Kill Your Idols: Eddie Murphy Delirious

Listen to Raw, then watch Daddy Day Care, then report back.

 

Beat me to it. It's not even close.

 

I don't have a problem with him doing the kid's movies. He saw a chance to extend his career and he went for it. He's made hundreds of millions off the Shrek movies and the other kid's movies he's done.

I read somewhere that he was as surprised as anyone that the family movies he did were successful.

 

People are so concerned with others "selling out," whatever that actually means. Eddie Murphy? Great comedian, but he "sold out" when he decided to make millions of dollars doing things like Daddy Day Care. Adam Sandler? Great when he made Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison, but he "sold out" when he decided to make millions of dollars creating movies for him and his friends.

I don't like Eddie Murphy any less because he went and made a few movies that I didn't wanna see.

 

He was 42 when Daddy Day Care came out (2003), and it was roughly 15 years after Raw. Like every other major box office star, he had a tremendous peak and then from there, a gradual decline. I think what trips people up is that he was unquestionably megafamous by the time he was 22, but that doesn't mean his peak fame is going to last any longer than, say, Harrison Ford or Stallone.

 

Eddie Murphy sacrificed his artistic integrity to make money. That is what selling out means.

Adam Sandler didn't sell out at all. He stopped being funny.

 

I think it helps that his main competition in that area seems to be Kevin James and The Rock. I don't consider The Nutty Professor or Dr. Doolittle great art or anything, but his presence guarantees that there are at least a couple laughs.

 

If that's your standard for selling out though, who hasn't? Dave Chappelle? That's the only guy that immediately jumps to mind. You could throw in guys like Louis CK, I guess, but I don't think that phylum of performer ever had a chance to be the No. 1 box office draw for five years or so.

 

On Sandler, that's fair. To each his own. But I know people who claim he sold out. Those people are idiots.

On Murphy, disagree. Shocking, I know. It's unfair to expect him to be at his Delirious level for 25 years.

 

Chris Rock didn't sell out but did do big movies and voiceovers. He didn't sell out because he never repented for his old shit and still is as vulgar and angry as ever when he does standup. He's also pretty fucking rich.

Jerry Seinfeld didn't sell out. Larry David didn't sell out. Fucking Dane Cook didn't sell out. There's a difference between taking a role like Axel Foley and taking roles in kids movies while saying you're embarrassed about the homophobia you talked about in the 1980s, particularly when that all was hedged even back then by him saying gay people were fine in Delirious.

 

So is wealth a determining factor in whether or not you sold out?

 

Are Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld and Adam Sandler wealthy?