Bill Cosby's Publicist Slams Eddie Murphy, Calls Him a ‘Hollywood Slave' for ‘SNL' Monologue

Comedian and actor Eddie Murphy’s return to "Saturday Night Live" after 35 years has garnered mostly positive reviews. One person who was not a fan, however, was the publicist for jailed comedian Bill Cosby.

During his opening monologue, Murphy spoke about Cosby, who is currently serving a three to 10-year prison sentence for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004.

“My kids are actually pretty much my whole life now,” Murphy said Saturday night. “But 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.”

“Who is ‘America’s dad’ now?” Murphy asked as he did an impression of Cosby.

The bit drew plenty of laughs from the audience, but Cosby’s publicist, Andrew Wyatt, was not amused. Wyatt took to Cosby’s official Instagram page Sunday night to slam Murphy for his comments.

“It is sad that Mr. Murphy would take this glorious moment of returning to SNL and make disparaging remarks against Mr. Cosby,” Wyatt wrote. “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.”

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Bill Cosby’s Publicist, Andrew Wyatt, responds to Eddie Murphy’s SNL Monologue: “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. 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.” #NotFunnySNL #SNL #FarFromFinished #FreeBillCosby #BillCosby

A post shared by Bill Cosby (@billcosby) on Dec 22, 2019 at 5:14pm PST

Murphy has talked about Cosby throughout his standup career. During his popular 1987 standup special, “Raw,” Murphy talked about criticism he received from Cosby due to his raunchy humor.