1983. Eddie Murphy on “faggots” and AIDS

There is a theory about ‘straight’ men who go out of their way to make homophobic remarks. It says that they they’re actually trying  to convince themselves that they’re not queer. Certainly Eddie Murphy’s 1983 show Delirious was so viciously homophobic you can’t help wondering what he was trying to prove.

He opens with a rant about his rule that “faggots” aren’t allowed to stare at his “ass” during the show. Then he tells of a nightmare in which he meets ‘Mr T’ (a very butch character in 1980s TV show The A Team) only to discover that he’s gay.

And so the show continues in much the same way until we get on to AIDS. “AIDS kills people”, he says. Then he makes it very clear which people he means. “It petrifies me because girls have been hanging out with them.” Unsurprisingly, ‘they’ turn out to be the gay men that these girls have been out clubbing with.

And he’s only petrified because of the supposed risks this presents to him. The ‘joke’ is based on a combination of ignorance and callousness.

The girls give their gay friends a kiss and “come home with AIDS on their lips.”. In that one line he not only reinforces the notion of gay men as natural hosts of the disease but also the idea that AIDS is highly infectious. Hilarious isn’t it!

The ‘joke’ ends with the punchline that, once you’ve contracted the disease from your girlfriends lips, your doctor won’t believe that you’re not gay. Whoops, your insecurity is showing again Eddie.

The following clip doesn’t include the entire performance but it’s the only one I could find that doesn’t require you to sign in (and it still gives a good idea of the general tone).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stsnlTZG84Y

For those who would argue that ‘this is just a harmless joke’ and that we should learn to laugh at ourselves, let me point out that this is 1983. AIDS was a new and frightening disease of unknown cause or cure. And gay men were not only being hit hardest ( in the West, at least) but were being vilified by the gutter Press and moral entrepreneurs.

Rather than recognise all of this, Eddie Murphy merely saw us as an easy target. The faggots are already down, let’s kick them even harder while they’re there.

I think the final word on this matter should go to another stand-up comedian, Jared Karol. Writing earlier this year, he talks about how he always thought Murphy’s “Mr Johnson you have AIDS” joke was hilarious when he was growing up. Then his Dad came out to him.

“…it wasn’t until the summer of 2000 when my dad was admitted to the hospital with what turned out to be complications from AIDS that I finally began to understand that there are hundreds of thousands of Mr. Johnsons out there and each one of them is someone’s brother or son or father or partner or friend…

Yeah, AIDS is no joke. I know that now.”