Eddie Murphyis calling out a “Saturday Night Live” co-star… reflecting on how angry David Pathe joke about his career made him — and, saying he thinks there was racist intent.
The comedy legend sat down for a wide-ranging interview with New York Timespublished Saturday, and he mentioned a joke Spade made in a December 1995 “Weekend Update” segment.
If you haven’t seen the clip yet… a photo of Murphy appears on the screen and Spade jokes that he saw a “shooting star” – this is months after Eddie’s film “Vampire in Brooklyn” bombed at the box office.
EM tells the NYT that the snipe hit him particularly hard because he was one of the biggest stars in the show’s history… adding that it wouldn’t have survived without him.
Plus, Eddie says he knows Spade wasn’t the only person to hear the joke… because producers review everything before it airs – so he felt like the entire institution was coming after him.
Ultimately, Murphy explains that he felt the joke was personal, saying, “I thought it was a cheap shot. And it was kind of, I thought — I thought it was racist.”
He doesn’t really explain his reasoning here… but he admits that the joke kept him away from ‘SNL’ for decades, until he appeared on the show’s 40th anniversary in 2015.
FYI… Eddie says he’s cool with Lorne Michaels and Spade now — and he even hosted ‘SNL’ again in 2019 to rave reviews.
We reached out to David Spade’s team about Eddie calling the joke racist…so far, no response.