Eddie Murphy slams David Spade over 'cheap shot' joke about him on 'SNL': 'It was racist'
Eddie Murphy is rehashing his years-long feud with David Spade, calling out the comic over a joke the latter said about him on “Saturday Night Live” in 1995.
Spade, 59, quipped on the live comedy skit show at the time that Murphy’s career was failing after his film “Vampire in Brooklyn” had flopped at the box office.
“Look children, it’s a falling star. Make a wish,” the “Joe Dirt” star said on the “Weekend Update” segment.
“Most people that get off that show, they don’t go on and have these amazing careers. It was personal,” Murphy, 63, told the New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast Saturday of the diss.
“It was like, ‘Yo, how could you do that?’ My career? Really? A joke about my career? So I thought that was a cheap shot. And it was kind of, I thought — I felt it was racist.”
The “Coming To America” star — who was a regular cast member on “SNL” from 1980 to 1984 — said he was the “biggest thing that ever came off that show” and also called out producers for allowing the jab.
“The show would have been off the air if I didn’t go back on the show, and now you got somebody from the cast making a crack about my career? And I know that he can’t just say that,” he added.
“A joke has to go through these channels. So the producers thought it was OK to say that. And all the people that have been on that show, you’ve never heard nobody make no joke about anybody’s career.”
Murphy previously took out his rage over the matter on both Spade and “SNL.”
In his memoir, “Almost Interesting,” Spade wrote that Murphy called him, saying, “David Spade, who the f–k do you think you are?!!
“Honestly? Who. The. F–k. Going after ME?? You dumb motherf–ker! I’m off-limits, don’t you know that? You wouldn’t have a job if it weren’t for me. Talking s–t about me??”
The “David Spade: Nothing Personal” comic admitted in his book that he felt terrible over what had occurred so he “took [his] beating.”
Murphy did not appear on “SNL” for more than 30 years after the bad joke but then finally returned to host again in 2019 with Dave Chapelle, Chris Rock and Tracy Morgan making guest appearances.
“In the long run, it’s all good,” the “Nutty Professor” star told “The Interview.”
“Worked out great. I’m cool with David Spade. Cool with Lorne Michaels. I went back to ‘SNL.’ I’m cool with everybody. It’s all love.”
A rep for Spade did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.
