Eddie Murphy Calls His Old Standup Material Ignorant, Says It’s Hard to Watch
Say what you want about Eddie Murphy… but he’s one funny dude! Always has been — but his old standup material doesn’t seem to have longevity in these cultural times.
According to a recent interview with the New York Times, the legendary comic cringes at some of his old stuff. And while the upcoming Netflix film Dolemite is My Name is sure to be a bit different, the material from his 1987 stand-up special, Raw, continues to haunt him.
“I was a young guy processing a broken heart, you know, kind of an a–hole,” he said about controversial homophobic and misogynistic jokes from his 1987 standup special, Raw.
Now he says Raw is “a bit much, my goodness,” and says the jokes are “ignorant.”
But this isn’t the first time he’s admitted it. In 1996, he publicly apologized about the jokes.
“I deeply regret any pain all this has caused,” he said in a statement at the time. “Just like the rest of the world, I am more educated about AIDS in 1996 than I was in 1981. I think it is unfair to take the words of a misinformed 21-year-old and apply them to an informed 35-year-old man. I know how serious an issue AIDS is the world over. I know that AIDS isn’t funny. It’s 1996 and I’m a lot smarter about AIDS now.”
Well! You live, you learn right? We hope in this cancel culture we’re in that Eddie will be able to jump passed it.