HOLLYWOOD — It was a record-breaking, ground breaking, non-stop round of applause as Eddie Murphy — the comedic genius who helped put Saturday Night Live on the map — made his triumphant return after 35 years. And everyone was singing his praises — that is — everyone except Bill Cosby and his team.
“If you would have told me 30 years ago that I would have been this boring, stay-at-home house dad and Bill Cosby would be in jail, even I would have took that bet,” the father of 10 said, following with his best “Bill Cosby’s Heathcliff Huxtable voice, asking, “Who is America’s dad now?”
Well, Cosby’s camp fired back, calling Murphy a “coon” and a “Hollywood Slave.”
Cosby spokesperson Andrew Wyatt released a statement that read, in part, “Mr. Cosby broke color barriers in the Entertainment Industry, so that Blacks like Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappell, Kevin Hart and et al., could have an opportunity to showcase their talents for many generations to come. 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.”
What made Murphy’s return even more epic, were the surprise guests who joined him on stage — Tracy Morgan, Dave Chappelle, and Chris Rock, –all of whom Murphy played an integral role in their careers.
Houston’s Lizzo, who has sparked her own controversy recently after her rump-shaking visit to a Lakers game, was the musical guest. This time, she was fully clothed.
Murphy’s return pulled in a staggering 9.921 million viewers, the highest for the show in the last few years.
Check out more video highlights from the night!
