This month, Eddie Murphy's breakout stand-up routine, "Delirious" came out on DVD after being filmed more than 20 years ago for HBO.
This is the act where the brash 22-year old appeared in a tight red leather outfit and was the beginning of what has proven to be an illustrious career culminating this Sunday with a possible Oscar nod.
Who could forget being a shorty surreptiously listening to 'Delirious' on wax (remember the flower behind his ear on the album cover? HOW YOU DOIN?????)
To this day, we still know all the words to hilarious bits like "Ice Creeeeeeeeeeeam", "Gooney Goo Goo" and the farts-in-the-tub.
Yet, looking at this video some 23 years later, what bugged me out was Eddie's commentary on AIDS, a disease that was mostly ravaging the gay community back then.
Beside his immediate and gratuitious use of the 'f word" (a NO NO these days -- ask Isaiah Washington), it's trippy to hear Murphy talk about AIDS and how it was transmitted.
Murphy from 'Delirious:'
You know what's really scary? That new AIDS s---.
AIDS is scary 'cos it kills motherf------s, AIDS!
That ain't like the good ol' days when venereal disease was simple.
In the good old days, you got gonorhea, you d--- hurt, go get a shot, cleared right up.
Then they came out with herpes, you keep that s--- forever like luggage.
And now they got AIDS, that just kills motherf-----s.
Kills people ! It petrifies me 'cos girls be hanging out with [gay men].
One night they could be in the club having fun with their gay friend, give them a little kiss.
And go home with AIDS on their lips !
And then when her husband, like five years later goes to the doctor, he has it.
Husband: "AIDS?! But I'm not homosexual!"
Doctor (punchline): "Sure you're not homosexual..."
All JOKES ASIDE, look at how the conversation (and reality) has changed in 20 some odd years!
AIDS is certainly no gay man's disease any more, and we all should know it can't be transmitted through kisses.
Let's hope in another 20 years, that AIDS will be like polio (mostly gone from the earth, that is).
It's definitely no laughing matter.
'Delirious' is available for a SRP of $19.98. It has bonus features including new outtakes from the show and an interview between Murphy and Byron Allen.
1. Peace is a time when children bury parents; War is a time when mothers and fathers bury sons and daughters. A war raages in Africa America because of black on black crime, white on black crime, crack cocaine, suicide, despair, and HIV/AIDS. I shall briefly speak on the latter.
As Carter Woodson said of Black History, Eddie Murphy has correctly observed that AIDS is no a laughing matter. What appalls me the most is that well into a second generation of doing combat living with and doing battle against AIDS, much of the black community remains in a denial state as is the initial reactionof people who are so diagnosed. When brothers and sisters all around us are dying in drove because of HIV/AIDS, we look for other causes of death rather than admit the true cause. It's okay to die of crack addition; it's okay to die of pneumonia; it's okay to die of hepatitis; it's okay to die of TB; it's okay to die of cancer; but, it's not okay to dies of AIDS. Few are cognizant of the fact that the listed diseases (and others) in the presence of HIV are considered AIDS.
I know of not less than ten people in my community who have died of AIDS, but one the categorized diseases and not AIDS is listed as the cause of demise. African Americans need to get real about AIDS and stop the hype. There was a dreaded "invisible empire", which killed and terrorized blacks, at one time in our history. Now, there is another empire of unseen killers of unknown origin-an empire of virus that attacks the blood, bone and marrow-which terrorizes African Americans. HIV/AIDS is such a killer.
There is another feign who has jumped into bed with HIV/AIDS, and that "CRACK COCAINE"! Both emereged in the early 1980's. One should be familiar with the dehumanizing effect that Crack has on users. They sell their bodies and engage in all types of debaucheries (drug injection, same sex relations, etc.) to satisfy their cravings. As the use of crack cocaine spiraled, so did the rise of HIV/AIDS. There is a directly proportional relationship between the use of crack and the spread of HIV'AIDS in the black community among men and women. It goes without saying that the death rate among thos who have AIDS and use crack coacaine is astronomical. Research has shown that the increase of the virus linked to AIDS (HIV) increases 200 times faster in specially prepared human cell placed in mice that it does in the similar cells exposed to a salt water placebo.
Black America need to givr up the hype about AIDS. It exists and it does kill people. It exists in your community. And if crack cocaine is en vogue in
Johnny Duncan at 4:58AM on Feb 24th 2007