Y'all didn't know I was a ventriloquist too!
Lamentably I am still experiencing a general feeling of malaise, a funk I haven't quite pulled myself out of yet; however, I'll try to get things back to normal soon, and at least I had the time to watch this. Despite an opening that is ghastly by 2019 standards (more on that later) overall this is still very funny to me and it does help brighten my mood.
Many people would know this from hearing much of the material on Murphy's first two comedy albums; me, it was different. Of course I saw his movies and enjoyed them as a kid and it wasn't until college that someone I knew had an MP3 rip of this (an HBO special filmed in Washington, D.C.) so I ripped it to CD and thought it tremendous. I don't even recall how many years later that I actually viewed Delirious... I was glad I did; Eddie's all-red leather outfit was stupendous but it helped seeing all his facial expressions and how he commanded the stage & the audience.
To address the elephant in the room, Delirious starts off with bad comments about both homosexuals and AIDS. I realize that at the time AIDS was seen as “the gay disease” but it went above and beyond that; saying “I'm petrified of gay people” is hard to defend or rationalize. Years later Murphy did apologize for that bit but once you get past that, Delirious is tremendous as he rips on such people as James Brown, Michael Jackson, and “ugly singers” in general... and adult topics like sex. Best of all was the long bit where he talked about his childhood and more innocuous topics like the ice cream man, bath time w/ siblings and backyard BBQ's w/ the family. Another highlight was all the great impressions he did throughout... and boy does Eddie's line about “white people voting for someone as a joke” seem prescient now after what happened a few years ago.
This was not viewed just because Eddie Murphy has experienced a renaissance due to Dolemite is my Name (which I'll view in the future) and the plans for there to be a 4th Beverly Hills Cop on Netflix-rumors of that sequel must have been around since my college days, and that was almost two decades ago. Rather, it was someone in a messageboard thread mentioning his viewing of Delirious that made me realize this was long overdue for a revisit and I could finally talk about it here. It's incredibly profane and there are other moments that will offend certain demographics... overall this still made me laugh as much as the first time I heard all those funny moments on what was a burned CD, probably Verbatim in particular.
Lamentably I am still experiencing a general feeling of malaise, a funk I haven't quite pulled myself out of yet; however, I'll try to get things back to normal soon, and at least I had the time to watch this. Despite an opening that is ghastly by 2019 standards (more on that later) overall this is still very funny to me and it does help brighten my mood.
Many people would know this from hearing much of the material on Murphy's first two comedy albums; me, it was different. Of course I saw his movies and enjoyed them as a kid and it wasn't until college that someone I knew had an MP3 rip of this (an HBO special filmed in Washington, D.C.) so I ripped it to CD and thought it tremendous. I don't even recall how many years later that I actually viewed Delirious... I was glad I did; Eddie's all-red leather outfit was stupendous but it helped seeing all his facial expressions and how he commanded the stage & the audience.
To address the elephant in the room, Delirious starts off with bad comments about both homosexuals and AIDS. I realize that at the time AIDS was seen as “the gay disease” but it went above and beyond that; saying “I'm petrified of gay people” is hard to defend or rationalize. Years later Murphy did apologize for that bit but once you get past that, Delirious is tremendous as he rips on such people as James Brown, Michael Jackson, and “ugly singers” in general... and adult topics like sex. Best of all was the long bit where he talked about his childhood and more innocuous topics like the ice cream man, bath time w/ siblings and backyard BBQ's w/ the family. Another highlight was all the great impressions he did throughout... and boy does Eddie's line about “white people voting for someone as a joke” seem prescient now after what happened a few years ago.
This was not viewed just because Eddie Murphy has experienced a renaissance due to Dolemite is my Name (which I'll view in the future) and the plans for there to be a 4th Beverly Hills Cop on Netflix-rumors of that sequel must have been around since my college days, and that was almost two decades ago. Rather, it was someone in a messageboard thread mentioning his viewing of Delirious that made me realize this was long overdue for a revisit and I could finally talk about it here. It's incredibly profane and there are other moments that will offend certain demographics... overall this still made me laugh as much as the first time I heard all those funny moments on what was a burned CD, probably Verbatim in particular.
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