Bill Cosby’s Publicist Calls Eddie Murphy a ‘Hollywood Slave’ After ‘SNL’ Appearance
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Bill Cosby’s publicist slammed Eddie Murphy’s “Saturday Night Live” opening monologue on Sunday evening. Andrew Wyatt shared his thoughts on Murphy’s joke about the incarcerated comedian via Cosby’s Instagram.
“It is sad that Mr. Murphy would take this glorious moment of returning to SNL 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,” the post reads. “Stepin Fetchit plus cooning equals the destruction of Black Men in Hollywood. 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.”
Wyatt claimed that Cosby broke color barriers, thus paving a path for comedians like Dave Chappelle and Kevin Hart. Cosby’s publicist said he hoped Murphy would be “amenable to having a meeting of the minds conversation” to discuss ways in which their collective platforms could be used “to enhance Black people rather than bringing all of us down together.”
“#NotFunnySNL #SNL #FarFromFinished #FreeBillCosby #BillCosby,” the hashtags read.
The statement comes after Murphy’s return to “SNL” after 35 years. During his opening monologue, the “Dolemite Is My Name” star had a laugh at Cosby’s expense.
“My kids are actually pretty much my whole life now. And you know what, if you told me 30 years ago that I would be this boring, stay-at-home house dad, and Bill Cosby would be in jail? Even I would have taken that bet,” Murphy said before imitating Cosby’s classic Cliff Huxtable sitcom character: “Who is America’s Dad now?”
Cosby is serving a three-to-10-year jail sentence after being found guilty in April 2018 of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004.
Murphy and Cosby’s animosity toward each other is nothing new. In his 1987 stand-up film, “Eddie Murphy Raw,” Murphy explained that he had received a call from Cosby — who he considered his comedic idol at the time — condemning his comedy for being vulgar.
“I’m a big fan of Bill Cosby,” Murphy said in the special. “Never met the man, but he called me up about a year ago and chastised me on the phone about being too dirty on the stage. It was real weird because I had never met him and he just thought he should call me up, because he was Bill, and tell me that that isn’t what comedy is all about. I sat and listened to this man chastise me, and when Bill Cosby chastises you, you forget you’re grown, you feel like one of the Cosby kids.”
More recently, Murphy discussed Cosby’s critiques in a July episode of Netflix’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.”
“[Cosby] had a weird thing with me that he didn’t have with other comics,” Murphy told host Jerry Seinfeld. “It was mean. He wasn’t nice. He wasn’t doing that with everybody, he was doing that with me specifically. He was s—ty with me.”
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