Over the weekend, Eddie Murphy was honored at the Kennedy Center's 18th annual Mark Twain Prize award ceremony. His peers were mildly surprised but definitely entertained when Murphy roasted Bill Cosby while accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
This was the first time in over 28 years that that the comedic legend had graced the stage to do a stand up schtick, which was a rare treat especially with Cosby as the butt of his joke being that he turned down the opportunity to impersonate the tarnished star for Saturday Night Live's 40th anniversary show.
When Murphy took the stage, he did something the audience had least expected when he approached the topic of Cosby while examining the miniature award that boasted a huge accomplishment.
Murphy started, "Bill has one of these. Did you all make Bill give his back?" he asked, referring to univerities and organizations that have severed ties with Cosby in the wake of his sex abuse alleagations. "You know you f*cked up when they want you to give your trophies back."
He continued with an impersonation, imitating his best Cosby voice, "I would like to talk to some of the people who feel like I should give back some of my f*cking trophies." Naturally the crowd was there for it all as the camera panned around the audience.
Murphy who hasn't done stand up in almost 30 years but took time out to focus on his music shared with Rolling Stones back in January,
"If I came back and did stand-up again, I can't just be like the other standup comics," he said. "To have a real hot band, play some tracks for about 40 minutes, the curtain drops and then you do an hour of jokes? That's a unique-ass show."
