Awkward
Last night I caught part of the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary special. I didn’t watch the whole thing, but I caught, maybe, the last hour of the show. I’m a fan of the first couple of seasons and then a fan of the seasons with Christopher Guest and Martin Short and then the Dana Carvey /Mike Meyers/Phil Hartman era hit while I was in High School and I loved it. My love for the show dropped in college and never got back to those High School heights.
Anyway, I enjoyed seeing some moments from those years last night on the special and, this morning, I scooped through my news feed to and checked out a few articles about it. Several mentioned how ‘awkward’ Eddie Murphy was. Now, I didn’t see the part with Eddie Murphy, so I sought it out on YouTube and here it is below. NOTE: This isn’t the official version as I heard that that has been edited. This is how it aired and, as such, it may get taken down.
To me, this wasn’t awkward at all. He came out, said a few heartfelt words and then tried to keep the show going. He clearly signals that he is done by saying “Let’s have some more show…” Eddie Murphy wasn’t awkward. He was genuine. What was awkward was the director was asleep at the wheel and didn’t cue the band.
I guess people are bummed because, after Chris Rock’s intro, everyone thought he was going to come out and be hilarious. We were never promised that. TO me it seemed almost like an acceptance speech. He thanked people who liked his work and then wanted the show to keep going. How is that awkward?