Eddie Murphy On ‘Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special’ Leaves SNL40 Viewers Wanting More [Video]

It was a much-hyped appearance, however, Eddie Murphy showing up on the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special was anti-climactic, to say the least. Chris Rock spent more time introducing Eddie Murphy prior to Murphy’s first time on the SNL stage in 32 years than Eddie actually spent on the SNL stage doing any comedy routines. Initially, Eddie came out and clapped along with the SNL audience, who gave Murphy a standing ovation. The longtime comedian encouraged the audience to keep clapping for himself, which was trademark Eddie Murphy funny.

However, there was a snafu when Murphy thought the SNL folks would cut to a commercial earlier than they did, so there was an awkward pause in the SNL40 flow. One wonders if that mixup wasn’t somehow intentional or karma, in light of the bad blood that has caused Murphy to stay away from Saturday Night Live for so many years. Nevertheless, Lorne Michaels spoke of people being excited to see Murphy back on Saturday Night Live, as reported by Variety.

As seen in the video titled SNL40 Eddie Murphy Makes Awkward Return for First Time in 31 Years on the SNL40Videos YouTube account, it was indeed a short stand-up, which can’t really be called a stand-up routine by Eddie Murphy after that long and passionate introduction from Chris Rock. A search for “Eddie Murphy” on Twitter directly after the segment wherein Murphy made his triumphant return to SNL40 on Sunday night for the first time in decades proved that plenty of Eddie fans wanted so much more of Murphy after all of the hype. The tweets came in quickly and furiously with Twitter folks expressing their disappointment with Murphy’s SNL appearance.

“I will be highly disappointed if that’s all Eddie Murphy is doing.”

“For those of you surprised at Eddie Murphy, you must have forgot this is the old guy who made Norbit, not the young kid who made Delirious.”

“How do you have Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock make a dual appearance on SNL and not end up with the greatest moment in comedy history?”

“So we get all this HUGE build up from Chris Rock….just for Eddie to do a Russell Simmons? ‘Thank you and God bless *walks off the stage*’

According to the Inquisitr, the Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake SNL40 cold open was a lot more popular and praiseworthy for viewers than Eddie Murphy’s initial SNL40 appearance.

[Image via Scoop Net]