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From legendary SNL moments to Oscar drama, join us as we explore the most revealing insights from "Being Eddie" on Netflix! Our countdown includes Murphy's ventriloquist beginnings, how his makeup fooled Jesse Jackson, his stance on substances, and his brotherly bond with Charlie Murphy. Which Eddie revelation surprised you most?
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00:00That's the way I would describe Eddie. He's a sponge brain.
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the funniest and most revealing moments from the documentary Being Eddie on Netflix.
00:09There's a picture of me punching Ali in the face.
00:14Number 10. Inspiring Young Comics.
00:17The press labeled Murphy as, quote, the new Richard Pryor, as if there could only be one successful black comedian.
00:24For years it was, you know, one at a time that would get you, you know, mass appeal and be in big movies.
00:34In the 60s it was Sidney Poitier.
00:36Then Richard was the one person that became the man, and he was the one black guy in most of the movies.
00:44Obviously this was disproven with the rise of comedians like Kevin Hart and Chris Rock, both of whom grew up idolizing Murphy.
00:50Rocky. Rock even recalled how Murphy went out of his way to bring him on stage one night when he was still getting his foot in the door.
00:57Eddie says, when are you going on?
01:00And I go, I'm not on tonight.
01:02And then Eddie says, well, you're going up next.
01:05And I had a really good set, and he laughed really loud and did it.
01:09It wasn't just black men who Murphy inspired.
01:11As a kid, Pete Davidson knew Murphy best from family-friendly comedies.
01:15After picking up a copy of Eddie Murphy Delirious, it opened Davidson's eyes to a whole new world of stand-up.
01:22Davidson's mother didn't find the language appropriate, but she could see her son needed to laugh.
01:27I think she saw I was enjoying myself at a time where I really wasn't.
01:34And she was like, you could watch this stuff as long as, you know, repeat it or tell anybody.
01:40Number 9. Making Some Stinkers
01:42While there's no denying that Murphy has starred in some of cinema's funniest movies,
01:47he acknowledges that not all of them were classics.
01:50I was even a rocket ship.
01:52This is addressed early on when he references playing a spaceship in Meet Dave.
01:57While he doesn't mention that 2008 comedy by name,
02:00he advises others against ever starring as a rocket ship.
02:04And to all the young actors, I'd like to tell all of them, don't ever play a rocket ship.
02:10Meet Dave was just one of several bad movies that Murphy made in succession,
02:16often being cited at the Razzies.
02:18In fact, the Razzies named him Worst Actor of the Decade as the 2010s wrapped.
02:23It's not a coincidence that Murphy took an acting hiatus after 2011.
02:27He knew that some of his recent projects were just plain bad.
02:31And now was the time for a break.
02:33People don't realize that I've taken a break.
02:36Number 8. Yul Brynner's Offer
02:39After 48 hours, Murphy's star skyrocketed,
02:42becoming one of the most bankable actors in Hollywood.
02:45When 48 Hours came out, I thought it was a wonder.
02:48I wasn't thinking, you know, I'm gonna be in movies.
02:51As such, many actors from Hollywood's golden age were interested in grabbing lunch with him.
02:57Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, and Frank Sinatra are just a few late legends that Murphy had the chance to meet.
03:02The standout was Yul Brynner, who's best known for his Oscar-winning work in The King and I.
03:08Yul Brynner, in Ten Commandments, he was with his wife and he was like,
03:12how would you like to go back to my apartment with my wife and I am party?
03:15Brynner invited Murphy to come back to his apartment and, quote,
03:18party with his wife.
03:20Murphy turned him down, not thinking much of it.
03:23The more Murphy thought about it, though,
03:25he began to wonder exactly what Brynner meant by party.
03:28In retrospect, Murphy wishes he had gone with him, if only to give this story a better ending.
03:34And then I wish I would have went.
03:36The story would end better.
03:40Becoming famous in the 80s, on the comedy scene no less,
03:44Murphy was naturally surrounded by illegal substances.
03:47During his first season on SNL, Murphy went to a blues bar where John Belushi and Robin Williams had blow.
04:02It would have been easy for someone in Murphy's position to fall into the habits that have ruined so many lives,
04:07especially in celebrity circles.
04:09Even at a young age, though, Murphy simply wasn't interested in drugs.
04:21To this day, he claims to have never done cocaine.
04:25Murphy would eventually smoke a joint, but not until he was in his 30s.
04:29Murphy credits his healthy lifestyle to the power of loving oneself.
04:32He wouldn't do coke even if Shrek offered it to him.
04:35Who gave you the cocaine?
04:37Shrek.
04:39Shrek.
04:40Number 6.
04:41Fun with Dummies
04:42Murphy had a knack for performance since childhood.
04:45His mother encouraged this, purchasing him a ventriloquist dummy that he wanted.
04:50The very first show business thing I asked for was a kid asked for a ventriloquist dummy.
04:55Through the dummy, Murphy experimented with different voices,
04:59foreshadowing how he'd sometimes play multiple characters in the same movie.
05:02Although Willie Talk didn't become a staple of his act, Murphy still has a soft spot for puppets.
05:08Toward the end of the documentary, Murphy breaks out some dummies modeled after famous people.
05:13Did you put that pill in the chocolate?
05:15Now, see, how you gonna ask me that I put the pill in the chocolate when you know that I put the pill in the chocolate?
05:21Among them is Bill Cosby, and Murphy does not hesitate to go there.
05:26Murphy also has puppets of Richard Pryor, Paul Mooney, and singer Val Young.
05:31We feel like it's only a matter of time until Netflix greenlights an Eddie Murphy puppet movie.
05:35Don't go by what you've heard.
05:39I'm capable of tenderness and kindness to you.
05:44We'll take it over a Cosby Show reboot.
05:47Number 5. Remembering Charlie Murphy
05:49Sadly, passing away in 2017, Charlie Murphy might not have been as famous as his younger brother.
05:56When we was growing up, they didn't have all these channels on TV.
05:58You know, you only had a couple of channels, and my brother pointed at the television and said,
06:02I want to be on that one day. And when he pointed at it, you know,
06:06I think it was probably one black person on it. It was Julia or something like that.
06:10So it was unfathomable that he would be even become...
06:13Honestly, how many comedians are?
06:14The elder Murphy was still an underrated talent,
06:18and arguably one of his generation's funniest storytellers.
06:21As Eddie's brother, not to mention his head of security for a period,
06:25Charlie had plenty of stories to tell.
06:27This would even inspire a recurring segment on Chappelle's show.
06:30The genesis of it was Charlie just telling crazy stories at lunch.
06:34Watching the archival footage,
06:36we remember how naturally Charlie Murphy could recount even the most insane tales with a straight face.
06:41Charlie was always proud and protective of his little brother,
06:44who still misses him to this day.
06:47There's nobody like Charlie.
06:50Nobody was funnier than that.
06:53And some of my biggest laughs in my life are Charlie.
06:56We all do, but Charlie's memory lives on through his stories about Prince,
07:01Rick James, and of course, Eddie.
07:06Murphy's parents split when he was young,
07:08which he blames on an expensive photo of himself and Charlie.
07:11I'm sure they were having issues, but this was the straw that broke the camel's back.
07:17This is the last straw.
07:19His parents' constant fighting and breakup wasn't the most traumatic experience of Murphy's childhood.
07:25That would be his father's murder,
07:26which apparently stemmed from an altercation with another woman.
07:30Murphy's mother remarried,
07:31with her new husband, Vernon Lynch, raising his stepsons as his own.
07:35Murphy credits his stepfather for helping him become a well-adjusted adult.
07:47Yet Murphy's upbringing wasn't without some unaddressed mental health issues.
07:52As a kid, Murphy made multiple trips to the stove every night to ensure the gas was off.
07:57This was chalked up to a quirk,
07:59but it wasn't until years later that Murphy realized
08:01he had exhibited signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
08:04I forced myself to stop doing it.
08:06I check the gas every night still,
08:09but every now and then I'll check it twice.
08:14In Coming to America, Murphy didn't just star as Prince Akeem Jaffer.
08:18I want queens.
08:20We're not rich.
08:21We're ordinary African students.
08:24Whatever you say, pal.
08:26He played three regulars at a New York barbershop.
08:29While everyone knew that Murphy could carry a movie,
08:31it was unclear if he could convincingly juggle roles.
08:35Between Murphy's comedic range and Rick Baker's makeup effects, though,
08:38many didn't realize that he had played more than one character.
08:41When I get a voice or a character,
08:43the way my voice sounds, I can lose it completely.
08:45There's no sign of my voice.
08:47You damn right!
08:48Characters, they're like real people.
08:50This included Jesse Jackson,
08:52who was flabbergasted to learn that it was Murphy under all those prosthetics.
08:55This wasn't the last time that Murphy's makeup fooled somebody.
08:58Dave Chappelle met Murphy on the Nutty Professor set.
09:01Chappelle didn't recognize Murphy, who was in his Sherman Clump getup.
09:05After hearing him speak, Chappelle suddenly realized it was Murphy, who called him funny.
09:10He walked by me, and I didn't recognize him, because he was dressed as Sherman Clump.
09:16He walked by me, and then he stopped, and he goes,
09:18Hey, man, you're real funny.
09:19And I heard his voice, oh, and I, oh my god, it's Eddie Murphy.
09:23Number 2.
09:24Losing the Oscar
09:25After throwing shade at the Academy while presenting Best Picture during the 1988 telecast,
09:30Murphy figured that he had torched his chances of ever winning an Oscar.
09:34I haven't got an Oscar, and I've done everything.
09:36I've played everything and done everything.
09:38I haven't got an Oscar.
09:41But I don't think it's because of that.
09:43Nevertheless, Murphy was deemed the Oscar favorite years later
09:46after he won a Golden Globe and SAG Award for his performance in Dreamgirls.
09:50While Murphy was nominated for Best Supporting Actor,
09:53the Oscar ultimately went to another comedy legend, Alan Arkin.
09:58It came out right at the time when you would be campaigning for your Oscar.
10:04It just, you know, shitted up the water.
10:07Maybe it was because of his comments in 1988.
10:10Maybe it was because Norbit came out around the same time.
10:12In any case, Murphy isn't that sore about losing.
10:15Awards are nice, but he doesn't need statues to find gratification.
10:19Murphy just thinks it's annoying when he gets dressed up in a tuxedo for nothing.
10:27Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel
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10:45Number 1. His Complicated History with SNL
10:48Although Murphy wanted to do stand-up, SNL didn't cross his mind until he had a chance to audition.
10:54And my first reaction was like,
10:56Saturday Night Live?
10:58I never even thought about something like Saturday Night Live.
11:01I was like, I thought I was going to be Richard Pryor.
11:05Murphy became an MVP when the sketch series desperately needed a breakout star.
11:09One might say that Murphy single-handedly saved SNL,
11:13ensuring its longevity even after he left.
11:15Murphy thus took it personally when cast member David Spade called him a, quote,
11:19falling star during an SNL sketch.
11:21Murphy didn't hold a grudge against Spade, but he was upset with SNL as a whole.
11:40SNL had been his home, and Murphy saw this as a backstab.
11:44In response, Murphy avoided returning to SNL for years.
11:48In December 2019, though, Murphy would finally host SNL,
11:52reminding everyone of where this comedy genius got his biggest break.
11:56I had a huge burst of nostalgia.
11:59That good old days feeling every now and then you sit around with your friends or relatives
12:03and be reminiscing about something and you talk and then you get that little feeling that,
12:08oh, that good, that those were the good old days kind of burst of nostalgia feeling.
12:13I had that for a solid week.
12:15Do you have any interesting stories about Eddie Murphy's career?
12:18Let us know in the comments.
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