How one comedian from Roosevelt, Long Island rewrote the rules of Hollywood and changed what was possible for Black entertainers forever. A Los Angeles Film School Project by William Q. Campbell
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BORN IN BROOKLYN, RAISED IN ROOSEVELT, LONG ISLAND, MURPHY GREW UP IN MODEST CIRCUMSTANCES AND FOUND COMEDY AS BOTH AN ESCAPE AND A CRAFT.
INSPIRED BY RICHARD PRYOR, HE WAS SNEAKING INTO LATE-NIGHT STAND-UP GIGS AS A TEENAGER, SECRETLY SKIPPING SCHOOL TO PERFORM.
⚫ BY 15, HE KNEW IT WAS HIS CALLING. HIS ABILITY TO IMPERSONATE CELEBRITIES, CREATE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS, AND COMMAND CROWD MADE HIM STAND OUT FROM THE MOMENT HE HIT A STAGE.
⚫ AT 19, MURPHY JOINED SNL AS A FEATURED PLAYER. WITHIN TWO SEASONS HE WAS CARRYING THE SHOW, WIDELY CREDITED WITH SAVING IT DURING ONE OF ITS LOWEST PERIODS.
HIS CHARACTERS, MR. ROBINSON, BUCKWHEAT, AND GUMBY, BECAME INSTANT CULTURAL TOUCHSTONES. AFTER LEAVING IN 1984, HE STARRED IN 48 HRS. (1982), TRADING PLACES (1983), BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984), COMING TO AMERICA (1988), AND BOOMERANG (1992).
HE PROVED A BLACK COMEDIAN COULD HEADLINE A MAINSTREAM BLOCKBUSTER SOLO, AND DID IT REPEATEDLY BEFORE IT WAS CONSIDERED NORMAL.
POSITIVE IMPACTS:
• MURPHY BROKE RACIAL BARRIERS IN HOLLYWOOD, PROVING A BLACK COMEDIAN COULD ANCHOR MAJOR STUDIO FILMS SOLO. HE ALSO REVIVED SNL FROM NEAR-CANCELLATION IN THE EARLY 1980S, CARRYING THE SHOW THROUGH ONE OF ITS WEAKEST CASTS.
⚫ CHAPPELLE, ROCK, HART, AND MARTIN LAWRENCE HAVE ALL NAMED HIM AS A DIRECT INFLUENCE. COMING TO AMERICA, BOOMERANG, AND DREAMGIRLS EXPANDED HOW BLACK LIFE WAS PORTRAYED ON SCREEN AND PROVED BLACK-LED FILMS COULD PERFORM GLOBALLY.
IN 2015, HE RECEIVED THE MARK TWAIN PRIZE FOR AMERICAN HUMOR, THE HIGHEST HONOR IN AMERICAN COMEDY.
NEGATIVE IMPACTS:
⚫ DELIRIOUS (1983) AND RAW (1987) CONTAINED HOMOPHOBIC SLURS AND AIDS CRISIS JOKES THAT CAUSED DOCUMENTED HARM TO THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY. ACTIVISTS PICKETED HIS APPEARANCES AS LATE AS 1996, AND THE BACKLASH DROVE HIM AWAY FROM STAND-UP FOR OVER TWO DECADES.
⚫ HIS EDGY STYLE CREATED A MAINSTREAM TEMPLATE THAT OTHERS PUSHED FURTHER WITH FAR LESS CRAFT OR SELF-AWARENESS.
• A 1997 INCIDENT INVOLVING A SEX WORKER DREW SIGNIFICANT NEGATIVE PRESS AND REINFORCED HARMFUL PUBLIC STEREOTYPES AT THE PEAK OF HIS INFLUENCE.
CAST HE ANCHORED MENTORED CHAPPELLE, ROCK, HART,&LAWRENCE
EXPANDED BLACK CINEMA: COMING TO AMERICA, DREAMSIRLS
DELIRIOUS
THE RED LEATHER SUIT FROM DELIRIOUS BECAME ONE OF THE MOST RECOGNIZABLE IMAGES IN COMEDY HISTORY. KEVIN HART STILL WEARS LEATHER IN HIS OWN SPECIALS AS A DIRECT TRIBUTE, A NOD TO MURPHY'S BOLD, UNAPOLOGETIC PERSONA AND HIS GRASP THAT PERFORMANCE IS ALSO THEATER.
AXEL FOLEY'S STREET-SMART CONFIDENCE AND SIGNATURE LAUGH REDEFINED HOW HOLLYWOOD WROTE BLACK LEADING MEN. BEVERLY HILLS COP GROSSED OVER $316 MILLION WORLDWIDE AND REMAINS ONE OF THE HIGHEST-GROSSING COMEDIES EVER
COMING TO AMERICA USED SATIRE TO SKEWER AMERICAN CONSUMERISM AND IMMIGRANT IDENTITY. THE SOUL GLO COMMERCIAL AND MCDOWELL'S DINER BECAME CULTURAL SHORTHAND, AND THE FILM SHIFTED HOW THE INDUSTRY THOUGHT ABOUT MULTICULTURAL STORYTELLING.
MADE.
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MURPHY'S VOICE WORK AS DONKEY INTRODUCED HIM TO A NEW GENERATION OF FANS ENTIRELY. THE SHREK FRANCHISE HAS GROSSED OVER $3.5 BILLION GLOBALLY AND CHANGED HOW STUDIOS CAST ANIMATED CHARACTERS, PRIORITIZING PERSONALITY AND IMPROVISATION OVER FLAT DELIVERY.
SNL
MURPHY'S 2019 RETURN TO SNL AS HOST AFTER 35 YEARS BECAME THE SHOW'S MOST- WATCHED EPISODE IN YEARS. IT CONFIRMED THAT HIS CULTURAL FOOTPRINT HAD NOT FADED-IT HAD COMPOUNDED.
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PRIMARY MEANS OF DELIVERING HIS MESSAGE:
MURPHY'S PRIMARY MEDIUM HAS ALWAYS BEEN LIVE PERFORMANCE AND FILM. HIS 1983 HBO SPECIAL DELIRIOUS AND 1987 THEATRICAL RELEASE RAW REACHED MILLIONS BEFORE STREAMING EXISTED. EVEN WHEN CRITICS CHALLENGED HIS MATERIAL, AUDIENCES SHOWED UP. BEVERLY HILLS COP GROSSED OVER $316 MILLION WORLDWIDE ON A $14 MILLION BUDGET, MAKING FILM HIS MOST POWERFUL VEHICLE FOR CULTURAL REACH.
HOW TECHNOLOGY EXPANDED HIS INFLUENCE:
VHS COPIES OF DELIRIOUS AND RAW BECAME HOUSEHOLD FIXTURES LONG AFTER THEIR ORIGINAL RELEASE. YOUTUBE, NETFLIX, AND STREAMING PLATFORMS KEPT THOSE SPECIALS DISCOVERABLE FOR NEW GENERATIONS. HIS 2019 SNL RETURN DREW THE SHOW'S HIGHEST RATINGS IN YEARS, AMPLIFIED BY SOCIAL MEDIA CLIPS THAT SPREAD GLOBALLY WITHIN HOURS. THE COMING TO AMERICA SEQUEL (2021) REACHED AMAZON PRIME SUBSCRIBERS IN 240 COUNTRIES SIMULTANEOUSLY.
HOW MEDIA AMPLIFIED HIS INFLUENCE:
ROLLING STONE RANKED MURPHY SECOND AMONG ALL 141 SNL CAST MEMBERS IN HISTORY. COMEDY CENTRAL PLACED HIM 10TH ON ITS LIST OF THE 100 GREATEST STAND-UPS OF ALL TIME. HIS 2019 SNL RETURN WAS TREATED AS A MAJOR CULTURAL EVENT BY OUTLETS FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES TO ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT. SOCIAL MEDIA HAS SINCE TURNED HIS CLASSIC CLIPS AND CHARACTERS INTO RECURRING VIRAL MOMENTS, KEEPING HIS WORK ALIVE WELL PAST ITS ORIGINAL RUN.
Χιόνη.
WHAT SIGNIFICANT CHANGES CAN BE SEEN WHEN COMPARING CULTURAL NORMS BEFORE AND AFTER HIS RISE TO FAME? BEFORE MURPHY, BLACK COMEDIANS RARELY LED MAINSTREAM HOLLYWOOD FILMS OR ANCHORED PRIME-TIME TELEVISION ON THEIR OWN TERMS. THE DOMINANT MODEL KEPT BLACK PERFORMERS IN SUPPORTING ROLES OR NICHE MARKETS.
HIS SUCCESS AT SNL AND AT THE BOX OFFICE SHIFTED WHAT STUDIOS BELIEVED AUDIENCES WOULD ACCEPT. WHEN BEVERLY HILLS COP BECAME THE HIGHEST-GROSSING FILM OF 1984, THE IDEA THAT A PROFANE, UNAPOLOGETICALLY BLACK COMEDIAN COULD BE AMERICA'S BIGGEST MOVIE STAR WENT FROM UNCONVENTIONAL TO UNDENIABLE.
WHAT LASTING CHANGES HAVE THEY BROUGHT ABOUT IN SOCIETY, AND HOW DO THEY CONTINUE TO SHAPE CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL TRENDS?
THE BOLD, STREET-AWARE, CHARACTER-DRIVEN STYLE MURPHY POPULARIZED BECAME THE BLUEPRINT FOR BLACK COMEDIC PERFORMANCE IN STAND-UP AND FILM. CHAPPELLE, ROCK, HART, AND MARTIN LAWRENCE HAVE ALL NAMED HIM A PRIMARY INFLUENCE.
HIS REACH EXTENDED BEYOND COMEDY. HIS VOICE WORK AS DONKEY IN SHREK CHANGED HOW STUDIOS CAST ANIMATED CHARACTERS, AND CONTEMPORARY COMEDIANS STILL MEASURE THEIR SPECIALS AGAINST DELIRIOUS AND RAW.
WAS THEIR IMPACT A NET POSITIVE OR A NET NEGATIVE, AND WHY?
THE HARM CAUSED BY HIS EARLY HOMOPHOBIC MATERIAL WAS REAL AND DOCUMENTED. MURPHY HAS PUBLICLY CALLED IT IGNORANT AND EXPRESSED GENUINE REGRET, AND THAT ACCOUNTABILITY MATTERS.
HIS NET CULTURAL IMPACT IS STRONGLY POSITIVE. HE OPENED DOORS THAT HAD NEVER BEEN OPENED, NORMALIZED BLACK EXCELLENCE AT THE BOX OFFICE, AND BUILT A LEGACY THAT SHAPED MULTIPLE GENERATIONS OF ENTERTAINERS.
BET NEWS. "EDDIE MURPHY REMORSEFUL OVER HOMOPHOBIC CONTENT IN OLD STAND-UP SPECIALS." BET, SEPTEMBER 28, 2019. HTTPS://WWW.BET.COM/ARTICLE/N637LA/EDDIE-MURPHY-REMORSEFUL-OVER-CONTENT-IN-OLD-STAND-UP
HUMOR IN AMERICA. "TOO 'RAW' FOR THE 2000S: EDDIE MURPHY AND CULTURAL CHANGE." JANUARY 26, 2016. HTTPS://HUMORINAMERICA.WORDPRESS.COM/2016/01/26/TOO-RAW-FOR-THE-2000S-EDDIE-MURPHY-AND-CULTURAL-CHANGE/
MR. POP CULTURE. "EDDIE MURPHY AND HIS INFLUENCE ON POP CULTURE." MRPOPCULTURE.COM, 2023. HTTPS://MRPOPCULTURE.COM/EDDIE-MURPHY-AND-HIS-INFLUENCE-ON-POP-CULTURE/
WRIGHT, JOHN. "THE CULTURAL IMPACT OF EDDIE MURPHY." SNOBHOP, SUBSTACK, NOVEMBER 21, 2025. HTTPS://SNOBHOP.SUBSTACK.COM/P/THE-CULTURAL-IMPACT-OF-EDDIE-MURPHY
WIKIPEDIA. "EDDIE MURPHY." WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION. RETRIEVED MARCH 22, 2026. HTTPS://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/EDDIE MURPHY