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Eddie Murphy - "Raw" with Matt Pryor
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Nick and Bryan welcome Matt Pryor to talk "Raw" with them!
This is last per minute. We serve a hot take on Comedy Legends and Rising Stars. Every episode features a different guest serving with Brian and Nick as armchair comedy critics. So lean back, lock in, or do whatever you listeners do while we butcher callbacks to comedy heroes. Who's our guest today, Brian?
SPEAKER_04Our guest today. Well, first of all, hi Nick. How are you doing? Great job on that intro.
SPEAKER_00Thanks, man. You know, thanks now that I've done that. I feel really good. I feel like I've done something today. And I can just call it in. I've phone it in right now. Right. The rest of the day is a breeze.
SPEAKER_04The rest of the day. That's it. Just cruise control is what we're doing. Our guest today is uh Mr. Matt Pryor. He is uh a gentleman who shares the 5 a.m. workout spot with me. Uh whenever there's a partner workout, he's working out with me. Uh those selfies that I send over to you, Nick, he's never in them, but maybe I should start putting them in them now. You know, I don't know. Just he's he's uh like I said, he's my uh brother from another mother. So uh Matt, tell us a little bit about yourself and also tell us about the comedian that you chose for us to review today and maybe why you chose him or her. I'm not gonna spoil it.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, thank you. Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed being here. Um, and I'll just say I listened to the uh the review of Robin Williams with Brian Ness, who's another uh Iron Troud Fitness 5 AMer. And Brian, you make us sound like we're these incredible gym rats, but I think anybody looking at us on the street would go, huh?
SPEAKER_06But I enjoy it anyway.
SPEAKER_02Um so the comedian I chose was Eddie Murphy. Uh of course, I was um when the 80s started, I was 11 years old, and when it ended, I was 21. So that was really my coming of age decade. And I'm not sure that there was a more famous comedian that came and rose and conquered during the decade of the 80s than Eddie Murphy. Uh, first with you know, he started on Saturday Live and then he did Delirious, which when I was 13 or 14, we quoted that incessantly. Yeah. Uh he did several then big movies, and in 1987 came out with Raw, which was the second, I think, the second uh feature-length film of just him doing comedy.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_02Which is really kind of unprecedented. I mean, even, you know, even in the year before Netflix specials and all that kind of stuff, you know, there was no HBO was kind of just getting off the ground, but nobody, I don't remember any movies where it's just like, oh, it's Eddie Murphy or a comedian on stage for an hour and a half or two hours. And so I thought it'd be fun to to talk about Eddie Murphy. And of course, he was not, um, he'd probably be canceled today for all the things he said, but uh and I thought it was funny. I thought I thought all of his movies were great. Um, you know, even Best Defense, which was the total bomb, I still enjoyed it. And even today, if Eddie Murphy's on something, I I watch it. So that's that's what I chose.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah, it was it was definitely when you chose it, it was like a blast from the past for me too. Um I was a little bit younger than you, but um, but same type of thing. Like we, I know we we we probably shouldn't have been watching it at the ages that we were, but um, you know, I saw both Delirious and Raw, and yeah, we quoted those things to no end. And I'll I'm gonna I'll I'll we'll talk about some of those that I like quoted all the time when I was a kid too.
SPEAKER_02We'll have to get your favorite quote later on in the episode area.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02If you can say it. I don't know if you can say it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I know that's the tough part. That's that is like our everlasting challenge, is especially when we do like extremely uh say dirty or blue comedians, you know, just like that do a lot of a lot of different type of material like that, is like we're reviewing it, but also we're trying not to cuss too much. And I mean, not that we're completely like not doing it, but like at the same time, because there's been a few. I don't know that there's been an F bomb dropped on any of our episodes yet. Do you know, Nick? I can't I can't think of one.
SPEAKER_00I might have done that. Okay, I think it was the one with Dave, the gamer.
SPEAKER_04Yes, right at a challenge tonight. Right. That's the tough part, is like reviewing a comedian who every every third word is MF or you know here's a here's a little uh a little piece of trivia.
SPEAKER_02So um Raw at the time was documented 223 times he said the F-word. Wow, and that surpassed the all-time record set by Scarface.
SPEAKER_04Oh, jeez.
SPEAKER_02And then was was later surpassed by Goodfellas in 1990.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I remember Goodfellas, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02But those were mob movies, it's not just some guy on stage, you know, right, for an hour and a half, you know, doing comedy.
SPEAKER_04Per movie per person, Eddie Murphy still wins. Sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but at the same time, I mean, that was part of his uh his routine. You know, at one point he's talking about foreign guys who come over to the to this country and all they know him as the FU man.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02That was a whole part of that was one of his uh one of his things in there. So you know, it'd have to come up.
SPEAKER_04I also think, you know, it's funny, like I when I think back on it, I've had this conversation with my wife before where it's like it's ironic that he started with like delirious and raw and all of that material, and then ended up in doing movies like Daddy Daycare and like you know, like all kinds of uh I don't know if he was daddy uh Dr. Doolittle and like you know, he he went into like family movies later where it was completely like he's the voice of the Donkey and Shrek. I mean, come on, like he went from raw, the the stuff that we listen to, to the voice of Donkey and Shrek, you know, and even the remakes of Beverly Hills Cop and uh Coming to America 2, yeah, were all much much cleaner versions, yes, than the original like the 2020 versions was much cleaner than the 1980 versions, yeah. Oh yeah. I mean to me smart and building his career, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Matt, when you said you watch pretty much anything Eddie Murphy does, does that include Shrek? Like, are you a fan of Shrek?
SPEAKER_02I watched uh I watched most of well, my kids were young when Shrek came out, so I couldn't help it, but he was still great in Shrek. I mean, I was you know couldn't pass it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00There were times where hearing him and Raw, I was like, Oh, that that sounds like Donkey.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, like that particular bit sounds like Donkey. Right, right, like just a little bit. Oh, that's great.
SPEAKER_00Certain moments where he's like about to be in a fight and he gets his voice high. Yes, yes, oh, there's donkey right there.
SPEAKER_04Well, so for those hit listeners out there that don't know, maybe this is their first time listening, or if you do know, we have a score sheet that we go through and it's got 13 points that we try to work through, uh, talk about their the comedians' comedic style, their subject matter, other things like that, and then hopefully culminates with a score out of a hundred uh that really means nothing except for the fact that we're doing it on this particular podcast on this particular day. So uh we will work our way through this scorecard. Nick, do you want me to you want me to prompt today?
SPEAKER_00I have no preference.
SPEAKER_04You have no preference. All right. Let's start with, yeah, I'll just go ahead and so let's start with uh comedic style and subject matter. Um, Matt, what did you have for those things? Also, tell us if anything on this doesn't make sense because we have we've had in past episodes people say, Yeah, this you need to change this on your scorecard because it doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_06So anyway, but did you actually change it? Yeah, nope, dumb.
SPEAKER_02Tell us what works and what doesn't work, but we're gonna keep doing what we're doing.
SPEAKER_04I'll throw it in the suggestion bin next to my desk, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Well 13. I think for comedic style, I mean, I had actually a lot of boxes checked off. Uh obviously storytelling and observational humor. I mean, he tells a lot of stories, uh, or he makes up a lot of stories, and he does do some observational, but there are things that he dips into um a lot. Like there were one-liners that you're listening to something, and he comes out with this one-liner, like at the end, and he just like you're entertained, but then you just start laughing almost hysterically. And yeah, I think the first one comes up, you know, he's uh he's talking about Michael Jackson and about how he could whip Michael Jackson's ass. And then he's like, Oh, and and you know, Michael Jackson, he's on this no-sex thing because he's uh because of religion. And you know, all you white people out there, you you know, you buy into it, but the brothers, we know that ain't true, you know, whatever. Yeah, he says, and he says, We know y'all buy into it because Michael Jackson took Brooke Shields to the to the Emmys and nobody batted an eye. And he's going on, he says, now y'all know if I took Brooke Shields to the Emmys, you know, Brooke Shields, of course, she was beautiful back then, she's a little bit old now, still beautiful. But you know, if I took her to the Emmys, y'all would be blowing a gasket, and he's just going on and on, and the audience is laughing. Then he says, you know, just out of out of after it all dies, it goes, because you know she began F that night. You know, like that. And it was just coming out of the blue. And I'm I'm you know, I'm sitting there listening to it, I'm like entertained. He says that, and I start laughing out loud. Yeah, so yeah, he's got one-liners like that. Um, I think he does some physical comedy in there with his uh, you know, his facial, facial movements, his facial routines. Yeah, um, he does some musical comedy, sort of like he he more more so in Delirious, but you know, he did some Rick James throwbacks in there, so he's got that. And then of course, uh one of the things that I like is his character comedy or his impersonations, whether it's imitating you know, Bill Cosby or Mr. T or just what he became really famous for, his generalized um charicatures, yeah. Whether it's you know the Guido Italian guy, uh or you know, the the the very uh you know, kind of the Wanda character from In Living kind of there shaking her head and getting all up in people's faces, or you know, he's he kind of perfected that and he's got a broad range with that, and I think it all all works for him.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Nick, you wanna what did you have on that?
SPEAKER_00Uh I ticked all the same boxes, maybe not the musical or physical, but I I also I don't disagree with what you said, Matt, about that. Um I did all I checked the character comedy box for those same reasons that you know the his impressions. Um I I thought his his stereotypical suburban white man voice was really good.
SPEAKER_04I always love that.
SPEAKER_02Well, and he's got a couple different white guy, you know, he's got the stereotypical uh suburban white guy, but then he's got kind of the classic, and he didn't do it too much, but the classic movie lead, like in Delirious, he would he was like, yo, yeah, things have changed. You know, used to be in the olden days, you'd be getting a fight with your girl and she'd say, Let me out of here. And oh no, we're not gonna have any of that. He'd be like, get the F out, you know, kind of thing. But he didn't do that much, but he's got different voices for different different genres, whether you're the suburban white guy who goes to the disco or just the leading man type of guy, or whatever.
SPEAKER_04My favorite was the uh the white doctor, you know, when he's like, So uh you're saying that there's a burning sensation when you urinate? No, I'll say fire shootout. I can't be inside my house. I'll put my house down.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I thought I thought the whole VD thing was more funny than the suburban doctor. No, I'm talking about fire actually shoot out my thing. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. Uh well I had I had pretty much the same ones. I had some some storytelling in there, um, some definitely some one-liners, some observational a little bit. Um really observational was his whole uh bit of him doing a Richard Pryor impersonation of him doing his own set when he was 15. Yeah, it was like that was all observational, you know. So like uh, you know, because he was like, Yeah, that's the only thing I that's the only thing I knew, you know. Um was exactly yeah. And those jokes, those jokes were still funny too. I was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, nailed the delivery for sure. Exactly. Hoop jokes, yeah. Can we say on air? Is that yeah, yeah, that's it's acceptable. Uh and then uh physical comedy. I did yeah, a little bit of musical comedy there. Um, he had like you said, he had more in uh delirious, but um, and then definitely character comedy. Um all his characters they just get me, man. They're just they're really funny.
SPEAKER_02And he wasn't at the time wasn't really known for it. I mean, it's something that he kind of developed um, you know, in coming to America, and of course, uh the nutty professor and all that. But in coming to America, he played a white old Jewish guy from New York, in addition to you know, a bunch of other different characters, right?
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_02But that's where you really see it come out um during uh I thought he had a wide range in in Raw.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, what about subject matters? Matt, you want to take us up on there?
SPEAKER_02So um I had a a little social commentary just on um, you know, things of not not social commentary as in political, but you know, it's the 80s and you gotta have a job and all that kind of stuff. Um, I thought he got into his personal life, but not really. You know, I he he tells some personal uh stories, but I don't think they're they have any basis in reality other than his brother's name or Charlie and Vernon or whatever. You know, yeah. I don't think you know, I think it was just using them as props. Um you know, a little bit of pop culture, but uh mostly I think where he really scores is the ethnic and cultural type of comedy because his range is so broad. And he you know, he makes fun of he makes fun of white people, he makes fun of black people, he makes fun of Asian people, makes fun of Italians. I mean, yeah, he's he's kind of all over the board. He's not gonna he's not gonna hold back on anybody.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Nick, what about you?
SPEAKER_00I think Matt took my job.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I will I'll say uh for personal life, I think he he let a little bit bleed through. Like there were lots of stories that he started out that as observational. Like you ever know when you do this and this and this, and this happens, and this happens, and then like he just sort of accidentally sneaks into, and that's why this happened, or like he didn't even say that's why this happened to me. It's just like um, and that's when I knew I was in trouble. Like all of a sudden it's not a generic person, he's sort of letting it slip that this happened to him.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and before I knew it, I had 300 million dollars to everyone in the bar, you know, because they blamed me for the fight.
SPEAKER_04I thought uh yeah, I thought that it was interesting because the yeah, some of that was personal, you know, personal life stories, but some of the stories I felt like the whole thing was, especially like that middle part about dating women and about getting married and taking half and all that stuff. I feel like that was his real attitudes, like his his actual thoughts about the subject matter, and then he just spun that into comedy for the you know uh for the fun of it. Ironically, I went and looked up like if he like when if he I didn't even know if he was married or anything like that, because you never hear anything about his wife or anything like that. So this was 87, right? And he he didn't get married for the first time until 1996. So he was so for even way before that, like even way back in delirious days, like he did he stayed not married for a long time. So he was really sort of living that like, oh, I don't I get scared to get married because they might take half, you know.
SPEAKER_02Um so yeah, the whole the whole rant about the prenup maybe his maybe his commentary about you know dating in general was just his life during that time when he didn't want to get married.
SPEAKER_04That's what I'm thinking, you know. I mean, he did say something about he was like trying to date some 19-year-old or something like that. And I don't like you said, I don't know how how a bunch of that is fiction or not, you know. Um, but yeah, uh oh, did I did you finish on that? Uh, you you basically finished, Nick, didn't you, on subject matter?
SPEAKER_02Too late now.
SPEAKER_04Did I step on your toes? You gotta keep going. Okay, personal life. I have social commentary. I I did have pop culture, Mr. T and Michael Jackson um references, you know, right off the bat, he's right into Mr. T's gonna kill me, you know, and you know, uh see Eddie Murphy, I'm gonna kick his ass, you know, like just stuff like that. Um and then that's about like you said, yeah, the ethnic cultural one is where he's he's really sort of focusing in quite a bit um and uh moving there. Yeah, so all right. Let do we want to do what we did last time and push the laughs per minute to the end, like we did with our last record? Okay, let's do it. Um, all right, so we'll we'll skip that. We'll go to content quality. So out of a score of 10, how well written were the jokes and the stories? Uh Matt.
SPEAKER_02All right. Well, I think uh, and I actually didn't write down a score for this one because I wanted to think about it. Okay. But you know, it's uh when I when I first watched it again, you know, after many years, I was uh I was a little disappointed because I remembered delirious. I still remember delirious, and I was like, you know, it's not delirious.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um but on re-watching it, you know, the uh I thought the content quality came in, you know, at an eight. It was strong, it's creative, it's quintessential, Eddie Murphy. Yeah. Um, you know, it it's not you know, at that point he was a known figure. I mean it's gotta be hard coming up for new material, but you know, he he did. And I I thought it was uh I thought it was strong. It wasn't it won a nine or a ten, but I would give it a solid eight on that.
SPEAKER_04Awesome. How about you, Nick?
SPEAKER_00I I said also strong creative writing. I think I leaned more towards a seven. Um just I'm not entirely sure why exactly it went low, although some of it has to do with so many uh explicatives, like that's just kind of padding the runtime. Yeah. But it's it's uh actually quite strong creative writing, and you could tell it was written. Um it wasn't him just sort of riffing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, very obviously very little improvisation at all, if any. Um I gave I gave him a seven there as well, um, just right below Matt. And um yeah, no, I think funny thing is, um I kept going back and forth in all these categories because I kept on trying to put myself like but uh if I was in eight 1987, or am I scoring this like right now? You know what I mean? I kept going back and forth in my brain about it. So I sort of had a yeah, I know that's what I had, that's what I had to land on. But um so and some of my scores reflect that definitely. So all right. How about performance and delivery? How effective was the comedian's stage presence and delivery? Uh we'll go with Nick first on this one.
SPEAKER_00This time I gave him an eight. And you know, engaging and confident, like I don't think there's any question that he was engaging and confident. Uh the reason I didn't give him like a nine or a ten, there were a number of uh flub-ups where he you know started and restart, or he said one thing and he's like like you could tell he was uh reciting a different rehearsed um version, yeah, different written version, and he's like, Oh wait, no, I'm I'm doing this version, and he corrected himself. So it was totally understandable, and like I'm not I'm not mad about it. I just I couldn't give him a f perfect score.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. How about you, Matt?
SPEAKER_02Well, I I must uh I must be a neophyte at this because I gave him a 10. I mean, uh look, he he gets on stage and you know it's it he's got a lot of confidence out there. I mean, for Christ's sake, he's wearing a purple leather suit. He's wearing these ridiculous gloves with a ring on one finger.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, you know, it it one point he's got a scarf on, he takes that off, and by the end of the concert, he's got his. Jacket unzipped and flexible text and all that kind of stuff. And you know, it's it's one of those things that um you can tell he feels comfortable out there and he's just moving on and going. I didn't I didn't really see a whole lot of um I didn't see any. I I saw one, I remember one slight error where he misspoke just a little bit, but I thought he was he was dominant on stage. I mean everybody was there to see him. And I don't know if and I don't know if this would be something to talk about here, but Nick, maybe the um, you know, the the film was originally rated X. And they had to cut a lot of stuff out to get it back to an R rating. I couldn't tell where the cuts came, honestly. Maybe the cuts were you know somewhere in there, I don't know.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, but I I thought, you know, he's he's got a presence. And I'll just say this. I watched this morning a uh a thing where he was on Carson um, you know, shortly after Raw came out because he had a raw jacket on and stuff, and he was a lot more timid and didn't look like he had the full command like he does when like he did in Raw. I mean, he had it, he was gone, and I I've I liked it.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know what?
SPEAKER_00You're you're right. All right, I agree, and you convinced me to bump it up a a notch, so he's nine out of ten for me. Oh, look at that.
SPEAKER_04Well, um, first of all, I haven't told you yet, Matt, but I've I got us each um one of those leather suits. We're wearing them to the Christmas party at the gym. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Can't wait. I've worn something like that since 1985.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna wear it like just open, show my abs off and everything, man. It's gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna put the scarf on. Did you get me a pinky ring for my driving glove? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Uh so I gave him an eight out of ten on that. Um I still I think you're right. That's that was gonna be my exact comment. Like, you can't not be confident and you know, if you walk out on a you know, a skin tight leather suit, you know, and uh and deliver your you know your whole set like that. That's that's just amazing to me. Um so yeah, I thought I thought he was good. I thought um, you know, his delivery was right on. I think you're right. I think Nick's right, though. There were a couple times when he was like, you could tell he was like trying to not really trying to think of it, you couldn't tell, but like it was like he was trying to figure out the exact way to say the joke or to set the joke up or to do the and I I that always like boggles my mind with any comedian is because you've got to it's like a magician's gotta have all their stuff in the right place, otherwise the trick's not gonna work, you know. So same thing, like if you don't set the joke up right, then it's gonna fall flat. And uh, so I can see how you're probably like, you know, there he he took it took there were a couple times when I think he was like trying to make sure that he set it up correctly. So all right, how about uh audience engagement? How did the comedian connect well with the audience? And this is a score out of five. Matt, what do you have there?
SPEAKER_02Well, before I tell you what I got, I'm gonna I'm gonna do it backwards and give my reasoning. So, you know, at the beginning of the movie, they have uh they have the little sketch, and then they have the people walking in, kind of the man on the street interviews. And you know, I think it's it's something where he was at that point in his career, getting to see somebody that big live would have been totally cool. I mean, I would have I would have spent every dime I had back then if I could have done that. So uh I think the audience went in predisposed to be captivated. I think they fully uh were engaged the whole time, all the way up to the end of the movie. So I gave them a five out of that.
SPEAKER_04Awesome. Nick? What about you, Brian? Oh, what about me? Um I gave him uh a little bit lower than that.
SPEAKER_02Um much lower uh five points last five points.
SPEAKER_04No, I was somewhere actually I was somewhere between uh three and a four, so like I I'll do like a 3.5. Um I still think that the audience was invested. Uh they and then uh from anywhere from the audience being invested to like almost full audience buy-in. I it's hard to say things like that about something like this just because they're all the audience was there to see this is like a super, super, super duper special. And also it wasn't it was sort of like you said, you would have paid all the money in the world to go see this, Matt.
SPEAKER_02And it's like you know, back then a little bit of an exaggeration.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I'm just saying back then, they back then they didn't have there weren't like you know, they you couldn't go watch a filming of any they weren't filming comedy shows. You had to go to a comedy live comedy venue and watch it, and then it was done. Like it was that was it, right? And so to be able to go and watch that and then know that it was gonna be a full almost feature-length movie, um, you know, those those audience members were definitely engaged and locked in. So all right, let's get back to the material a little bit. Diversity of material. Let's let's ask Nick, let's ask Nick what he wants to say. And also let's apologize to Nick for me not co-going to him.
SPEAKER_00No, please, please hold your apologies until after the podcast is over. So you give him a four out of five. Okay. Yeah. I agree, it's hard to gauge the engagement. Um but there there were definitely like hoops and hollers and laughs. Yeah. Um lots lots of engagement. Um and I really I don't even know what a five would look like with me giving a four. But uh really I think I'm just hedging since I don't know how to gauge it. It seemed like he was definitely had audience engagement. So I'm just saying, you know what, let's let's give a give a default blanket 80% and hope that I'm closer than than not.
SPEAKER_04I feel like time of engagement was when he was doing those jokes that were like pitting men against women, where he was talking about you know, men fooling around and then you know him doing the stuff like where he's like, you know, the woman's like, you better you gonna put your hands together for that? Yeah, like you better, you know, like hit stuff like that. Because like he was like and he was like imitating the women, the women like are looking at the men like you know, like Brian, that doesn't work in broadcasting.
SPEAKER_02Or the couple driving home or the couple driving home when he's getting so what was Eddie talking about with all his women?
SPEAKER_01Oh baby, this is just a joke, and it's a joke no one doesn't. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That Eddie, that Eddie is such a funny guy, you know. Like, or like the one part where he was like talking about them fooling around and uh he's like all the men in here are like, hey, Eddie, shh.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and they're doing the cut, they're doing the cut the neck, and you know, like thing. Shut up, man. Yeah, shut up.
SPEAKER_02And then he stopped and looked to his right like he's looking at his left. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04And he's like, I didn't pay all my money for this. Uh yeah, it was it was good.
SPEAKER_00Part part of why I'm laughing is your impression of Eddie Murphy is terrible.
SPEAKER_04I know, I know. It's I'm not yeah, I know. It's really, really bad.
SPEAKER_02It's it's if you do the suburban white guy, you've got that one.
SPEAKER_03Uh, would you say that there's a uh burning sensation when you yearn it?
SPEAKER_04Okay. Yeah, my impression. Thanks, Matt. My impression of a white guy is what you're saying. You're like, man, Brian, you do a great impression of a white guy.
SPEAKER_02You do a great impression of a white guy who lives in suburban America. You do like the best impression of a suburban white guy ever. It's crazy. I mean, I'm just picturing you at the disco doing that one dance, you know. A black guy walks in, probably in the 80s. A black guy would walk in, you'd be like, hey, what's that black guy doing right here? What's going on here? And I was quoting him, I wouldn't make it.
SPEAKER_06Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Everybody's welcome at a disco. Yes. If we still have them, I don't know. Right.
SPEAKER_00If Brian were dancing the way Eddie Murphy was, though, it'd look a lot more like Chris Farley than it would be looking like Eddie Murphy.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, incidentally, the way that Eddie Murphy uh was imitating white people dancing, which I thought he gave too much credit to white people dancing. I can sure dance like that. Uh, but Alfonso Rubiera, Rubier, Rubiera, yeah. Yeah, Carlton. Uh, that's how he drew inspiration for his Carlton dance.
SPEAKER_00Oh, nice. Yeah. It it I saw the the similarities for sure. Yeah, you could see it in there when you yeah. I mean, when he did Carlton is kind of like a white person in a black person's body, yeah. The character, right?
SPEAKER_02Like, and that's the whole Carlton, that that white suburban guy, you know. So you're sure.
SPEAKER_04Funny thing is when he did that dance, I was like, that looked like my high school dances. Like it was all the white kids, we were all dancing like that. Anyway. Um, all right. Diversity of material. Did the comedian cover a range of topics? I'll go first on this. So I get right down the middle of the road, I gave a balanced mix of subjects of three on this. Um I think that I think he's he sort of you know moved from topic to topic, and I'll say subject matter to subject matter, if that's the same thing. Um because he started out with like, like you said, some of the pop culture and saying, Oh, yeah, I did this delirious thing, and you know, uh either these specific people or this groups of people or were mad at me for what I said, and then um, you know, then moved into like um, you know, relationships and things like that, and uh, you know, and then ultimately like ended up with uh you know some of the other uh some of the other stuff towards the end. Um I'm trying to remember what it was, but um like the we were just talking about the white people dancing and the club with the story about going to the club and all that stuff. And uh I I love the reference of Jimmy Walker too. That's that's a reference that you wouldn't get unless you were unless you were an old guy. Yeah. Um so but I thought pretty balanced, um, but pretty like middle of the road. So how about you, Matt?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I had I had a three, two, uh, a three also on that. Um you know, I think one of the problem one of the things I didn't like, some of the bits ran just a little bit too long, and I didn't think were that that funny. Um, you know, the whole uh of course he has the whole riff on Bill Cosby, which he did a great character of Bill Cosby, yeah, but he kept it on for way, I thought way too long. Um you know, and I didn't I didn't find it at all uh funny, except that knowing now the context of that, because he had a big conflict with Bill Cosby over all that stuff. And as he said, now he's making family movies and Bill Cosby's in jail. But right, yeah. Uh, you know, uh there were just things uh I thought the the there was a diversity, but it just I think on too many topics he just went too long on them and it kind of slowed it, slowed the pacing down, I thought, of the of the of the the act.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Nick?
SPEAKER_00Um I had three, and then I thought maybe I should put it to four, but I think y'all put it in back to three. He he covered a variety of topics, like like we've mentioned there's fighting. He he covered fighting like two or three times. Uh dating, family, uh uh potty, humor, yeah, like poop jokes and uh dick jokes and piss jokes and yeah, um and then foreigners, like all the accents of the different uh ethno groups, so including white guys.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um and and kind of on the point about Cosby, like I was initially uncomfortable with it being brought up like, oh boy. Yeah, yeah. Like what is what's what's gonna be said or done here? Um, even though I know like back then it would have people had a good feeling about Cosby, right? Like they thought he was wholesome and he portrayed as the height of his career, you know?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the Cosby show at that time was like the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_02At that time, not only was the Cosby show in full swing, but uh a different world, it kind of spun off as its own show in the late 80s. I mean, yeah, no, and I I remember it. I grew up watching those two. I remember it at that time, you know, and I just liked Bill Cosby and I liked Eddie Murphy. I didn't find that much of a conflict. I could see why they wouldn't like each other, but sure.
SPEAKER_00I also though I I kind of saw how the Cosby thing was going on a little long, and I think I get the sense that Eddie Murphy dragged it out a little bit because the audience was responding so strongly to it.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So like he was almost playing it up a little more. Um dragging out, granted, Cosby's speaking style is like somewhat dragged out, you know. He has a slight stutter and overemphasis on certain syllables, you know. Yeah. Um but yeah, I think I'm just I'm gonna stick with three.
SPEAKER_02Well, and and to go back to other things that we've talked about, you know, the uh stage presence and the captivating the audience and things like that, or audience engagement, you know, I I agree with you, Nick. I mean, the audience was engaged all during that Bill Cosby bit. And I didn't think it, I mean, I watched it twice and I didn't really think it was funny either time. Like, okay, get to the point. But people were laughing, and so you know, it's like he's doing this, and and maybe it went longer. You you may be right about that because he uh I thought it went longer than it should have. This was the time though, like when he said, and then I called Richard Brown, and Richard Brown said, Oh, Bill Casby. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04But I I the other thing I was gonna say is like this it was sort of the time of like so before we had social media and everything, we used to have like these feuds that were going on. If you remember, like it might have been it could be two rock bands that were feuding and they hated each other, and oh, if they saw each other at a venue, they would fight, or two rappers, you know, would be like, Oh, I'm East Coast, you're West Coast, or like comedian, you know, like that was they would have beef. Remember, like if people would have beef with each other, and uh I feel like this was just one of those things of the time where he's like, Yeah, he had a beef with and he's like, Yeah, I'm gonna do this in the special, you know. And it was he was sort of already known for being a little controversial, especially after him talking about Michael Jackson and Mr. T and you know, um, all the all like basically making fun of people. Um I mean, I don't want to compare him to like Kathy Griffith, crack cast Kathy Griffin. That's it. Is it Griffin or Griffith? Griffin. Anyway, she you know, she just basically I've saw her a couple times and she just basically makes fun of other celebrities, and so and you know, ultimately what happened is like other celebrities hate her because they just all she would do is just talk gossip about them and stuff like that. And so it's sort of the same kind of thing, like not like like I said, um Eddie Murphy a different style there, but um, but you know, had that they had that uh that be and I think people like bought into those beefs, like the people that were probably at that show were probably like, yeah, yeah, I don't like Bill Cosby. I like Eddie Murphy. I'm Eddie Murphy kind of person, you know, like that kind of thing. Like pick a team, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that's that's exactly like beef. That beef was a great way to get ratings and to get engagement. Yeah, because we didn't, I mean there was really motivated yeah.
SPEAKER_04I mean by the name. You couldn't go on and tweet something and say, like, I hate Bill Cosby, he's an idiot. You couldn't do that, you know. So how would you do it? Like, all right.
SPEAKER_00Well Taylor Swift got big in part because she was able to resurrect the the beef.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Just with whether it was with bullying or with certain celebrities or her boyfriends. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04All right. How about impact and memorability? Uh, out of a score of 10, was this performance was this a performance that sticks with you? Uh Matt, let's start with you.
SPEAKER_02Um, I I kind of went lower on this one. I gave it a six. Um, there were some moments that were just clearly standout and really funny, but you know, for the like I said, it wasn't delirious. So, you know, I couldn't I couldn't go higher on that one. Um, you know, it's probably not a fair comparison because taken in its own right, you know, there's a lot of good things going for Raw. But yeah, uh just little jaundice after and and I didn't even watch Delirious. I mean, I haven't heard delirious in probably 20 years, but I could go back and or longer, I could go back and quote it like it was yesterday.
SPEAKER_04Yep, yeah, goody goo who's gonna who's gonna forget about goone goo go and goo gus, you know? Yeah, all that okay. Nick is like Nick's like you lost me.
SPEAKER_05That's it, that's an old person.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, if you just went up to somebody, that's how you can tell if you like someone, you go up to somebody and go, Goody goo goo gus, you know, like and just be like, if they start laughing, then you're like, okay, I gotcha, you know.
SPEAKER_00Anyway, it's a dog whistle is what you're saying.
SPEAKER_04It is, it's a dog whistle, yeah. Yeah, to use a modern term for an antiquated thing, anyway. Um seven out of ten. Seven out of ten.
SPEAKER_00For memorability, strong memorable set, memorable set. Yeah, and I think in part it's some of the his silhouette makes it memorable, right? Like what he's wearing, his attire, his yeah, persona and personality. Like I I can see any frame of this on the internet. Like, oh, that's when he was in Raw, you know?
SPEAKER_06Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um and then of course the various characters, and yes. I think I think there's some memorability there. So I not much higher than you, Matt, but still just seven out of ten.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I was right with Matt. I was a six out of ten. I think when I got into this, because I hadn't watched Raw or Delirious in probably I would say probably maybe twenty years. I don't know, not you know, so long. Yeah, I mean, obviously. So so like, yeah, and Delirious was 20 years before that, you know what I mean? So um, but the funny thing is when I got into Raw, I kept expecting bits from Delirious to pop up, and then I was like, I kept on going, oh no, that was that's not in the that's that's where's Kenny Goo every time. Yeah, that's what I was saying, like, oh you know, like falling down the stairs. Oh my shoot. You know.
SPEAKER_00Wow. That's slapstick is you nailed that one pretty good there, Brian. I'll give you I'll give you credit on that one. So slapstick's hard to do with comedy. You know.
SPEAKER_04Anyway, uh so six out of ten, though, I still think that there were some standout moments. Um, and that you know, that that it was something that I and I think if I watched Delirious, then I could like distinguish the two after that. But I just in my head they sort of got mushed together into one over the last 30 plush years or whatever. So 40. Yeah, 40. Yeah, exactly. I don't I don't like to say it like that, Matt.
SPEAKER_00He lives in a time bubble, don't pop it.
SPEAKER_04Exactly you're old. Uh all right. Callbacks, use of callbacks out of five, did the comedian effectively use callbacks? Nick.
SPEAKER_00Four out of five.
SPEAKER_04Four out of five.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for giving me my category. Yeah. This is where I'm not doing a good service to my audience because I did not listen to this twice. I did not take good notes. Um, I know there were plenty of callbacks. I I thought to myself, like, this guy is the king of callbacks. Yeah. Like he was able to to like bang them together almost as the a pre-climax to his set. Um and it was it was just it was well done. The the ones that came to me were the like him being with a particular Italian guy, I forget his name.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Danny Terrier. Uh Danny Terrier. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's like that that came up a couple of times. Uh-huh. But then, of course, half of everything, like that came up, that was just woven throughout his entire set.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Just for whatever reason, somebody, you know, usually divorce, somebody's getting half of half of everything.
SPEAKER_02How about you, Matt? So I think this is one of Eddie Murphy's, and I this is I'm not sure that I'm using the term callback right correctly, because I had to think about this, but the way I look at it, I think it's one of Eddie Murphy's most unsung and subtle humor that he's got. And if you look at like coming to America, you know, there's a scene where he brings in Ralph Bellamy and Donna Michi from trading places and throws them money in uh in life, you know, with the the prison movie you do with Martin Lawrence, there's a throwback or callback to Harlem Knights. At one point, he says, Oh, I got in a fight with a Della, with a bitch named Della, and she hits harder than you. You know, and so. I think he I think he nailed it here. I mean, he goes back to Mr. T, he goes back to Michael Jackson, he goes back to homosexuals like he did in the first one. But then there's uh, you know, there's some there's one subtle one, and I didn't I had to go look it up because I wanted to see, and it was kind of a callback of sorts, but it was like an understated jab. So, you know, the fight with Bill Cosby, maybe that's for ratings, I don't know. I I think there it was a legitimate feud, I'll be honest with you. But in the skit uh that precedes the show that opens the movie, the the little skit where they're at Thanksgiving dinner and he's telling us jokes about poop. Well, the the actor who played um young Eddie Murphy was Dion Richman, who at the time was Kenny, Rudy's little friend from school, Kenny on the Cosby show. So not only digging at Bill Cosby, you know, on the one hand, he's getting the talent from the Cosby show, not to name huxtable kids, but you know, Kenny was certainly well known.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And uh, you know, I at first I was like, eh, I don't even know what this is, so I'm just gonna check it off as a zero. But then in looking into it, I'm like, no, I'm gonna give him a five out of this one because it's subtle. There's some obvious ones, but there's some subtle ones there that you really got to be paying attention to. And I love that subtle, like kind of intellectual humor that I don't know if it's intellectual or just him saying, see it if you can, kind of thing. Because but I I really like that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. I gave him a I gave I gave him a four out of five on this. Um, I like so my the biggest one that I saw that was just really I thought was just really well done was he started started off with talking about songs. Like he's like, hey, in the 80s, you gotta, you know, uh, I'm an like he talked about Madonna, I'm a material girl in the material world. And then he's like, hey, you got to have a J O B if you want to be with me. And then he said, and John Janet Jackson has, you know, what have you done for me lately? You know, and then he and then so then he works that in. And then the women are saying, Yeah, but what has he done for you? And he's like, it even starts out like that, yeah. I know he used to do shit for you, but what has he done for you lately? You know, and then so then then like way later when he's talking about the woman, he's like at the end, he's like, I don't see no rings on your fingers. And then he's like, Yeah, but what have you done for me lately?
SPEAKER_02You know, like that's like or even the one that pulls out of the African Outback with a bone in his nose.
SPEAKER_01What are you talking about, maybe last week you were naked with a bone in your nose? Yes, and what have you done for me lately?
SPEAKER_06Exactly.
SPEAKER_00Well, and and in in that culmination that I'm talking about, that came up, like where it's the it's turned around and it's the guy who says, What have you done for me lately? Right, right.
SPEAKER_04And I want half he flips it because he's like, he's like, I don't own you, and then he's like, I don't see any roots on your fingers. Yeah, and what have you done for me lately?
SPEAKER_00You know, like like so yeah, that's that's the part that I'm talking about where he just sort of bang, bang, bang, callback, callback, call back.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's really, really good.
SPEAKER_00And and Matt, the callback, like you've got the idea of it, but I'd say what you found were like deep cuts, maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Callback, the the scope of a callback is within the set. So when he refers back to something that yeah, we're supposed to put that definition on the phone. That's a it's feedback you've received and you've not acted on your callbacks.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think it's I think it's it's all you know. I've I was kind of thinking about it, and you know, they talk about like they like to put universe after people's descriptions like the Marvel universe or the the whatever Yellowstone universe or whatever. Well, Eddie Murphy had his own universe of his people, whether it was you know, across movies or across his his comedy routines or in the comedy routines, he kind of kept that all up. And you know, it's uh that consistency is always always cool. I think if you think about it, who who else did that?
SPEAKER_04I mean, this is off the subject of his of Raw, but like who else made a movie that they played so many characters? Like I don't I can't think of another actor that played so many characters in a movie, like legitimately, not just like oh made a little cameo or whatever, but like in in you know uh what's it called? Uh The Clumps, he he played every he played them all, like he you know what I mean? Like he played them all and filmed them all together. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, it's so and then I also think I want half too. I want half was a callback throughout like that's the one I mentioned. Yeah, starts talking about Johnny Carson and starts talking about all that stuff, and so anyway, which is another blast from the past, too. Like Johnny Carson, who's that? You know, like anyway. Uh all right. Let's go to style quality, a score out of ten. How effective was the comedian's style?
SPEAKER_00And and just oh I mean just to just to point back, the the style was what we were first asked with the check boxes. So right, yeah. I mean agreed on storytelling and observational, yeah, and and he is who he is.
SPEAKER_02I think his style is is set down, he's comfortable in his in his skin, he's comfortable telling stories the way he wants to tell them, whether he uses the F word, the P word, the C word, the D word. I mean, he he flows them all out there without any uh you know I put it that. I mean, he's mastered him, he's mastered Eddie Murphy. Yeah, and so I put him down for a 10 on that one.
SPEAKER_04Nick?
SPEAKER_00Uh gave him a nine out of ten. I think I agree that he's mastered his style for sure, as the write-up says. Yeah, we're gonna have to do like a bad comedy set one of these times, just so we can start using like the ones and twos.
SPEAKER_04Ones and the twos, yeah. Like they were not effective at all, you know, like or whatever. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um we we just watched this comedy show and it was awful. But hey, let's talk about it. So, what do you think was funny? Nothing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh what's your score, Brian? An eight.
SPEAKER_04I gave him an eight out of ten, so just right below you, so ten, nine, eight for all of us, uh, sort of hand holding clip there. I think that, yeah, I think he he does his observational, he he he weaves in the different styles where he needs to weave them in and uh and uses them, I think, a very effectively. Um I think maybe, you know, there but for the like what Matt mentioned, a little bit of clunkiness in terms of like the pacing and things like that. Um, I think that's where he lost a couple of points for me. So yeah. And then next is timing and pacing, which Matt, you already sort of hit on a little bit, but tell us a little bit more. What was the was the pacing effective for the humor delivery?
SPEAKER_02I mean, I I gave him I I thought his timing, his timing is good. His pacing, I thought the stories got a couple of them got a little too long, so I gave a four on that. I mean, he's strong, he's well timed on his deliveries. Um, I just thought some of the the Bill Cosby thing, uh, the drunken father at the end was funny, but when we I thought it was like, okay, yeah, I'm I'm getting a little bored with this one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00He was he was unpacking his trauma at that point, right? Like right, right.
SPEAKER_04Uh Nick, what did you do?
SPEAKER_00Uh four out of five as well. I think just for the exact same reasons Matt said.
SPEAKER_04I give him a three, um, three out of five. I just felt like it was a little bit less uh just for the reasons that you said, Matt, the sort of um sometimes the pacing was perfect, and then other times like you said, the pacing sort of slowed a little bit, and it was like, okay, let's move on to something else, or like let's pull some new material in here, or something like that. So I have just right below. Actually, because you guys gave him that, I'm gonna go to a 3.5 on that.
SPEAKER_02I mean, you I didn't know you didn't put that on the score sheet that we could go a 0.5. I mean we make up the rules, man. You can do whatever you want, you know?
SPEAKER_00It's that's that's that's on our bingo card, is actually the guest brings up the the lack of notice about decimal.
SPEAKER_04Well, what's funny is some of the some of some of the guests will just automatically do that, like, oh, I'm gonna give them a 3.75 out of that. And other guests are like, well, it doesn't say I can do it, so I'm not going to. So anyway.
SPEAKER_02So you're so I was gonna say you're a rule follower then, Matt. Is that what you're saying? You know, I'm and and I'm not a 3.75 type of guy, you know. All right, physical comedy.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I always do. Oh, when it comes to the gym, special.
SPEAKER_02I know I work out with you, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh so physical comedy out of five, Nick, uh, how well did they use physical elements in their comedy?
SPEAKER_00Uh a strong physical performance, which I think is high marks given that he's not a physical comedian. Right. Um but he definitely, you know, he did dances, he did facial expressions, he um did lots of poses, like he was physical in his delivery. There are plenty of spots where it wouldn't have worked if it was a CD only, right? Like long expressions that like with the um he was talking about how he's scared of gay people now. Yeah, like or the the especially in San Francisco, he can't go to San Francisco anymore, or the like you know, he he did the whole impression of like looking him up and down. Yes, like a party or whatever, they'll look him up and down again. Yeah, and then like the eyes and like yeah, you know, like single words he's spoken right um for a good one and a half seconds. So yeah, four out of five on physical comedy.
SPEAKER_02All right. Um Matt. Well, any and he also, you know, the Bill Cosby impression. The the funniest part about the Bill Cosby impression was when he'd roll his eyes and do the the look that Bill Cosby would have right after he ate some jello pudding, you know, it was it was head on. Um, I agree. He's not a he's not a physical comedian. I mean, I got to see Carrot Top one time live. That guy was all over the place. I mean, it was crazy. But he uses, you know, that's his style, uh, and he uses it a lot less than some people, but I thought what he did use, I thought was masterful. I mean, he got he had impressions down, his his facial expressions, just like you said, Nick, about going to a gay party and having the guys look him up and down. I mean, I I thought it was a five on that.
SPEAKER_04Nice. I had a four. Um, I'm with Nick on that. Uh, strong physical performance. Um, the yeah, the voices, faces, um, I'm trying to think, and even some of the like more physical aspects of the dancing and things like that. Uh I think he was strong. He placed them well. He he wasn't static. He wasn't like a static comedian that was just doing, he was actually like, you know, acting it out and doing the things we're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_00So I mean, the number of times he touched his crotch alone would got given some points, you know.
SPEAKER_04He's like when he's being searched by the gay guy, and he's like, Do you have any weapons? What is this? What is this? You know, just yeah, exactly. Um, okay. Uh relatability. Did the material resonate with a broad audience? One out of ten. I mean, excuse me, out of ten, a score out of ten. Um I'll I'll go first on this. So I give sort of a low score on this. Um I think uh I think he I think he was uh I gave him a three and a half on this. Uh I just don't think it's broad audience material. I think that there are I think a lot of people, like you already mentioned the expletives, you know. I think a lot of people would just be turned off by that, just and they wouldn't even hear the jokes at all. Um and and so that cuts out a big chunk of audience, right? Um, subject matter cuts out a big chunk of audience. Uh well, especially now. I think back then there was less. Um, but it was the 80s, it was different. Um and and so I I'm I had to this is one of the ones where I'm like, okay, I had to like focus on what it what it is right now. If so, if I told somebody go watch Eddie Murphy Raw, do I would I be worried about like making that referral to someone or like asking them, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00What they would think of you after they saw it, exactly, yeah, and whether they would like it.
SPEAKER_04And so I so I that's why that's why he's low there. Not because I don't like it, but because I think for a broad audience, I think yeah, because other people will judge you. I mean, as as Matt already said, you know, like it like if this came out today, he'd be immediately canceled, like just like for for for numerous reasons, you know. So anyway, Matt, what did you think?
SPEAKER_02Well, I thought exactly the opposite. I mean, he um, you know, you knew what you were getting into with Eddie Murphy, you knew that there was gonna be a lot of cursing, um as just part of it.
SPEAKER_00But you hey you, Mr.
SPEAKER_01FU man!
SPEAKER_02Ha ha, I got you. Uh but you know what what what and I and I judged it on the time that it was done. And I mean, he had an appeal to me as a white suburban kid. He had appealed to black people, he'd appeal to young adults. I mean, my parents, it wasn't really their cup of tea. Uh, I don't think they even listened to it, quite frankly. Um, but across the uh the spectrum of who he was trying to target, I think he did, and I think he was universally, you know, accepted and liked. I mean, the guy made mega movies that people enjoyed, and people came out in droves to see him on stage, knowing that. So I think there's relatability there. Um, and I think the topics he discussed, I mean, you know, a lot of a lot of great humor is based on on in part on reality, and he really hit with his characters reality enough to make it funny.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So you're saying you have a burning sensation? I mean, that's really believable. Or, you know, that it's it's believable to the absurd of being funny, you know. Right. So I I had I had an eight on that. I had strong relatability.
SPEAKER_04Also, I gave you go ahead, Nick.
SPEAKER_00No, go ahead, Brian.
SPEAKER_04No, I was just gonna say also, I just it reminded me that the the Mr. F you man, you know, that that was also another callback because the African, the African woman that he married, you know, he said like she said that you like, you know, like F you Eddie, you know, like in her African accent. So anyway, that was a callback to the section of callbacks that we just did a couple minutes ago. Anyway, Nick, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00I gave a seven out of ten. There there were a couple of times where I I thought to myself that these are timeless jokes. You know, making a reference to Mr. T or Richard Pryor, I think those are still known entities. Um I mean gay people be gay people white suburban dudes be white suburban dudes.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_04What are you talking about? We are not white people are not in suburban, we are not the same. What are you talking about, Nick?
SPEAKER_00It's problematic when you make my point for me. Uh I rest my case.
SPEAKER_04You rest my case. I was gonna say, or as Matt Matt Pryor would say, nothing further, Your Honor.
SPEAKER_02No, no when to shut up.
SPEAKER_00Uh but yeah, that's I think so. Yeah, I gave it a seven. I also, while surprise, I don't need or feel that you should change your three out of ten. You know, it's yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Next one. Innovative techniques. Did the comedian bring something new or unique? Uh I'm gonna go first on this one again. I know I just went first on the last one, but it's because this one is like the this one, I I think this is the first 10 out of 10 that I gave. And the reason why is because sort of what we already touched on, which is like when when before or after that, since then, have people purchased movie theater tickets to go watch a stand-up comedian. Like that's the movie. The movie is him doing stand-up comedy for an hour and a half, right? Um, I can't think of anything. The only one other one I can think of is I think probably in Australia, people bought tickets to go see Tim Minchin, the the comedian that we actually and that episode is not even out yet, but it will be. So actually, by the time this episode comes out, that episode will already be out. So never mind. Um sorry.
SPEAKER_02I don't even know what you're talking about. You're you're calling back to other episodes on my episode, Brian. I'm really kind of offended by to be honest with you. I don't even know who Tim Minchin is. I gotta Google him and find out he's a he's an Australian computer.
SPEAKER_00This is this is not your overthinkers anonymous session.
SPEAKER_04I know exactly. So, anyway, the bottom line is I gave him a 10 because that the this was something that changed the face of comedy. Like, this was like sort of to me, this is the lead into when we started getting more channels in the 90s and things like that, and we got comedy central, and then we got comedy central presents, and we got so the half-hour special happen, and then then we go into streaming way, way, way later. And so, how is comedy presented uh presented now in Netflix specials that are about an hour long, right? So I think this is like this is something that was unheard of, nobody was doing it. Um, once he was successful in Delirious, obviously he was like, I want to do another one, and people were like, Okay, we'll produce that, you know. You you'll you'll put butts in the seats. So um, so I gave him a 10 out of 10. Matt, what about you?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I agree. Uh, I didn't give it that high. Um, you know, I thought he he really innovated. I don't remember, and of course, I don't wasn't really alive. I mean, I was alive, but not paying attention in the 70s, but I don't think there was a comedian who could use vulgarities as much as he did and somehow not make it as offensive as it should be, if that makes any sense. I mean, it's it's and maybe because I was young and just thought it was funny to hear something like that. Um, you know, but I you've you know, Richard Pryor obviously was had had that kind of stick going for him in the 70s a little bit, but I've seen a little bit of Richard Pryor, and he's not nearly as funny as Eddie Murphy was. Um and and you know, to your credit or to what you were saying, Brian, you know, Keenan Ivory Waynes was one of the producers of Raw and helped write some of the stuff, you know, which gave away the in Living Color and all that. So um, you know, it's I think he um, you know, for that time as a uh uh a black entertainer, uh comedian, you know, I thought he was was pretty much groundbreaking on that, so I gave him an eight.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Nick?
SPEAKER_00I didn't know, so I gave him a five.
SPEAKER_04You didn't you didn't know?
SPEAKER_00I didn't know that it was groundbreaking or innovative because I'm I'm coming from the future looking back at the past. Yeah I'm a fan of comedy, but I'm not a historian of com comedy. So um you're so youthful. But if if to y'all's point, I I I would be inclined to agree. I just I wrote my answers in pen. I don't want to change them all that much.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Um that he Well, my question is how old were you in 1987? That's what I want to know.
SPEAKER_00Um at the risk of doxing myself, I was under 10 years old. Okay. But I was born. Like Yeah, yeah. I would have I could have uh while I probably would have been traumatized, I could have in theory watched this when it first aired. Got it when it was first available.
SPEAKER_04Yes, yeah. You might not have gotten all the jokes, you know.
SPEAKER_00Oh, for sure. But I I would have gotten spanked a lot for the number of times I said the F word afterwards. Right.
unknownExactly.
SPEAKER_01Mommy, what does it mean when he's when he's saying if you make a girl go ooh?
SPEAKER_00Right. How can I get a girl to go ooh?
SPEAKER_02Uh that's funny. I don't know. Some people are going, yeah, I'm still trying to figure that one out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. All right. That sweet spot's hard to find, isn't it?
SPEAKER_04Yes. Yeah. Uh all right. Cinematic quality, uh, score out of five. How well you like that segue?
SPEAKER_00Anyway, Brian's awkward laughing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So this one has nothing to do with the comedian. Uh, really, all to do with the filming and the actual editing, things like that. So, how well was the performance? Filmed and edited. Do I say it, Nick? Do I say it? No, okay, I won't. All right, never mind. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Matt, what did you think about the uh well I judged it on 1987 standards where there was no HD, um, you know, no surround sound, none of that. Uh, like I said, there were edits which I didn't even realize there were edits, but I read about it. So for 1987, I mean it's a theatrical production. I give it a a five on that. I mean, I thought they, you know, yeah, color was good. He knew what he was doing, you could see him, it wasn't blurry. Um, you know, I thought I gave it a five for 1987. Now, HD's around sound, no, yeah. In 2026, I wouldn't give it a five.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_02Nick?
SPEAKER_00I gave, or I'm giving it a three out of five. And it's not really to do with the the term, you know, the filming and editing was not a distraction.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00Um, I think it was stellar all around, especially knowing that it was breaking the mold you know, now, you know, in retrospect. Uh the way it opened threw me off. Like at first I was, did I just buy the wrong movie?
SPEAKER_06Right, right.
SPEAKER_00What is this? This is like Ghostbusters-esque film filming, like and I don't know, like part of me thought that Eddie Murphy was trying to show his film production chops to get himself some other deals or something, but it uh yeah, when I finally figured out what it was, it it kind of I recovered and whatnot, but there was this whole span, it was five percent. That opening was five percent of his entire set yeah in terms of minutes.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um and and then at the end, like the way he closed out was just kind of like okay, that's my last joke. Bye.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like it I don't know, uh and then it was just the end, you know. I didn't yeah uh and I guess that's not necessarily film quality, the way he closed, but there was no like credit scroll, there was no pan out of like the vi virtually leaving the the the stage, so to speak.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the theater or whatever.
SPEAKER_00So I I guess I was just put off because there were so many conventions I'm used to now that weren't there.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um and in fact I I'd started at two, but I I bumped it to a three. Yeah. Thanks to you all.
SPEAKER_04Okay. I gave it a four. It just I enjoyed the way that it looked. Uh, I think I was with Matt though. I think I I was in the mindset of what was I impressed with it back then, you know, because like like Nick, you've like you just said, like, we've seen a lot of other shows and uh for even just for this podcast, but you know, the openings and the creativity that they're using to try to like change it up a little bit um is much different than what was back then. But back then, they didn't have that. It was just you know, really, like I said, there there wasn't a lot of filmed comedy, like filmed stand-up comedy. There was you could go to a venue and watch it, or you could audio, you could buy a record. I mean, I used to listen to Bill Cosby records all the time, and you could listen to and he even referenced it in there, like go down to the basement and quietly put on a Richard Pryor record, you know, so he could listen to it or whatever. But you you really didn't have video stand-up, and so they didn't have any reference, they were just like, Well, what would we do? And they basically went sort of back and forth between two camera angles. Like it was just sort of one angle and then the next angle, and then when I and then every once in a while it would be a little bit close up on his face so you could see a facial expression, but pretty much it was just back and forth like camera one, camera two, you know, kind of thing. Um, but still enjoyed the way that I looked. It was I think it fits the set where like how it's I think it was, I think it's supposed to look like that for his set for it at the time. So four out of five. All right, now we get a couple of fun things. Matt, we'll start with Matt.
SPEAKER_00What about we gotta circle back? We skipped one.
SPEAKER_04Oh, we do have to circle back. All right, laughs per minute, which is how frequently did the comedian generate laughs? Matt, what did you have out of 10?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I had an eight on that. Um, I mean, he had he had laughter going all the way through, even on parts that weren't even that funny. Yeah. People are just keeping laughing. Yeah. Uh-huh. I mean, it's like he's setting up a joke and people are laughing, uh, or somebody's laughing, and not always the same person. Right. Um, so I gave him, you know, and again, I think that's kind of the uh I think that's kind of the predisposition that that audience was in going to see a superstar, the energy from that, the excitement of that. Um, he certainly didn't fail to deliver uh an entertaining performance. So I don't I don't know that all of it was real genuine, you know, in terms of wow, that really made me laugh, and and not, wow, I'm here watching Eddie Murphy. I'm just gonna laugh because it's gotta be funny, you know. Not only that people think that way, I know when I see somebody famous and they say something that isn't even really that funny, I still laugh at it because it's you know, it's or like when you stand up at Toastmasters and give a little joke before you say your toast, you know, people laugh because oh hey, we know Brian, we like Brian.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they they always give me courtesy laughs and Toastmasters, so yeah, which is also on on the bingo card too. It's Toastmasters has been mentioned multiple times in this episode, so yeah, and courtesy laughs, and courtesy laughs, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Either either the act of doing it or referring to courtesy laughs counts.
SPEAKER_04Right. Nick, what about you out of 10?
SPEAKER_00Uh I think I'm a 10 out of 10, if that's what you're asking. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Strong.
SPEAKER_00No, no, I'm kidding. No, he I'd say for laughs for a minute, um you're like, okay.
SPEAKER_04I I didn't I I missed the joke and then it came back to me. So it's like a boomerang joke.
SPEAKER_02Call back.
SPEAKER_04Call back. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I I I didn't even know there was a joke in there, so I'm totally missed it, but it's okay.
SPEAKER_04Because he was asking anyway, go ahead. We'll it's it's the moment's past.
SPEAKER_00I was wondering why the joke was getting bigger and then it hit me. Uh I gave an eight out of ten as well. The study laughs throughout. I I think everything he meant to be funny was funny um by enough people that you know there was noticeable laughter, or I myself was laughing.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um and you know, as as we kind of ask sometimes, like what would make it a a 10? Like, I I really don't know. I don't it uh I guess I'd have to like hear people laughing so much that'd be like, gosh, there's a lot of laughter. Like, why is everybody laughing? Or or I I feel like the comedian can't tell his joke because people are too busy laughing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Where like you're he the comedian like literally has to stop the set because the laughter isn't stopping. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right. In which case that's almost a failure on the comedian. Like you're supposed to like be able to know how to keep tone it down a little bit so that you can keep it going. Um maybe. I don't know. Maybe that's just my my my thought or preference on how convenient should be. Brian, what's your what's your last permanent story?
SPEAKER_04I said a seven out of ten. So same category, steady laughs throughout. Uh I think, yeah, I think there were um I think there were steady laughs throughout.
SPEAKER_02I mean what you're saying is there were steady laughs.
SPEAKER_04What I'm saying is there were steady laughs throughout. Uh no, I think, yeah, I think basically he um he kept it going, and I think that the audience helped that out too, just because like they were laughing between the jokes, and you get the impression that there were a lot of like side conversations going on, like in uh based on the bits, like when he was doing the man-woman thing, you feel like there were like a lot of elbowing and like giggling between couples and things like that, or like people that had come there together. I didn't I mean I don't know that for a fact, but it just felt like that, you know. Um, but yeah, seven out of ten. What was your uh okay, so let's go final scores. Do you do you have your did you do your math yet?
SPEAKER_02I did mine. I got to 85 out of 10.
SPEAKER_0485? Okay. Nick, I'm 67. 83. 83, okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're the you're the dumpy downer.
SPEAKER_04I am. I'm just like, I don't know what it is. It's like, you know, I feel a burning.
SPEAKER_00Did you what was what about the bonus points because you like them? Like did you add?
SPEAKER_04That is good. So I'm gonna give don't cave to peer pressure though. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like if it's in the 80s, I'm gonna call Okay.
SPEAKER_04I'm giving 10 bonus points because I'm lumping in the fact that I like Delirious also, and I'm gonna go back and watch that too. So 77.
SPEAKER_00Okay. That I think that needs to be our threshold. The the most bonus points you can give is 10.
SPEAKER_04Is 10. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's that's 10% right bonus for celebrity and fandom and whatever else.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. All right. So now a couple of categories that are outside of scoring. What was your favorite joke or bit in the special, Matt?
SPEAKER_02Um, my favorite part was the and we didn't even we only touched on it a little bit, but when he did the Italian bit towards the end, like the the uh and and the Rocky the the Rocky, but it but also just the generic, like Northeast Italian kind of uh Guido guy. I mean, I've I lived for a number of years in in that area between Boston and Philadelphia, and and it was you're just chock a block full of people like that. And it, you know, it was a character, but it was nailed so funny. And and the whole bit about them grabbing their crotches and stuff. I mean, I've seen that.
SPEAKER_01You know, I've been out of the clubs. We're like, dude, what the hell are you doing? I mean, come on, man.
SPEAKER_02Go go in the bathroom or something.
SPEAKER_04I feel like uh what I want to know is is the walk, did he nail the walk?
SPEAKER_02Because the walk he got the he got the walk down honestly, honestly, if you closed your eyes, you would think you're listen uh listening to a short little Italian guy trying to be Sylvester Stallone, right? And I just thought it was uh, you know, to me, it made me just laugh, it made me reminisce about people I went to high school with that were just that exact way, yeah. You know, and all that. And uh and and man, he really he really nailed that one. So that was my favorite uh favorite part about that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I like that I like that when he goes and talks to the uh the the larger black gentleman and he has training. He's gonna make him buy his his make him buy his candy, and then he bends down, he's like, Oh, you just saw Rocky.
SPEAKER_02All right, you know, like he and then he and then he makes a total 80 reference. He goes, Yeah, I mean, go go ahead and you iRock 28 or something. Yeah, yeah, IROC Z28. Like, oh, I got my Camaro iRock Z28. Like I mean, it was kind of like the knockoff firebird, you know, like I'm not I'm not smoking the bandit, but I really want to be, you know, great thing. I mean, for the time, and and Nick, I know you weren't you were just you know a little kid, you probably didn't know too much about iRox, but man, that was for the time that was that that made that was one of those one-liners that made me just stop and laugh.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nick, how about you?
SPEAKER_00Um probably my favorite joke or bit was the I want half. As a survivor of divorce myself, yeah, uh, I can relate to much of that, all of that. So that is probably my favorite. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um I like when he can he equates it to like if you have five dollars and you have to give them 250, that hurts. But if you have 300 million dollars, like you have to give up 150 million dollars, he's like, they weren't even married for more about 10 years, you know. It's like yeah.
SPEAKER_00What about you, Brian? What's your favorite?
SPEAKER_04Well, so I had a couple that Matt took the Italian one. It's literally one favorite. That's the whole thing. Everything, all of them.
SPEAKER_00The rainbow.
SPEAKER_04No, I would have to say that the so because I like the African woman, American woman bit, like where you know, all that, like you went and picked up the and I also like the Italian uh one that but I won't do that because Matt, but the white people dancing had to be like the fun, because like I said, I can I clo I like watched that and then I closed my eyes and I thought about dances and house parties I went to in the late 80s, early 90s, and my friends were all dancing like that. They were like listening, we were like putting on depeche mode and dancing like that, you know, just like so that was all the suburban white guys aren't the same.
SPEAKER_02I mean, don't tell me that.
SPEAKER_04No, but what I like is I like when he started when he said that if they try to do the you know the the dance with their head, is like when and he makes the noise where he like r runs into something, he's like, Oh, sorry, sorry, I can't. He's like, Oh, okay, I gotta go back to the white person dance, you know, and he's like doing that. So that made me crack up quite a bit. I thought that was really funny. Um, all right, and what about the most retellable joke, Matt?
SPEAKER_02You know, I've I really struggle with this one because uh there's there's things that I go back when on delirious. Yeah, that's a pie. Yeah, you know, I don't know if you remember that one. Yeah, oh yeah. I mean, that one stuck with me for over 40 years. Somebody lights on like that's a pie. Yeah, you know, get that light of fluid out of it, hey? Bring in that gasoline. Anyway, uh, you know, there's I don't there's there's not one here that really stood out for me that I would well definitely not today that I would go around saying. I mean, there was you know, uh, I don't I don't know. I I kind of uh wussed out on this one. I can't really get one.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Nick.
SPEAKER_00Um you know uh Matt, I've done a number of these and I'm wimping out on it too. This is the first time I've whimped out on it. Like I mean, Eddie Murphy's style is so unique that I I can't do a retelling of of like his pace. He's he's very fast-paced. Yeah. Um he has a very distinctive sort of voice and accent on his own. Um the like you said, this day and age, Matt, like yeah. I don't I can't imagine myself retelling any bit of this to anybody at work, yeah, or to my family, or to mixed company. Like, so it's it's not to say that they none of them could appreciate it, but you have to be able to do it very well to get away with it. Yep.
SPEAKER_02You know, like and you know, he used a lot of words that um but at that time nobody really said anything about it, but nowadays it would, you know, I don't know how many times he dropped the N-word, yeah. Uh you know, which is not necessarily unacceptable nowadays if if you're black, but um, you know, he he was very derogatory towards gay people, yeah. Um, you know, and and you just when he did it, it worked, it was funny, and you laughed. And I laughed in, I laugh now, but you can't go back and tell the you can't tell a joke like he told a joke, and I mean it just loses its it it just loses its good. Yeah, so he was saying that all the F people are gonna be on top of the car going, woo, woo, woo.
SPEAKER_00I mean, it's just you know, it just loses its yeah now Matt to defeat your point a little bit, you've retold that joke at least three times. Yeah, you know, he's trying to do it in context, you know. I'm not gonna tell the joke, but and and I'm laughing too because I'm like, okay, here here you and I took a pass, Matt, and I'm just I just know Brian has like three in the chamber. I don't have three, but I do have to prove us all wrong.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, no, no. So I'll say this, I'll qualify this as like uh I I sort of like took a little bit of license on retellable because there are a couple that I use in life, like I just use them in life, like in in when I'm just uh out and about, sort of like you say, Matt, like you just be like, now that's a fire, you know. Like, like you you don't you you just say that, and if somebody gets it, then they get it, but if they don't get it, it's still okay. And so they don't know, you know. And so the one that I like is because the newest one of the new terms we've had in the last few years is gaslighting, right? And so I just love he does a couple of times in here where he talks about what would have been gaslighting at the time. So one of them is right at the beginning when he talks about Mr. T and he wants to do a Jedi mind trick, which is in essence, Jedi mind trick is pretty much gaslighting, right? It's just like telling them something, telling somebody that that no, that's not where you're these aren't the droids you're looking for. Okay, these aren't the droids I'm looking for, you know. Maybe I didn't. Yeah, exactly. Maybe I didn't, exactly. Or did uh the uh the hey was me. Like that joke to me, I just say, I'll just say like people will just say stuff to me and I'll be like, hey, wasn't me. You gotta like you gotta pause for a second, like he does, or he's like, hey, was me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you've practiced that.
SPEAKER_04But I've used that. I use that in life. Like, and like I said, if someone gets it, if someone gets it, they get it. If they don't, they're just like Brian's weird, which is okay. You know, a lot of people say that.
SPEAKER_02We say anywhere they get kid ourselves, right?
SPEAKER_00No, I'd say that's a retellable joke, and if you put it in the right place, they don't even have to get the reference. Right, they can get the joke, right? Like, there's plenty of times where someone's trying to like shame me or make me feel bad or just call attention to a mistake I've made.
SPEAKER_05And right.
SPEAKER_00My go-to as of now would be like, you're welcome, you know, just just to kind of break the the flow and the tension in the script. But yeah, but me doing that would work just as well, you know.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, hey, wasn't me.
SPEAKER_00Hey, hey, like, you know, like I'm about to fetch up to it, you know.
SPEAKER_04I just love I also love that he says, like, he says it in there, and then he says, like, what the you know, like it he does it three times. So he does it, and then she's like, I looked you right in the face, and then he does it again, and then the last one she goes, Maybe it wasn't you, you know, like so like like the gaslighting worked, you know, like anyway. I just thought it was funny.
SPEAKER_00He had lots of straw men in his set. Yeah, like like that's one of them where the the woman or Mr. T was just way too easily convinced. Yeah. Um you know, or the when when he's pretending to be the black guy who can't fight, yeah, scaring off the other person, the other person's way too easily, you know, convinced.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, but it it's still friendly, it's not that easy if you just bow up and you know, yeah, right. Put your voice real high and bring out the Daunt.
SPEAKER_00Matt, I I see the black, I see the black eye. I know you know that it's not that easy. Yeah, I'm kidding. I'm I'm being I'm I don't know. You're like looking at the camera to say, yeah, you're like, wow, did I get a black? I didn't realize that.
SPEAKER_05Oh no, he's making a joke. Ha ha! Hey, hey, hey, I got you. Courtesy laugh.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Thanks.
SPEAKER_00Let's I'll take any laugh I can get.
SPEAKER_04Right, exactly. Well, I think that's it, guys. I think we did it. I think uh actually we're gonna end right before what the amount of time it took to do Eddie Murphy Raw, because it was like an hour and a half. I know that that's a fur for us.
SPEAKER_02We should just end it like Eddie Murphy Raw. I gotta get out of here. Bye. Good night. Yeah, I gotta get out, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and that's a good idea. We should do that from now on. We never know how to end this podcast, so this is one of the things. So maybe we should just do that from now on, Nick. Just wait, we gotta go bye.
SPEAKER_00You know, just no, no, we we we end it the way they ended it in the episode we're reviewing on the the special day.
SPEAKER_04Right, exactly. Oh, that's a good idea. All right, well, we gotta go bye. Oh, wait. Uh, first of all, before I say that, thanks, Matt, for being here eight times. Thank you, Matt, for being here. Thank you for being our guest. Enjoyed it. And uh having a few laughs and stuff like that. And I'll see you in the morning.
SPEAKER_02I'll be there, hopefully. All right, all right, guys. Thank you. We gotta go. Bye. See you. Good to meet you.
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