It’s been 30 years since Eddie Murphy has done serious stand-up, which will make some of us feel very, very old. If you were a kid in the ’80s, then you remember a time when Eddie Murphy was the funniest person the planet. Personally, as 12-year-old, I couldn’t get enough of Eddie Murphy playing Gumby on Saturday Night Live, yelling “Merry Christmas, Damnit.” Should I have been watching Eddie Murphy as a 12-year-old? Should I have been listening to my parents Eddie Murphy records on vinyl? NOPE. But the fact is, the ’80s and ’90s were just different. My parents weren’t bad parents because they let me consume so many Eddie Murphy products, in fact, just the opposite. Still, it is interesting to see how the world will respond to Eddie Murphy in 2020 versus, say 1982. Though beloved, Murphy did set a record for the number of times the word “fuck” was used in a stand-up comedy special; in his famous special Raw, he said “fuck” 223 times, which broke a record previously held by Scarface. To this day, that record has only been broken by Goodfellas. Is it possible Eddie Murphy is only coming out of stand-up retirement just to break his fuck record? And if so, how will 2020 audience react? Either way, if you grew up with Eddie Murphy, this is very, very good news. Hopefully, another Beverly Hills Cop sequel isn’t too far behind. There are no official dates for Eddie Murphy’s new comedy tour in 2020.
