about Cosby’s predatory behavior come to light. Andrew Wyatt took some more time in his statement to remind Murphy of what Cosby accomplished. He explains.
“Remember, Mr. Murphy, that Bill Cosby became legendary because he used comedy to humanize all races, religions and genders; but your attacking Mr. Cosby helps you embark on just becoming click bait. Hopefully, you will be amenable to having a meeting of the minds conversation, in order to discuss how we can use our collective platforms to enhance Black people rather than bringing all of us down together.”
Former SNL castmate Joe Piscopo worked with Eddie Murphy a lot when they were starting out. “Cosby was Eddie’s hero,” Piscopo says. Apparently, Murphy was devastated when Bill Cosby told him that his material was too dirty. Whatever the case may be, Piscopo says, “All is fair in love and comedy,” when reacting to Andrew Wyatt’s response to Murphy’s joke. Murphy has yet to respond to the statement, as of this writing.
Eddie Murphy brought Tracy Morgan, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, and Keenan Thompson out during his opening monologue. They joked that they represented half of Netflix’s budget due to their lucrative standup special deals they have received. It has been rumored that Murphy signed a multi-million dollar deal with the streaming platform for a special next year. The comedian has confirmed that he will return to the stage, but there has not been a confirmation about the Netflix deal at this time.
Eddie Murphy isn’t worried about his stage act or offending people. The comedian pushed the boundaries to the extreme in the 1980s and when asked about possibly changing his style to fit in with this current cultural climate, he said he would not change. Murphy doesn’t believe that his comedy comes from a malicious place, so people are just going to have to deal with it, which goes for Bill Cosby and Andrew Wyatt too. You can read the entire public statement below, thanks to Bill Cosby’s Instagram account.
