Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy
Originally released in 1982 by Columbia

Once, a long time ago, Eddie Murphy did stand up comedy. No, it's true! This self-titled first release by Eddie Murphy from 1982 has it's ups and downs.

First, the ups - considering how young Eddie Murphy was at the time (21 years old) he really shows how talented he is. He has timing, delivery, and performance that's impressive for even a seasoned comedian.

There are many memorable bits on here, most notably Doo Doo/Christmas Gifts which first details how boys tend to gross girls out with poop, and then goes into how fathers tend to get screwed with Christmas gifts. For example:

"You come down and rip all the stuff open, and there would be toys and shit on the floor everything scattered all over the place and your Father would come downstairs and you would say 'Here's yours Daddy!' There's just one box, and every kid in the house's name is on the card. 'Hey thanks a lot!' Open it up, and he would say 'Brut. By Faberge. Thank you. (whispering) Cheap motherfucker.' They gotta smile when they get that stuff, man."

There are also some funny if very dated bits involving the assassination attempts on President Reagan and The Pope. He makes the point that anyone who gets shot, anyone, even the Pope, is going to swear.

There's also a very dated bit about talking cars. If you don't know what that refers to, that's okay.

While there are many great bits on this album, there are also some infamous bits. First, there's a long series of bits about Chinese people that's a little bit...um, racist as fuck.

Second, there's "Boogie in Your Butt." This is an atrocious song sung by Eddie Murphy which involves sticking things in your butt. I'm not sure if he was trying to be funny or cool, or cool/funny but it's laughably bad, expecially considering the first track of the album is called 'Faggots' and involves harassing gay people.

Admittedly, Eddie Murphy himself has come out and apologized for his insensitive work such as this, and overall, there's some great bits on this album. It's on par with his other comedy album, Comedian, and much much much much better than his music albums, How Could it Be, So Happy, and Love's Alright which you have probably never heard of for good reason.

Back cover:


Inside cover: