Eddie Murphy’s highly touted return to Saturday Night Live brought huge ratings and a cache of memorable moments.
During Murphy’s opening monologue, the actor and comedian referenced Bill Cosby, who was sentenced to three to ten years for felony aggravated indecent assault.
“But if you would have told me 30 years ago that I would be this boring, stay-at-home house dad and Bill Cosby would be in jail, even I would have took that bet,” Murphy said. “Who is America’s Dad now?”
In a lengthy Instagram post, Cosby’s publicist, Andrew Wyatt, spoke out on Eddie Murphy’s SNL monologue.
“Mr. Cosby became the first Black to win an Emmy for his role in I Spy and Mr. Cosby broke color barriers in the Entertainment Industry, so that Blacks like Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappell[e] [sic], Kevin Hart and et al., could have an opportunity to showcase their talents for many generations to come,” Wyatt said. “It is sad that Mr. Murphy would take this glorious moment of returning to SNL and make disparaging remarks against Mr. Cosby.”
In his statement, Wyatt went on to compare Murphy’s comments on Cosby to “selling out.” Wyatt even refers to Murphy as a “Hollywood slave.”
“One would think that Mr. Murphy was given his freedom to leave the plantation so that he could make his own decisions, but he decided to sell himself back to being a Hollywood Slave,” Wyatt continued. “Stepin Fetchit plus cooning equals the destruction of Black Men in Hollywood.”
Watch Murphy’s SNL monologue in the video below.
READ MORE:
Don’t Call It A Comeback: Eddie Murphy Boosts ‘SNL’ To Highest Ratings In Over Two Years
Photo:
From Harlem to Hollywood, get the Black entertainment news you need in your inbox daily.
