Eddie Murphy is going to perform some comic standup specials for Netflix. Reports have stated he’ll be paid between $40 and $70 million for these shows.
$40 to $70 million for telling jokes? Doesn’t that kind of drain the humor out of things? How funny can you be when you’re pocketing that much coin?
And what’s he gonna riff on? Murphy used to be about nervy material and envelope pushing. Obviously that’s out these days. You can’t do convention-defying comedy these days unless you’re some kind of despised outlaw renegade like Louis C.K. The wokesters have pretty much killed any semblance of a comic atmosphere…no?
A recent People article, quoting Murphy in a discussion with Today‘s Al Roker, said that “he’ll be working with different material now that he’s older and a father of 10.
“Last time I did stand-up I was 27 years old,’ Murphy said. “I look at some of my old stuff and cringe. Sometimes I’m like, I can’t believe I said that! I’m 58 now so I don’t think I’m gonna approach it the same way.”
In other words, no more jokes in the tradition of “Mr. T in a gay bar.”
Murphy told Roker he’s going to prepare for the Netflix thing by doing a tour of comedy clubs.
“You gotta go to the clubs [although] I haven’t started doing that yet,” he said. “I never wrote stuff out on paper. I would be having a conversation and I’d say something funny. And I’d be like, ‘Oh, that’s funny,’ and I would go try it on stage. That’s never stopped, I’ve just stopped taking it to the stage.”
If you ask me Murphy permanently surrendered his funnyman card when he left the Oscar telecast after he didn’t win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his Dreamgirls performance.