Even though he's been in a Pennsylvania prison since last September, Bill Cosby managed to say a few words after Eddie Murphy cracked a joke at his expense during his Saturday Night Live monologue.
During his anticipated return to SNL after over 30 years, Murphy joked that no one could have expected that he would be a father of 10 and Cosby would be in prison.
"If you would have told me 30 years ago that I would be this boring, stay-at-home house dad and Bill Cosby would be in jail, even I would have took that bet," he said as the audience erupted in laughter.
"Who is America's Dad, now?" Murphy added.
In a fiery and unhinged statement released by Cosby's spokesman Andrew Wyatt, the imprisoned comedian slammed Murphy for his jokes and called him a "Hollywood slave."
A spokesman for Bill Cosby has fired back at Eddie Murphy after the comedian made jokes at Cosby's expense during his opening monologue on Saturday Night Live, @dakinandone reports.
Full statement below.https://t.co/E5n8tM6SHF
pic.twitter.com/Kssuh8PL66— Amir Vera (@TheAmirVera) December 23, 2019
Wyatt also shared the statement on Instagram.
“Mr. Cosby became the first Black to win an Emmy for his role in I Spy and Mr. Cosby broke color barriers in the entertainment industry, so that Blacks like Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappell, Kevin Hart and et al., could have an opportunity to showcase their talents for many generations to come. It is sad that Mr. Murphy would take this glorious moment of returning to SNL and make disparaging remarks against Mr. Cosby. One would think that Mr. Murphy was given his freedom to leave the plantation, so that he could make his own decisions; but he decided to sell himself back to being a Hollywood Slave," Wyatt wrote.
"Stepin Fetchit plus cooning equals the destruction of Black Men in Hollywood. Remember, Mr. Murphy, that Bill Cosby became legendary because he used comedy to humanize all races, religions and genders; but your attacking Mr. Cosby helps you embark on just becoming click bait. Hopefully, you will be amenable to having a meeting of the minds conversation, in order to discuss how we can use our collective platforms to enhance Black people rather than bringing all of us down together,” the spokesman added on Cosby's behalf.
The two comedians have had a bitter feud since Murphy emerged as a 19-year-old superstar on SNL in the 1980s. Murphy spoke to Jerry Seinfeld on Comedians in Cars about how Cosby would criticize him for being too dirty during his standup routines.
“He had a weird thing with me that he didn’t have with other comics. It was mean. He wasn’t nice. He wasn’t doing that with everybody, he was doing that with me specifically. He was shitty with me,” Murphy told Seinfeld, adding that Cosby repeatedly asked him to come "see how it's supposed to be done."
The feud continued when Murphy addressed a phone call between the two of them in his now-iconic 1987 special Eddie Murphy Raw, clowning Cosby for criticizing his use of language.
“I’ve been a big fan of Bill Cosby all my life. Never met the man before, but he called me up about a year ago and chastised me on the phone for being too dirty on stage,” he said before embarking on a hilarious impression of the imprisoned comedian.
After the special aired, Cosby called Murphy again, infuriated. Former Saturday Night Live cast member Joe Piscopo told Fox News that Murphy was sad that Cosby responded that way.
“I was in my office, Eddie walked in so devastated. Murphy said 'Cosby just called me, man. He railed me for being too dirty – he railed me — he yelled at me for like 20 minutes,'” Piscopo said.
Murphy has sporadically continued to make jokes about Cosby, even referencing him during his acceptance speech for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Cosby is currently serving a three to 10-year sentence for three counts of aggravated indecent assault stemming from an April 2018 conviction that was upheld this month.