The Netflix documentary Being Eddie sheds light on Eddie Murphy’s bygone grudge against David Spade’s infamous quip on Saturday Night Live. However, it seems Murphy has largely moved on. Well, mostly.
Helmed by director Angus Wall, Being Eddie made its debut on Netflix today, offering a familiar, glossy narrative of celebrity triumph. Among its few contentious moments is a revisitation of Murphy’s reaction to an SNL joke that stung.
For those familiar with SNL lore, Murphy joined the cast in 1980 and quickly became a standout star. However, he nursed a long-standing grievance against the show after Spade took a jab at Murphy’s career in 1995, ten years after Murphy had departed.
Spade, notorious for his biting commentary during “Hollywood Minute,” mocked Murphy following the commercial and critical failure of his 1995 film Vampires in Brooklyn, quipping, “Look children, it’s a falling star. Make a wish.”
The audience’s shocked reaction to the joke is highlighted in the 2025 documentary. Murphy reflects, “The crowd booed and hissed at him for that remark. It hurt my feelings. It was like my own school taking a swipe at my career, not my humor. They called me a ‘falling star.’ If a similar joke targeted another SNL member’s career today, it would be axed. Producers wouldn’t allow it.”
The joke was met with shocked “Ooo’s” from the audience, something Murphy was quick to point out in this new 2025 documentary.
“The audience there boo and hissed him for saying it, right? I was hurt, my feelings was hurt,” Murphy said in the documentary. “I was like, ‘Yo I’m from the same-‘ It’s like your alma mater taking a shot at youâat my career, not how how funny I was. Called me a ‘falling star.’ If there was a joke like that right now, and it was about some other SNL cast member, and it was about how fucked up their career was, it would get shot down. The producers would look at it and say, ‘You’re not saying that joke.’”
Murphy continued, “The joke went through all of those channels that the joke has to go through, and then he was on the air saying ‘Catch a falling star.’ I wasnât like, ‘Fuck David Spade’ I was like,âOh, fuck SNL. Fuck yâall, how y’all gonna do this shit? Thatâs what yâall think of me? You dirty mother-‘ Thatâs why I didnât go back for years.”
Despite Murphy’s claims that he wasn’t mad at Spade personally, Spade revealed in his 2015 memoir that Murphy called him on the phone two days after the joke, and let him have it.
Spade recounted the phone call in his book, writing, “‘David Spade, who the fuck do you think you are?!! Honestly? Who. The. Fuck. Going after ME?? You dumb motherfucker! Iâm off-limits, donât you know that? You wouldnât have a job if it werenât for me. Talking shit about me??’ Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera . . . on and on and on and making me feel like shit.” Spade was told by mutual friends that Murphy hated him for years after.
Spade went on to say that while Murphy’s reaction crushed him, he came to see Murphy’s point of view eventually, and finally had a run-in with Murphy in 2011, where the two comedians reconciled.
Murphy finally decided to bury the hatchet with SNLâkind ofâand return to the show as a host in 2019.
In the documentary, Murphy explains his decision. “I was like, ‘You know what? Fuck this. SNL is part of my history. I need to reconnect with that show, because that’s where I come from.’ That little friction that I had with SNL was 35 years ago. I don’t have no smoke with no David Spade. I don’t have any heat, or any of that, with nobody. I was like, ‘Hey let me go to and smooth that all out.’ And I did.”
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