''Eddie Murphy Delirious'' is an American

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of e ...

directed by

Bruce Gowers Bruce Gowers is a British television director and producer, best known for his work on large-scale live music and event productions. Gowers started his career in his native United Kingdom, where his music video for Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" b ...

, written by and starring

Eddie Murphy Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has als ...

. The stand-up set became a TV Special for HBO on October 15, 1983. The 70-minute special was Murphy's first feature stand-up and the predecessor to the wide theatrical release in 1987, ''

Eddie Murphy Raw ''Eddie Murphy Raw'' is a 1987 American stand-up comedy film starring Eddie Murphy and directed by Robert Townsend. It was Murphy's second feature stand-up comedy film, following ''Eddie Murphy Delirious''. However, unlike ''Delirious'', ''Raw'' ...

''. ''Delirious'' was also released as an album on October 24, 1983, titled '' Eddie Murphy: Comedian'', which won Best Comedy Album at the 1984

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

Overview

Unlike his acts on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves ...

'', Murphy's performance was very profane, saying the word ''

fuck ''Fuck'' is an English-language expletive. It often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to ar ...

'' a total of 230 times, and ''

shit ''Shit'' is a word considered to be vulgar and profane in Modern English. As a noun, it refers to fecal matter, and as a verb it means to defecate; in the plural ("the shits"), it means diarrhea. ''Shite'' is a common variant in British ...

'' 171 times. The show was recorded at

DAR Constitution Hall DAR Constitution Hall is a concert hall located at 1776 D Street NW, near the White House in Washington, D.C. It was built in 1929 by the Daughters of the American Revolution to house its annual convention when membership delegations outgrew Me ...

in Washington, D.C. Before the show started,

The BusBoys The BusBoys is an American rock and roll band known for its association with Eddie Murphy and performing in the film ''48 Hrs.'' Formed in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, the original lineup featured brothers Brian O'Neal (keyboards, vocals) and ...

performed "(The Boys Are) Back in Town" over a montage of pre-show footage of Murphy traveling with his road crew. Then, he is introduced after the song and thanks The BusBoys for the opening act before starting his comedy routine. Among the topics Murphy addresses is the lure

ice cream trucks An ice cream van (British) or ice cream truck (North American) is a commercial vehicle that serves as a mobile retail outlet for ice cream, usually during the spring and summer. Ice cream vans are often seen parked at public events, or near ...

have on children. Once the ice cream was bought, they would sing and dance mockingly in front of kids who could not afford it. Other topics that he addresses are family parties (his cookout skit featuring a humanoid cryptid for an aunt-in-law and an uncle who ignites the whole backyard in an attempt to work the grill) parental discipline (his shoe-throwing mothers monologue),

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the " King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over ...

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the hono ...

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, pop, s ...

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagoni ...

Reaganomics Reaganomics (; a portmanteau of ''Reagan'' and ''economics'' attributed to Paul Harvey), or Reaganism, refers to the neoliberal economic policies promoted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s. These policies are commonly associat ...

gay people This is a confirmed referenced overview list of notable gay, lesbian or bisexual people, who have either been open about their sexuality or for which reliable sources exist. The number of notables in the list is likely to be several times highe ...

, (including a routine depicting "

The Honeymooners ''The Honeymooners'' is an American television sitcom which originally aired from 1955 to 1956, created by and starring Jackie Gleason, and based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason's variety show. It fo ...

" Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton as same-sex sweethearts),

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

, and

Marian Anderson Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897April 8, 1993) was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United ...

. After his routine, the video ends with Murphy and his road crew walking to his dressing room while the credits roll.

Reception

The special received positive reviews and is widely cited by comedians as a seminal stand-up work. The review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

gave it an 83% approval rating based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. However, it was criticised for being anti-gay. "When I did ''Delirious''," Murphy reflected in 1989, "I got all this flak for my material being so filthy. The truth is, it's nowhere near as filthy as some of the stuff they're doing now. I'm feeling like a fucking old guy watching

Sam Kinison Samuel Burl Kinison ( ; December 8, 1953 – April 10, 1992) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. A former Pentecostal preacher, he performed stand-up routines that were characterized by intense sudden tirades, punctuated with his distinc ...

Andrew Dice Clay Andrew Dice Clay (born Andrew Clay Silverstein; September 29, 1957) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He rose to prominence in the late 1980s with a brash, deliberately offensive persona known as "The Diceman". In 1990, he became the fi ...

." One of the topics that Murphy addresses in ''Delirious'' is

homosexuality Homosexuality is Romance (love), romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romant ...

, and using the

homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...

slur "

faggot Faggot, faggots, or faggoting may refer to: Arts and crafts * Faggoting (metalworking), forge welding a bundle of bars of iron and steel * Faggoting (knitting), variation of lace knitting in which every stitch is a yarn over or a decrease * ...

". However, in 1996, he released a one-page statement apologizing for his use of that slur, saying: "I deeply regret any pain all this has caused."

Home video

In June 2009, a 25th Anniversary Edition was released.

References

External links

* {{Eddie Murphy, state=collapsed 1983 television specials 1980s American television specials 1980s in comedy Cultural depictions of the Rolling Stones Cultural depictions of Michael Jackson Cultural depictions of Elvis Presley Cultural depictions of James Brown HBO network specials Television shows directed by Bruce Gowers