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Eddie murphy raw jokes12/15/2023 ![]() Anyone as good as Eddie Murphy should have outgrown that years ago. Most of the jokes in “Eddie Murphy Raw” (MPAA-rated R, for language) are the kind you regale buddies with to show off. ![]() It’s a rare human moment in the film, and it reminds us that all of Pryor’s greatest routines came from humanity, the ability to mock yourself as well as the world. Later on, he tells a story-not funny, but goofy and sweet-about watching his mother make hamburgers with green peppers and Wonder Bread. This is the sort of shit that would get anybody canceled today and no matter how poorly the show has. They’re both recollections of Murphy’s boyhood, one an imitation of himself imitating Pryor. In Eddie Murphys 'Raw' stand-up-concert he promises to be 'unashamed, respectless, uncensored, unedited and unresistable' and by that, he means hes going to spend 1/3 of the show doing an extended misogynist bit on marriage and sex. Ceaselessly, we see Murphy, in his blue leather, prowling back and forth in front of a murky red curtain-in unvaried, banal, head-on medium shots. The movie has so little visual electricity, it almost drones. One plus: Murphy has hired two talented young black film makers-director Robert Townsend (“Hollywood Shuffle”) and Ernest Dickerson, Spike Lee’s regular cameraman-to shoot “Raw.” A minus: Townsend’s talents apparently aren’t for concert films. It’s as if he’s in a speed-swearing contest with Richard Belzer. ![]() And also, endlessly, the common Anglo-Saxon slang words for feces, sexual intercourse and assorted deviant acts. Here they seem wasted he’s like a musician with fabulous technique playing “Chopsticks.” He bombards us with what may be a Guinness record for non-stop, pointless scatology-plus offensively adolescent street “wisdom” on women, swishy gay routines and anecdotes about a dumb-sounding disco brawl. Murphy has great gifts and comic technique, a genius for mimicry. This material isn’t just raw, it’s scraped to the bone. Eddie Murphy Raw - Young Eddie's Poop Joke: At Thanksgiving dinner in 1968, a young Eddie shocks the family with a crude joke.BUY THE MOVIE. Yet the machismo isn’t funny, until he twists it around to mock Italian-Americans hung up on “Rocky.” Murphy’s dressed here in a blue and black leather outfit that make him look like Disco Harry-an image reeking with machismo. His comedy is based on dazzling verbal ingenuity excessive street jive makes him comes across as a bully. When Pryor talks like a would-be pimp, it’s funny because he isn’t one: his eyes bulge with Angst and vulnerability.Īnd Murphy lacks vulnerability. Swearing and swaggering, he misses the soul of Pryor’s comedy: uncertainty, panic and pain covered up by nervous highs and transparent bravado. Murphy imitates Pryor now as Pryor once imitated Cosby-but it’s just a four-letter husk. And when Murphy gets Pryor consent for his profanity, it’s something of a cheat. Cosby comes across as a querulous meddler, his voice a near-senile venomous croak. ![]() Murphy can do a great Cosby imitation, but his mimicry here is choked with malice. There’s a symbolic angle: Cosby and Pryor are the godheads of black stand-up comedy, and Murphy invokes them as if in a struggle for his soul-which Pryor wins. It’s an interesting bit, though it isn’t very funny. Perturbed, Murphy calls Pryor (“Yo, Richard!”) and is told to tell Cosby, saltily, to butt out. While many male comedians lament the 'death of comedy' thanks to 'PC culture,' Murphy expresses a degree of regret over some of the jokes made in Raw and Delirious, particularly the ones that were. Cosby supposedly calls him up and complains bitterly about Murphy’s foul language. We celebrate Pluto Nash." Unfortunately, Murphy's career never really recovered, but at least he's come to terms with that colossal flop.Early on, in “Eddie Murphy Raw” (citywide), a surprisingly poor concert film of Murphy’s stand-up act, he does a double imitation of Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor-casting them in a private hagiography as his good and ba-a-a-a-d comedy daddies. During a 2016 Q&A session with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, he poked fun at the movie's subpar performance, saying, "In my house we have Pluto Nash week. Murphy, on the other hand, took it all in stride. We can only imagine how the studio's higher ups felt when they realized their golden star wasn't so golden after all. Studios made just $7.1 million at the box office compared to its $100 million investment in the project. Ouch. But with just a four percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the futuristic comedy was deemed one of the most "epic movie flops" by CBS News, which noted Warner Bros. When it was finally time to shoot, an all-star cast was assembled, including the likes of Murphy, Randy Quaid, Alec Baldwin, and Jay Mohr. According to CBS News, the process of bringing this sci-fi comedy to life took nearly two decades, thanks, in part, to script and cast changes.
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