Eddie Murphy made a triumphant return to Saturday Night Live on NBC this weekend and took a dig at Bill Cosby during his opening monologue.
It would seem that the incarcerated comedian did not see the funny side at Murphy's jesting and his publicist attacked the 58-year-old comic, labelling a 'slave to Hollywood' in a furious statement.
Murphy had compared his current life as dad to 10 children, where he mainly stays at home to Cosby's, who's serving three to 10 years in prison.
Cosby was found guilty in April 2018 on three counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2004.
During his SNL appearance, Murphy joked: "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."
Then impersonating Cosby's Cliff Huxtable sitcom character, Murphy said "Who is America's Dad now?"
While this brought the house down in the studio, Bill Cosby’s Publicist, Andrew Wyatt, was not happy with what he had seen and heard.
He issued a statement on Cosby's Instagram account, which read: "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.”
Murphy has yet to respond to the statement but has changed his Instagram profile tag line to "Who is America's dad now?" to reflect his gag on SNL.
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