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ivyficI am the sort of person that if I see enough references to a piece of media, and people calling it iconic and groundbreaking, it will go on a mental list somewhere as a thing I should probably consume.
So last night I watched Eddie Murphy's 1983 comedy special Delirious. This is the one he did in the red leather suit with the jacket open to his waist. The only clips I ever see people play from it are of a bit about kids teasing each other about ice cream.
It opens with a good ten minutes about f-----s. Then some jokes about AIDS and gays. Then a bunch of impressions of people I either don't know or aren't relevant anymore having gay sex. Then a bit about Michael Jackson being too effeminate. From there we transition into a long section on how big black men's dicks are, detour through some jokes on domestic violence ("I smacked this sister once..."), and into a long, long bit that culminates in him doing an impression of his father calling his fat aunt big foot. We go quickly into some racist impressions of Chinese people, past some light Islamaphobia, back to some homophobia to tie it all back together, and we're out.
Now, this was 1983 and Eddie Murphy was 22. He has also since apologized for using the f word (to which I say, and not the rest of it???). What struck me, though, is not that it's offensive or out of step with the present, it's that there is no actual humor there if you take away the offense. The point of the jokes is just to bring up a minority group and--that's it. That's the joke. Picture gay men having sex--haha. Picture me slapping a woman--haha. Picture a fat woman--haha. Picture a Chinese person--haha. That's it. I kept waiting for the jokes to get good and they never did.
I am having a hard time seeing how this special is iconic, even for it's time. He was already on SNL, so there's some shock to an HBO special with a ton of swear words, but there's no there there.
So yeah, give this a miss.
So last night I watched Eddie Murphy's 1983 comedy special Delirious. This is the one he did in the red leather suit with the jacket open to his waist. The only clips I ever see people play from it are of a bit about kids teasing each other about ice cream.
It opens with a good ten minutes about f-----s. Then some jokes about AIDS and gays. Then a bunch of impressions of people I either don't know or aren't relevant anymore having gay sex. Then a bit about Michael Jackson being too effeminate. From there we transition into a long section on how big black men's dicks are, detour through some jokes on domestic violence ("I smacked this sister once..."), and into a long, long bit that culminates in him doing an impression of his father calling his fat aunt big foot. We go quickly into some racist impressions of Chinese people, past some light Islamaphobia, back to some homophobia to tie it all back together, and we're out.
Now, this was 1983 and Eddie Murphy was 22. He has also since apologized for using the f word (to which I say, and not the rest of it???). What struck me, though, is not that it's offensive or out of step with the present, it's that there is no actual humor there if you take away the offense. The point of the jokes is just to bring up a minority group and--that's it. That's the joke. Picture gay men having sex--haha. Picture me slapping a woman--haha. Picture a fat woman--haha. Picture a Chinese person--haha. That's it. I kept waiting for the jokes to get good and they never did.
I am having a hard time seeing how this special is iconic, even for it's time. He was already on SNL, so there's some shock to an HBO special with a ton of swear words, but there's no there there.
So yeah, give this a miss.
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Date: 2020-01-19 05:56 pm (UTC)