Eddie Murphy - Television Tropes & Idioms

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Eddie Murphy is an American actor, voice actor, film director, producer, comedian and singer. He is the second-highest grossing lead actor in motion picture history. He was a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1984 — keeping that show afloat at a time when it was floundering so badly that NBC was considering cancellation * — and worked as a stand-up comedian throughout The Eighties. He was ranked #10 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.

Amongst his Eighties film roles, he was best-known for playing Axel Foley in the Beverly Hills Cop series; he also helped popularize Salt and Pepper pairings with his work in 48 Hrs. (his film debut) and Trading Places. In 2007, he won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of soul singer James "Thunder" Early in Dreamgirls and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the same role.

In some of his films he plays multiple roles in addition to his main character, intended as a tribute to one of his idols, Peter Sellers, who played multiple roles in Dr. Strangelove and elsewhere. Murphy has played multiple roles in Coming to America, Wes Craven's Vampire in Brooklyn, The Nutty Professor films (where he played the title role in two incarnations, plus his father, uncle, mother and grandmother), Bowfinger and 2007's Norbit.

After voicing Mushu the dragon in Disney's Mulan, Murphy's work as a voice actor went on to include Thurgood Stubbs in The PJs and Donkey in the Shrek series.

His 1983 stand-up show Delirious is memetically popular with the new generation, featuring memorable sketches such as his drunk foul-mouthed dad, his shoe-throwing mom, his overweight moustached Aunt Bonnie who fell down the stairs (My Shoe!) and is rumored to be Bigfoot (GOONIE GOO GOO!), portraying Mr T and Ralph Kramden as homosexuals, portraying Michael Jackson as a very sensitive young man, discussing offended African-Americans on his portrayal of Stevie Wonder and much much more.

His brother Charlie was a regular on Chappelle's Show and played Ed Wuncler III in The Boondocks. He even appeared in a cameo as himself in a segment from 1000 Ways to Die.

Unfortunately, as the 1990's and 2000's rolled around, his career took a turn for the worse. The Showtime remake started the beginning of the end and Adventures of Pluto Nash became one of the all time biggest flops, with a budget of $100 million dollars and a worldwide gross of $7.1 million. He had a brief resurgence of quality with the Shrek films and Dream Girls, but he has yet to have a hit film since then due to Bad Bad Acting and several films that qualify for They Just Didn't Care.

His roles provide examples of:

Acting for Two: He does this. A lot. Sometimes three or four characters at a time.
Black and Nerdy: His role as Norbit in the movie Norbit and also his role as Jiff in Bowfinger and as Professor Sherman Klump in The Nutty Professor.
Casa Nova:His character in the movie Boomerang.
Cloudcuckoolander
Cluster F-Bomb: When doing stand up.
Cowboy Cop: Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop.
Creator Backlash: Has been very harsh toward much of his early 1990s work, most notably Beverly Hills Cop III.
- Berserk Button: That said, he doesn't like anyone else making light of stinkers.
The Eighties: When he was in his prime .
Fake Nationality: He did this in Coming to America He was playing a African man and he was also playing a Jewish man in the same movie and in Norbit he played a Chinese man .
Fan Disservice: Rasputia in a two piece is not a nice sight to see .
Fat Suit: Nutty Professor and Norbit.
Jerkass: Slide in Tower Heist .
Large Ham
Lovable Sex Maniac: Reggie in 48 Hours.
Mistaken for Gay: In real life after he was caught picking up a transsexual prostitute.
Motor Mouth
N-Word Privileges
Non-Human Sidekick: Donkey in the animated movie Shrek. Mushu in Mulan .
Rated G for Gangsta:He started his carrier as a Foul mouth comedian that was also a cast member of Saturday Night Live and starred mostly in R-rated comedy movies until the 1990s-2000 where he starred in family orientated films and animated movies.But according to him as of now he is done with those type of movies .
Really Gets Around: In the movie Boomerang.
Salt and Pepper: In 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cops and Showtime .
Sassy Black Woman: Rasputia in Norbit.
Self-Deprecation: His Buddy Love persona in The Nutty Professor is a big Take That against what he was known as during his slumping career in the early 1990s, when he was starting to get a reputation for being overly obnoxious and self-absorbed.
Standup Comedy
Soul Brotha: In Mulan as Mushu .
Talking Animal: Donkey in the Shrek film series .
Talking to Himself: In Coming to America, Norbit and The Nutty Professor .
Uncle Tomfoolery: Trading Places and I Spy .
What Could Have Been: He was going to cast in Ghostbusters .
White Dude, Black Dude: In his stand up routines .