On December 9, 1995, during an episode of Saturday Night Live, David Spade told a joke that would haunt him for many years. During a year-in-review edition of Hollywood Minute, Spade took shots at various celebrities as their pictures were shown behind him. When fellow SNL legend Eddie Murphy’s photo appeared, Spade quipped, “Look, children, it’s a falling star. Make a wish,” earning a mixed reaction from the crowd.
You can take a look at the segment in question right here:
The following Monday, Spade got a call from Murphy at the SNL offices and quickly began to panic. Spade tried his best to duck the call, but Murphy knew he was there and insisted that Spade call him back before he drove in to talk to him in person. According to Spade, the first words out of Murphy’s mouth when the two finally got on the phone were, “David Spade, who the f—k do you think you are?” Spade barely got a word in as his comedy hero tore him a new one, yelling, “You dumb motherf—ker! I’m off-limits, don’t you know that? You wouldn’t have a job if it weren’t for me.”
One ‘SNL’ Joke Turned Eddie Murphy Against David Spade for Years
Murphy apparently wasn’t just mad at Spade, either; he was angry with Lorne Michaels for letting the joke on the air in the first place, which is why he didn’t return to 30 Rock until the SNL 40th Anniversary show in 2015. For years, when Spade would run into their mutual friend Chris Rock, Rock would tell him, “Saw Eddie last week. He still hates you.” Reflecting on the joke in 2024, Murphy said that he was mad about it because he interpreted it as a personal attack.
“It was like, ‘Yo, how could you do that?’ My career? Really? A joke about my career? So I thought it was a cheap shot. And it was kind of racist, I thought,” Murphy told Entertainment Weekly.
Around the time of the 40th Anniversary show, Spade ran into Murphy as he was crossing the street in Los Angeles. With close to 20 years having passed since the joke heard round the world, Murphy greeted Spade through the passenger window of his car and asked him how he was doing. The pair shook hands and briefly exchanged pleasantries before going their separate ways.
“My burden was lifted. After all those years, that stupid joke can be just that, a stupid joke,” Spade wrote in his 2015 memoir Almost Interesting. “And I can go back to appreciating what a funny motherf—ker he is.”