Back in 1987, Eddie Murphy made headlines after he imitated Bill Cosby in the stand-up comedy film, Eddie Murphy Raw. Earlier this year, however, Murphy made headlines again when he declined to do the impersonation 30 years later. He recently explained to The Washington Post what provoked his decision.
As dozens of women came forward outing Bill Cosby as a sexual exploiter, Saturday Night Live reached out to Murphy to join their 40th anniversary celebration with a skit imitating the 78-year-old comedian.
Murphy explained to the Post that he understood why SNL would have reached out to him. "It was the biggest thing in the news at the time. I can see why they thought it would be funny, and the sketch that Norm [Macdonald] wrote was hysterical," Murphy said.
Ultimately, he opted out of the skit.
It’s horrible. There’s nothing funny about it. If you get up there and you crack jokes about him, you’re just hurting people. You’re hurting him. You’re hurting his accusers. I was like, ‘Hey, I’m coming back to SNL for the anniversary, I’m not turning my moment on the show into this other thing.’
You can read the rest of his interview here.
