Eddie Murphy Bio on netflix

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12/30/2025 16:22

Subject: Re:Eddie Murphy Bio on netflix

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Anonymous wrote:Are you guy kidding? Raw and delirious are considered top 10 stand up specials of all time and he didn’t have the type of movies Denzel did but he was very successful in his movie career and had lots of hits

She is judging his comedy by today's Puritanical standards where nothing is funny and everything is offensive.

Wrong.

I’m in my 50s and watched his original stand-up when it came out. I thought it was funny…but I was young.

Have you rewatched it recently? It’s not that funny. A lot if it was boring. Silly.

And I’m not judging it by puritanical standards or today’s values. I love comedy and my taste skews off color/offensive/pushing limits.

Like some others deemed legendary/icons/GOATS by prior generations, subsequent talents have dramatically eclipsed him—illustrating that he was a bit overrated.

ICYMI: his stand-up career was very short-lived. He had a limited amount of material and at some point realized he needed to hang up the microphone lest he tarnish his reputation. That’s okay, but it underscores how he really wasn’t the stand-up genius some people thought. Yes, his silly movie career (a la Sandler) was quite lucrative. So much so that he could have transitioned to a more serious/quasi-serious film career (a la Sandler), but he didn’t…because his pompous and difficult reputation preceded him (along with baby mama drama and drug issues).

You are vastly underrating his early movie career by calling it "silly." 48 Hours was the start of an entire genre - the buddy cop comedy - and Beverly Hills Cop continued it along. For a time, he was one of the biggest movie stars in the US.

you seem to be simultaneously arguing that Eddie was (i) overrated and (ii) a tremendous talent who limited his career because he was an a-hole. Pick a lane.

And I'm also in his 50s, and still think the early standup was hilarious.

I’m really not underestimating his early career. In fact, I think he had quick success with a number of legit films early on—so much so that he was well primed to transition into a far more substantial acting career. Heck, I said he could have transitioned to play roles like Denzel!

He always had presence. It’s what got him the SNL gig (after another black comic got it but was quickly let go) which opened the door to his two big stand up specials and movies. He was everywhere, riding a big wave of popularity.

But he had some scandals and generally burned some bridges in Hollywood, which obviously impacted his trajectory.

I’m not saying he was a failure. Rather, he could have been more successful but for his missteps and personality issues. I suspect he knows this and it probably irritates him.

His legacy is essentially a couple stand up specials that were raw and unique at the time (but not as funny as many of his successors), SNL (a handful of classic skits), and a highly profitable catalogue of movies—a few of which remain classics/solid but many of which skew silly.

Seems entirely plausible that a man of his age might look back and wish he could have been taken more seriously as an actor. Personally, I think he’s more talented than Will Smith, yet Will transitioned to a more substantial body of work than Eddie did.

Anyway, the ping of this thread is he’s put out a whitewash history…which I guess is to be expected. Everyone knows his ego is huge and he demands respect. Zero chance a more honest account of his life/career would happen.

Why do you insist on comparing Eddie and Denzel? Eddie is a stand-up comedian who transitioned into acting with no formal training. Denzel studied Drama at Fordham University (and graduated) and also spent time studying at American Conservatory Theater (ACT). Denzel started his career on Broadway. They are not similar.

Eddie’s stand-up career was very overrated…and he knows it. He shrewdly went all in on movies. Smart move, but not unusual.

Fun fact: tons of comics are really aiming for movie careers or tv shows.

Nobody said Eddie and Denzel were exactly the same. But if you were paying attention, Eddie became a sex symbol and was regularly featured on mainstream magazines for a long time—at the same time he was in movies with some gravitas.

Given his wide appeal coupled with his ability to open a film, he absolutely could have done many of the roles offered to other black actors.

His arrogance and being labeled as difficult (coupled with the personal issues) created roadblocks to the career any actor would have wanted.

Anyway, you don’t need to agree. That’s okay with me. But you seem really invested in making Eddie seem more influential and important than he was. Yes, the world was looking for the next Richard Pryor…which is why he was propelled onto the national stage so quickly…but Eddie has never had the same stand-up talent as Pryor. Eddie was more like a shock jock comic who quickly dropped the mic to do movies and never looked back. That’s ok, but he really underscores that he was never a comic at the same level as Chris Rock, Chappelle, heck even Gaffigan or any other comic who lives for the stage and grinds out shows on the road for decades.

Eddie and Sandler are very similar imho: ho-hum comics who America loves for their silly movies. But Sandler seems to have avoided alienating Hollywood (as well as scandals).

If by overrated, you mean he had two of the most popular and well-known stand up routines of all time, then sure. There are obviously no objective metrics to judge what is overrated or not, so you are free to keep proclaiming it to your heart's content. But it's just your opinion, and I'm guessing it's a distinct minority opinion.

You seem to hold it against him that he didn't in your words, "grind out shows on the road for decades." Why on earth would he do that? It's a brutally tough life. I'll bet that any comic who supposedly "lives for the stage" would trade that life in a heartbeat for Eddie's career. He's had a better career than all of the people you mention - wildly successful at stand-up, star of some iconic movies early in his career, one of the most recognizable voice acting roles of all time, and then the "silly movies" you mention, while conveniently ignoring the rest of his career. But when people think of Eddie Murphy, no one thinks of the Nutty Professor or the Clumps.

As for him being influential and important, I have no particular dog in that hunt, but I do like to challenge idiocy when I read it. To just name two things, he pioneered the buddy cop movie, and and is mentioned by an entire generation of comics as being a significant influence on their careers. What more to you want?

Dig a little deeper, perhaps?

Eddie had precisely two comedy specials. He strategically leveraged them to propel him into films and stardom, and summarily dismissed stand-up for good. He dressed in Elvis-esque leather jumpsuits and styled himself as a rockstar. He even went so far as to release a music album.

Eddie took the “throw spaghetti against the wall” approach to fame and shrewdly stayed in his comedy film lane which is what everyone remembers. But what many of you seemed to miss is that he wanted more. He wanted to be a serious actor. He tried…hard. He positioned himself as a sex symbol (remember the topless posters?) and aggressively pursued more substantial roles.

Anyway, it’s really strange how some refuse to remember history…or ignore decades of what has been written about him or come out of his own mouth.

And where are the feminists? I mean, this guy has a really, really bad track record with women and his own children (never mind the dead trans sex worker).

Re: his icon comedy rep - it is well deserved for his movies, and his 2 stand-up specials were huge for the time, but history should not hail him as one of the great stand-ups (just like Sandler shouldn’t be hailed as a great stand-up). He did two shows then gave it up. The shows were so big for myriad reasons.

You're all over the place. You argued, ad nauseum, that Eddie was overrated, not a great comedian, and made "silly movies." But now, when you're unable to defend that (and hopefully recognize it as idiocy), you switch gears to "he wanted more," "what about the bad behavior," and "where are the feminists?"

I have no opinion on his personal life, or his goals. But he is undeniably a huge talent who had huge success in and made a lasting impact on standup, movie roles, SNL, and as a voice actor. Why do I need to "dig deeper" than that?

This poster has tried and failed to repeatedly paint a negative picture of one of the last great talents from a Hollywood era that no longer exists. I loved the point in the documentary where he mentions Ali’s influence on Winfrey, Obama and himself. When people have that kind of confidence, historically it triggers folks and they want to call it arrogance.