Eddie Murphy "Raw" -- classic or dud?

Well?

like some of it is cringeworthy now but the following is completely still classic:

"Cosby thought that was my whole act. Like I just walked out on-stage, cursed and left. I manage to stick in some jokes between the curses. You couldn’t give no curse show. Walk out, say, “Hey, Felt Forum, motherfucker, dick, pussy, snot and shit. Good night. Good night. Suck my dick. Bye-bye."

classic

some of it is definitely cringeworthy, especially the homophobic element, but even some of the gay-baiting is hilarious. like the Mr. T fucking dude in the ass impression.

I don't think I've ever seen this in its entirety due to some combo of being forbidden to watch it as a kid and not caring

I do maintain that Eddie and Dave are kings of the "funny white male" voice. though I may give the slight edge to Eddie for that one SNL sketch where he camouflaged himself as a white dude...

uh both of them just borrowed it wholesale from Richard Pryor, who invented it afaict

I guess I mean "that are still alive" :(

Eddie's actual Richard Pryor impersonation is pretty good too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYfenUt0u9A

suburban kid w/ raw talent wastes talent

(but at least loves trannies)

Conan pays homage:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3341/4601104529_1162040ea5.jpg

some of it is definitely cringeworthy, especially the homophobic element, but even some of the gay-baiting is hilarious. like the Mr. T fucking dude in the ass impression.

― bitch u ain't british (the table is the table), Monday, June 27, 2011 5:37 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

wasnt that from delirious?

i get them mixed up tbh

delirious = red leather
raw = purple leather

the bits? no idea

i dont know that ive ever laughed harder than i did the first time i saw delirious

nowhere near as good as Delirious or this for example (despite the uh homophobic shite)
http://bestylistik.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/eddie-murphy-cd.jpg

this is still one of the best live comedy things i've ever seen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L54iLYI8nlY

Delirious was hungry and Raw was full. Huge difference.

Was Eddie Murphy the last moustache of the 80s?

i remember a few years back when my gf at the time finally made me listen to delirious and i wasnt really expecting it to be that funny because lol old comedy - it blew me away

nowhere near as good as Delirious or this for example (despite the uh homophobic shite)

It does have its hilarious moments, but shit, the first few minutes of that record are fucking hateful. At least Murphy backtracked on it years later. At the time, homophobic humor wasn't controversial; hell, Letterman and Carson were doing it, and neither of them ever expressed any regret over it.

really guys, young Murphy can't hold a candle to Pryor, go to school.

(I saw Murphy live in '82, Pryor a year later I think)

really guys, young Kerry King can't hold a candle to Leo Kottke, go to school

Morbz OTM

Pryor is like next-level/untouchable genius shit to me

he really is

i dont know that ive ever laughed harder than i did the first time i saw delirious

― ☂ (max), Monday, June 27, 2011 10:39 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

This.

Sometimes I'll look up specific clips and they still just kill me.

Man I guess I need to watch some Pryor.

eddie murphy's impression of pryor OTM, i had no idea murphy was so good at that stuff

I heard something amazing about the leather suit from Delirious a couple months ago but can't remember it now and the internet isn't helping. It was something like that he just stopped at the mall on the way to the tapping and picked that little number up last minute only it wasn't actually a suit but two matching separates. Fashion fate I tell you.

taping not tapping

from the pryor i've seen i'm not sure he put up a show that stays as punchy as raw the way through, though it's true that his best moments show murphy up a little as a good impersonator at best.

my wife camiiiiiiille

thats not me modrfokr that's the PHONE

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6a/Richard_pryor_live_in_concert_dvd.jpg/220px-Richard_pryor_live_in_concert_dvd.jpg

^^^this is amazing

his SNL bits from the first (second?) season are amazing

if you can find it there's a bootleg film of a show of his from '76 that is also unbelievable

er... '7a

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/41/Live_and_smokin_richard_pryor.jpg/220px-Live_and_smokin_richard_pryor.jpg

includes brief bit about sucking cock when he was younger

'71

"you know why they use crosses against vampires right? cause vampires are allergic to bullshit"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dT5iH024eg&feature=related

Yeah, they all (except Murphy) nicked Richard Pryor's moves and talked about Lenny Bruce.

think i've got those at home, p sure i've got live and smokin certainly- quality's p bad iirc.

pryor and young Murphy are both completely fucking hilarious. feel sad for anyone who'd not be able to enjoy eddie cause pryor is better (pryor is way more endearing/loveable than eddie).

yeah Eddie's meaner

like, you can tell there's real pain behind Pryor's stuff. Eddie, not so much

some of the live and smokin material is straight gut-wrenching

I had that SatNightLive VHS a long time back, and apart from the 'notsogreat' stuff, the Buckwheat 'death' and the "free stuff for white men" skit made me think "he used to be political? blimey.."

e.g. the "I wrote the Beatles' songs" was a pretty lame sketch, but he pulled something amazing out of it anyway.

Murphy's better at physical stuff i think, watching Delirious for the first time in an age on Saturday I was blown away by how funny he could be with his face and body language before he opened his mouth.

Yeah, he made a movie career out of that stuff (sigh)

has he ever been interviewed about why he doesn't do standup any more?

The deadpan stillness too, even in the James Brown number.

Much of the sexism in Raw is uncomfortable. "Bush bitch" and all that. And yet, Dexter St. Jock is hilarious. "Next thing you know, Dexter is fucking your woman. Well."

But the best is the closer. Drunk dad, talking about eating and wearing things be brought home from the toy factory. Gut-hurting hilarious.

Murphy's better at physical stuff i think

I dunno about this - Pryor on acid on SNL, for example.

don't get me wrong I like Eddie fine, he was great at putting things in his butt.

sort of unfair comparing anyone to pryor though tbf

yeah for standup he's shakespeare basically

has he ever been interviewed about why he doesn't do standup any more?

I wondered about that myself, and Oprah asked him about it (when he was promoting Shrek Pi or whatever the fuck it was). She asked if he missed standup, and he just said no, he doesn't miss it, and never had any inclination to get back into it. I think he just lost interest in it.

I had that SatNightLive VHS a long time back, and apart from the 'notsogreat' stuff, the Buckwheat 'death' and the "free stuff for white men" skit made me think "he used to be political? blimey.."

That short film about going undercover was one of the best things he ever did.

(for the record, while I love much about Eddie, Pryor was a genius on a level only a handful of artists have ever glimpsed)

I seem to recall all the shitty high school jocks really enjoying the mean-spirited nature of Eddie's act. Really don't miss the 80's.

Raw was the end of his stand-up, wasn't it? After that, Harlem Nights et al.

Eddie's meanie persona is off putting but he appears to have a heart of gold in all the interviews i've seen with him, even in his youngish supertar days on Letterman and whatnot. also great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38yMdOawTcc

man i know it's obvious to say but wasn't he bloody amazing in that 80s 48 Hrs-Cop-Trading places run? i saw 48 Hrs again recently, always thought of it as the poor cousin in that trilogy but man it's just great.

is he to blame for the "action comedy" genre

has he ever been interviewed about why he doesn't do standup any more?

read an interview where he basically said he did the stand-up to get profile, and once he was a huge movie star it basically served no purpose for him any longer.

i laugh more at eddie murphy, but prefer pryor. murphy's comedy is mean, there's generally a target, someone to be laughed at. pryor's is more humane, more than just laughs.

Great in that clip to see him thriving on the live audience.

i saw 48 Hrs again recently, always thought of it as the poor cousin in that trilogy but man it's just great.

yeah, i mean i love BHC and trading places, but 48 hours is all time

oddly I have never seen that one

it's weird cuz Murphy was coming up at a time (ie, adolescence) when my parents were definitely trying to keep that kind of thing away from me, so I only came to a lot of it either intermittently or after-the-fact.

This is some hilarious shit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgTRKRWdQH0

Eddie wore that same cardigan hosting the MTV awards. Chic.

it's weird cuz Murphy was coming up at a time (ie, adolescence) when my parents were definitely trying to keep that kind of thing away from me

me too, tho I may have been even a bit younger (9-12 prob) and it was the sort of situation where the kids w/ the more permissive (cooler) parents had seen the R-rated comedies & concert films & could quote them verbatim & the rest of us felt we were missing out on this taboo world of comic genius. I don't think either Raw or Delirious could ever stand up to how funny I perceived them to be (second-hand even) at age 10.

^ then again, now I am shuddering @ how some of those 'lucky' kids may have had some pretty untoward impressions of homosexuality, AIDs & such b/c of how celebrated dude's status was at the time.

yeah watching him do the homophobic stuff at the start of Delirious i was at least able to confirm for my son that yeah this is not cool and also Eddie is protesting a bit too much given events in his private life

I remember my fifth-grade teacher being surprised that I had seen Stir Crazy.

Ha, I was already jaded & dismissive at the time - "Bah, Richard Pryor did it all better!" - having seen Pryor's classics way back in 1982 when I was fifteen.

has he ever been interviewed about why he doesn't do standup any more?

There's an interview on the Delirious dvd where he says (I'm paraphrasing) that it would take him a couple of years of hacking it in comedy clubs before he got back to tv-special performance levels.

I don't think either Raw or Delirious could ever stand up to how funny I perceived them to be (second-hand even) at age 10.

How funny did your ten year old self think it was? I would say Raw still inhabits your world of comic genius.

Eddie is protesting a bit too much given events in his private life

Has anyone heard that Richard Pryor album where he talks about having sex with the neighborhood ladyboy? Considering the likelihood of Pryor's gay sex bit and Iceberg Slim's Mama Black Widow being on Murphy's horizon as a teenager, it almost seems like Murphy's homophobia and homophilia are deliberately mixed together in his gay jokes (whether or not he'll admit this in interviews).

yeah i thought that too, sometimes he's really close to doing outright camp comedy but then he has to rescue it with some barbed aside just to prove to the audience how straight he is

^^^this seems really obvious to me

I should really read Pryor's autobio one of these days

has he ever been interviewed about why he doesn't do standup any more?

has he ever been interviewed about why he doesn't do good movies anymore? dude plainly does not give 1x shit about anything as long as he has money

Murphy's better at physical stuff i think

uh, scuse me? Pryor as a deer?

hell I'd just give to hear Eddie say "fuck" on screen again. :/

Ah, love that "TV version" of 48 Hours where he's talking to that arty designer guy.

"Get the out of here!!"
"No! I will not do this" etc...

The 'inappropriate' swearing removed, comedy rating reduced to 10% of what it was.

yeah, swearing, the essence of 'comedy'

kill me now

tell bill i said have a coke and a smile and shut the fuck up

i uh, i sprained my eyeball and now i need 12 million dollars

yeah, swearing language, the essence of 'comedy'

A friend just posted this on FB and I'm watching it dying right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JfMCBh1sJQ&feature=player_embedded#at=58

watching the ships roll in
then i watch em roll away again, lillian

That part and the bit about his mom's hamburger are my favorite two bits of his standup specials.

i never said no filth flarn flarn filth, and i'm offended that you called. fuck you

all classic bits^^^. I seem to remember that it got pretty unfunny about halfway in though

I never said no filth flarn filth

Since my daughters were born I often called them sorta rude nicknames, mainly “mugwumps” and “goonie goo goos.”. Neither of them know about Naked Lunch or Eddie Murphy, but my 15 year old bought my ten year old a birthday gift: a custom shirt embroidered with “Goonie Goo Goo.”