Eddie Murphy recalled how angry he was when David Spade took a ‘cheap’ and racist shot at him in 1995.
During Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, the Joe Dirt star, 59, showed a photo of the Trading Places actor, 63, and said: ‘Look children, it’s a falling star. Make a wish.’
At the time, Murphy was fresh off the box office flip Vampire in Brooklyn.
‘It was like, “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, I thought – I felt it was racist,’ he said in an interview with the New York Times.
‘It hurt my feelings. Most people that get off that show, they don’t go on and have these amazing careers. It was personal,’ the Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F star said.
Eddie Murphy recalled how angry he was when David Spade took a cheap and racist shot at him in 1995
During Saturday Night Live ‘s Weekend Update, the Joe Dirt star, 59, showed a photo of the Trading Places actor, 63, and said: ‘Look children, it’s a falling star. Make a wish.’ Pictured in 2010
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And while Murphy has forgiven Spade, he hasn’t forgotten what happened or how it made him feel.
The Party All the Time singer was a regular SNL cast member from 1980 to 1984 and knew the process of how a joke made it onto the broadcast.
‘The show would have been off the air if I didn’t go back on the show, and now you got somebody from the cast making a crack about my career?’ he recounted.
‘And I know that he can’t just say that,’ the Doctor Doolittle star said.
‘A joke has to go through these channels. So the producers thought it was OK to say that.
‘And all the people that have been on that show, you’ve never heard nobody make no joke about anybody’s career,’ he added.
Murphy and Spade spoke on the phone after the distasteful joke aired and Spade apologized, said he felt terrible and in his 2016 memoir Almost Interesting revealed they spoke afterward and ‘took [his] beating.’
Spade recalled having a phone call with Murphy after the joke aired and feeling terrible.
At the time, Murphy was fresh off the box office flip Vampire in Brooklyn. Pictured in 2023
‘It was like, “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, I thought – I felt it was racist,’ he said in an interview with the New York Times. Spade pictured in 2022
‘It hurt my feelings. Most people that get off that show, they don’t go on and have these amazing careers. It was personal,’ the Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F star said
And while Murphy has forgiven Spade, he hasn’t forgotten what happened or how it made him feel, pictured at the Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F premiere in June 2024
The Party All the Time singer was a regular SNL cast member from 1980 to 1984 and knew the process of how a joke made it onto the broadcast
But Murphy didn’t return to Saturday Night Live for 20 years. He was on the 40th anniversary show in 2015.
‘In the long run, it’s all good,’ the Coming to America actor said.
‘Worked out great. I’m cool with David Spade. Cool with Lorne Michaels. I went back to SNL. I’m cool with everybody. It’s all love.’
Murphy returned to host SNL in 2019.