Great Moments In Colored Cinema: Sexual Chocolate

Believe it or not, there was a time when Eddie Murphy was considered to be a comedic genius. Before he was attempting to paint himself as a family friendly star with a slew of underwhelming bombs like “Norbit,” “Meet Dave,” and “A Thousand Words,” Eddie was considered one of the hardest working and verbally vulgar comedians in the game. And he was great. Given, his reign was in the ‘80s, a time when the artist formally known and then later confirmed to be Prince was considered a rebel, “dope” actually meant drugs, and interracial dating was the social kiss of death. Regardless, Murphy was still ahead of his time. From doing classic standup performances to appearing in a number of blockbuster and cult classic movies, for a hot minute it seemed like Eddie Murphy was king of comedy.

Just look at the clip and you’ll see him cleverly play 3 different people in a single scene. You got Eddie as the Prince of Zamunda, Prince Akeem, witnessing himself as the Jheri curled rocking, bushy eye-browed, scruffy faced Randy Watson. Him and his band Sexual Chocolate, sing “The Greatest Love of All” off tune while pimping one of those mariachi looking suits that myself and countless other Latino boys have worn to girls Quinceaneras as kids. All these things are going on while he’s playing an old man who peeps Chocolate’s lack of game and dismisses his performance quicker than the Jewish community dismissed Mel Gibson’s apology. Even at the end of his show, while the crowd remains silent and dumbfounded by his performance, a defiant Watson still drops the mic like he just mastered the ceremony! This was one of those moments where Eddie Murphy was at his best: captivating and entertaining both visually and sonically… sort of.