for 20 June 2000. Updated every WEEKDAY.
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The Friends of Eddie Murphy Your article reminds me of a thing Hilton Als wrote in the New Yorker a while back, wherein he claimed that Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock , Martin Lawrence and Eddie Griffin (the buffoonish guy from Malcolm and Eddie, yeah, I forgot who he was, too) were all knockoffs of Richard Pryor. You and Hilton should get together and fight. Bye Bye, Darin H. Strret Fightin' Man <Zoner39847@aol.com> Darin, thanks for writing. I'll fight anyone named "Hilton" anytime, anywhere. Except Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs. — 40SB (Tom Spurgeon)  Sandy Hunter wrote: Hey..cool piece on Murphy-clones, but don't you think Chris Tucker's work in the Ice Cube weed flick Friday was worthy of note? sandy hunter staff writer 'boards magazine www.boardsmag.com <shunter@brunico.com> Hi, Sandy: I liked Chris Tucker much more in Friday — and the other early film he did (Dead Presidents?) — than any of the work that's followed. Of course, it's the success of that work that priced Tucker right out of the Friday sequel. — 40SB Black, Excellent - one of the most engaging articles I've seen at Suck in quite a while - probably because I agree with almost everything you said. A few nitpicks: * Dave Chappelle owes as much to Cheech & Chong as he does to Eddie Murphy. * I think you missed the point on both The Fifth Element and Martin Lawrence's comedy - sometimes it's not about character, or plot, or quality performances - sometimes its about the glory of pure, pressurized, ultra-refined baroque bullshit. * While Bruce Lee clones are not as cool as Bruce Lee himself, the Eddie Murphy clones named here are generally funny as hell, often funnier than Eddie himself. And didn't people used to say that Eddie was a clone of Richard Pryor? Why wasn't he at the Richard Pryor award ceremony? That schmuck Robin Williams was. Someone should get that dude back on coke. Yrs, Colin <crankine@sensenet.com> Thanks for writing, Colin. I agree with you David Chappelle has a wider variety of influences — so does Lawrence, for that matter. Although I disagree that all of the comedians and actors mentioned in the article are funny, I'll grant you any one of them is funnier than Bruce Li is compelling. But I think it's too bad across the board that they play those Murphy-style roles. I really haven't seen any of them out-Murphy Murphy, in other words. Speaking of Bruce Li, remember Jackie Chan went through a period of being the new Bruce Lee, too. Regardless of your opinion of Chan's comedy films, you have to admit they're way better than the Lee-style movies. I'm glad you enjoyed the piece. — 40SB First of all, very well done. I'm an avid suck reader and have never taken the time to write an author, but today's essay got me thinking. I agree with you almost 100% but there is 1 thing I really would have liked to see in your essay, and if you have time, what your opinion might be... The fate of the 80's contemporary, Murphy sidekick, and I would say failed clone: Arsenio Hall. He played multiple roles right along side Murphy in "Coming to America" and clearly with less skill. He never quite made it to feature film and his talk show was made fun of in every venue. How did this guy get famous? But what's even more interesting is his stint on CBS as sidekick to Sammo Hung. Now we've got clone of a clone with the TV show immitating Rush Hour, imitating 48 Hours? If you have a chance, I'd be curious to hear... Thanks, Chris Robert <cjay@ragingbull.com> P.S. Why don't we see more stuff from you? You got some good insight... Hi, Chris: I didn't include Arsenio Hall because he — and maybe I'm blocking this out because the memory is too painful — didn't go on to carry his own movies. If Coming to America were made right now, the Hall role would likely be played by Martin Lawrence, I'm guessing. I agree with your analysis of Hall's performance. You're also right that Arsenio playing on Sammo Hung's show makes him in some ways a kind of clone of a clone, which is truly frightening. CBS didn't even seem to hide the fact much when casting Hall. Although... from the only episode of the show I've seen Hall seemed less like a Murphy-type partner than one of those humilating sidekicks on the Sam Raimi action shows, there to give the star someone to interact with between fight scenes and look less impressive than while they're going on. Incidentally, some feel that Rush Hour was a lot like the it-was-big-in-Russia movie I describe in the essay, Drive. Which would give Arsenio two clone bloodlines. Anyway, thanks for the kind words and I hope to be writing for Suck more often in the near future. — 40SB Angry, versatile, foul-mouthed, boundary-pushing black performer with enough talent to crossover to the melanin-deficient mainstream, made a big splash with his concert work and went on to movie blandness: Richard Pryor. Angry, versatile, foul-mouthed, boundary-pushing black performer with enough talent to crossover to the melanin-deficient mainstream, made a big splash with his concert work and went on to movie success: Eddie Murphy. As you said, "What separates star cloning from such common occurrences as young hopefuls assuming an older actor's outward ticks or public persona mantle-passing is intent." But to know that, we'd have to peer into Lorne Michaels' brain (eeeeeeeew!). Murphy was clearly a Pryor clone to begin with. The reason that Murphy has the influence to launch half a dozen spores of his own is that sadly, even before his tragic illness, Pryor's story didn't have a second act. I could argue that Pryor was, in turn, a Flip Wilson clone but you can push this thing only so far. Pretty fly for a Canadian guy, Michael K 7lt;michael.k@iname.com> I bet looking into the mind of Lorne Michaels would be like that one big scene in Being John Malkovich where Malkovich looks into his own head, except that there'd be a few Paul Simons and a couple of Chevy Chases amidst all the Lornes. I think at most you can define Murphy's early popularity as a reflection of Pryor — he's clearly the biggest influence on his stand-up, although I see a lot of Redd Foxx (the way he uses profanity) and Bill Cosby (that Mom/shoe routine) in the early Murphy material, too. But Murphy always lacked that sense of vulnerability that made a lot of what Pryor did in stand-up great, and informed a lot of Pryor's film work. It's weird, but I think Murphy could have played Bill Cosby's TV and film roles more easily than just about any of Pryor's. Thanks, Michael. — 40SB Yngwie Malmsteen: now there's a name I haven't heard since high school. I guess he got surgery for his carpel tunnel, as he's obviously still playing violin, er, guitar. Who else would think of taking spirited, lyrical riffs from Paginini and putting them in the somber, heavy-metal version of Wagnerian opera? Rob Peneguy <peneguy@tryc4.com> It's a brave artist who mixes and matches with that kind of daring. I don't think the world's quite ready to come to terms with the massive debt all arts owe Malmsteen. Thanks, — 40SB Your work is a treasure. This is your best since that tax revolt piece. Have you considered a collection of essays ,a la George Will or WFB? I'd buy ten! Thanks for doing that voodoo, that you do, sooooo well. Steven P. Sanabria <diegodeigh@pikeonline.net> Steven: I'm not as interested in doing their kind of essay books as I am in writing gimme essays on baseball and smoking pot on a sailboat. Thanks for the encouragement. — 40SB (Tom Spurgeon) Farewell, My Lovely You missed an amusing angle on the apparent demise of APBNews.com -- their recent success in obtaining financial disclosure records for the federal judiciary (or at least, a ruling from a judicial commission that APBNews.com has/had the right to those records). Perhaps federal judges have influential friends ??? <jimcook@panix.com> An amusing theory, indeed, Jim. But if you know what's good for ya, it'd probably be best if you just kept it to yourself, OK? Fully disclosed, Huck What if APBNews.com had limited itself to something closer to the 2.2% advertising-to-sales ratio that traditional newspapers maintain? Well, admittedly it should've spent a LOT less on advertising. But there IS a reason why dot-coms pour such a high percentage of their resources into advertising; they don't have the brick-and-mortar expenses a lot of the other businesses do. Newspapers need presses, paper, delivery trucks... A server and a T3 line cost a lot less. Though I do agree, APB poured much too much of their cash into ads. John Hoffman <theshadow@shambala.net> I mentioned the 2.2% just to remind people how little traditional newspapers spend on this kind of thing. Sure, there are different sorts of factors to suggest that spending on promotion should be a lot different online than off, but it's pretty illuminating to see just how big the difference in spending is... Huck Dear Mr. St. Huck, Good story, Maybe Suck can merge with APBNews.com and then we would REALLY have a good content site. Wouldn't Salon.com just love that! ;-) David Akerley <davidgeek1@cyberpaperboy.com> I'm lobbying for Suck to purchase APBNews' video archive when/if the fire sale starts. of course, i doubt Suck has any spare cash, but maybe the APB liquidators will trade the archive for some Suck t-shirts... best, Huck Subject: I LOVE SUCK I'm not one of those types to write an email to a company. It's campy and I always feel like I have something better to do. For example, it's unlikely that I will tell Charmin that I hate their toilet paper because it's not soft and it's not quilty; it's just really poorly constructed paper mache that leaves a toxic silt on everything it touches. That having been said, I love Suck. I am a writer and African American woman and I appreciate that your expressions (tainted and angry as they may be) are multi-hued and multi-dimensional. Kai Bowe <kbowe1@earthlink.net> Thanks for the good word, Kai. Speaking of the taint, though, just where do you think most of that toxic Charmin silt ends up? Sucksters |
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