Presumably there are reactions to last night’s news (broken by Deadline, followed up by everyone else) about Eddie Murphy being producer Brett Ratner‘s first choice to host the 2012 Oscar telecast. It’s by no means a locked deal but please have at it.

I saw Murphy perform live gigs twice in the early ’80s, and as hilarious as he was back then his material was about 80% X-rated scatalogical (anal wonderland, trim, suck my dick, “Mr. T in a gay bar,” etc.) — that’s where his comic mind naturally went back then. So unless he’s turned into the new Mort Sahl I wonder where he could take his monologue within a straight-jacketed network TV broadcast. Plus Murphy has never been a social-cultural commentator type — he riffs about his own realm. Plus I don’t feel Murphy is really part of the 21st Century zeitgeist — he’s basically a rich ’80s and ’90s guy who’s hung in there.

My strongest Murphy-Oscar association is that of the sorehead who bolted out of the Kodak theatre after not winning Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Dreamgirls.

No, I haven’t seen Tower Heist (11.4) and for all I know Murphy may be great in it and will get a second wind, etc.