#Delirious stand up comedy movie#
In a recent NOW What? podcast, host Norman Wilner and TV writer/journalist JP Larocque discussed rapper DaBaby’s recent homophobic statements and actor Matt Damon’s confession about using the f-word.Ī year after Delirious, Eddie Murphy improvised this famous scene in the movie Beverly Hills Cop, which set back gay rights years.Ī while back, Murphy apologized for Delirious’s homophobia. Nearly 40 years after the special aired, there is still ignorance and misinformation around HIV and AIDS. And to feed into anti-AIDS hysteria so early in the pandemic was irresponsible. I wonder how many gay-bashings resulted from this hugely popular special. The fact that Murphy chose to kick off the special with this material – to call these his rules – shows how important it was to him, to his brand.
He goes on to discuss how women frequently befriend gay men, and if they innocently kiss them they can contract “AIDS on their lips.” This, he implies, would prove dangerous to him, since he was in his “prime fuck years,” segueing into a whole segment about male stars (comics, musicians) being able to get lots of pussy, a routine that comes with its own set of problems. T were queer (“You look mighty cute in them jeans!” he says, gruffly) and then, in a bit that hasn’t aged as well, a sequence in which The Honeymooners’ Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton get it on.
#Delirious stand up comedy series#
He then launches into a series of impressions that double down on that homo hysteria, imagining if Mr. That’s why I keep moving – you don’t know where the faggot section is, so you keep moving.” “Straight up, faggots aren’t allowed to look at my ass while I’m onstage. “I’ve got some rules,” he tells the packed Washington audience as soon as he hits the stage. What I’d forgot about Delirious was how Murphy leans into the homophobic stuff right from the start. This special cemented his reputation as a stand-up and influenced generations of comics like Chris Rock and Keenen Ivory Wayans. The year before, he had co-starred in the buddy cop comedy 48 Hrs, and would go on to more blockbusters like Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and Coming To America (1988). Murphy, who was 22 years old at the time, had been doing stand-up since he was a teenager, but he was best known as a sketch comic and impressionist on Saturday Night Live, where he became a superstar. Murphy’s tight-fitting red leather suit, his copious use of the word “faggot” and his extended bits about family cookouts and kids swarming an ice cream truck. It’s not currently available on any streaming sites, but clips do exist on YouTube.
And if you’d like to recommend any specials for this series, contact me on Twitter WhatĮddie Murphy: Delirious, the American comedy giant’s 1983 special taped for HBO in Washington, DC. Keep in mind, some of Murphy’s language – which I describe and quote from – will offend. If you’ve always been curious about this special, now might be the time to watch it. Murphy got awards buzz a few years ago for playing filmmaker Rudy Ray Moore in Dolemite Is My Name, and a new documentary about his return to stand-up is in the works. I decided to start with Eddie Murphy’s 1983 special Delirious because it’s constantly on lists of the best comedy specials of all time.
But they have to have survived to become classics. Some I’ve seen and will be rewatching others will be new to me. In this new series, I’m going to look at some of the most revered and/or notorious comedy specials of all time to see if they still hold up. At a time when half a dozen new comedy specials are cranked out each month, and the industry is attempting to become more equitable, is there such a thing as a universally beloved comic? Or is comedy, by its very nature, tied to its era? One generation’s cutting-edge comic is another generation’s quaint curio, or even a candidate for cancellation.
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