Eddie Murphy has been a very funny
yet controversial actor throughout his years in show biz. Going
back to his early years as a stand up comedian Eddie Murphy was
"Raw" and crude. Often using other races and sexes to
be the butt of his jokes Eddie Murphy has offended many and created
laughter in many. By far the most controversial movie that Eddie
Murphy starred in was "Delirious," this was a huge hit
at the box office. The movie starts out with him rambling on about
homosexuals. He says towards the end, "I kid homosexuals
cause their homosexuals I f**k with everybody I don't give a f**k."
This movie was made in the eighties and in a time when homosexuality
was still not widely accepted. So in some ways I feel he perpetuated
the problem. Then he tries to help the situation by saying, "now
guys don't feel like you have to alienate gay people, no seriously
cause I mean you can play tennis with a guy person just after
the game you say I think Ima go have a beer what about you ...
I think Ima go suck some guys d**k ... well you go suck tha D**k
Ima have the beer." This seems to not help the gay community
get the rights and equality they want. The rude, crude jokes about
gay people hurt and did not help as much of his other jokes.
Eddie Murphy in his younger years also used some crude jokes about women to bog them down. Refering to them as objects. He said they throw "pu**y" at me like frisbees. He also says that women are greedy and so when he gets married he is getting a prenumtual agreement. He then goes into a huge thing about how he went to africa to get a "Bi**h with a bone in her hair." This girl is then changed and influenced by the "American Women" who tell her to take half of his stuff. Anyways he goes on to degrade women even more. So he did not help in this situation either.
Now Eddie Murphys major contribution to ethnicity would be
his black influence. Throughtout 
all his
movies he is often criticizing African American culture and stereotypes.
The Pj's a TV show which he created and executively produced is
a claymation depicting blacks in the projects has many stereotypes.
Their is of course the kids a fat one and a skinny one, there
is a fat lady that doesn't fit out the door, there is the superintendent
and his friends (who sit around and drink 40's), the asians that
think their black. their is also the gangsters who always cause
trouble and the junkies that come out of the blue and ask for
needles excetra. By examining all these characters it's quite
obvious that they are stereotypes of a project. The jokes involve
such frases like " ohh no it's El negro, it's about time
they name something after us." This FOX aired TV show recieved
large amount of criticism at the same time it had really good
ratings. Fox decided it didn't like the criticism so the show
was moved to the WB on sunday nights at 8:00.
As you know Eddie Murphy has starred in many film. None are really racial except for the one's that are his ideas for instance the Nutty Professor I, and II have gotten criticized for their stereotypes of black familys. Even though Eddie Murphy has been under alot of fire from the media he still keeps his head up high and does not back down.
Eddie Murphy has many contributions to the ethnic society he has often been criticized for using stereotypes to depict black, gays, women and many other communities. The way he sees it is that it is for comedy purposes only. Yah it might be offensive but it is also a joke and joke's are made to be offensive. I think people should lighten up and stop taking things so seriously.
date last modified 11/14/2000