Eddie Murphy Decided at the Last Minute Not to Mock Bill Cosby on 'SNL 40'

While SNL 40 was considered a runaway success, many were left wondering why Eddie Murphy's involvement amounted to just 73 seconds of telling people to enjoy the show. It was his first time back in studio 8-H in more than three decades, so it is fair to say that nearly everyone tuning in was expecting something hilarious from him, but that just never happened. We are now learning that there was more planned for Murphy to do, but he nixed it at the last minute. According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, "Fellow SNL alum Norm Macdonald posted a long string of tweets Wednesday, [Feb. 18,] revealing that he and the show's other writers wanted Murphy to play Bill Cosby during the 'Celebrity Jeopardy!' segment. The bit would involve cutting to Cosby, who would be mixing drinks in a video supposedly taped in the summer, before numerous sexual allegations against him resurfaced."

Macdonald actually posted more than 100 tweets last night, offering up all sorts of SNL 40 behind-the-scenes nuggets. He claims to have actually spent an hour with Murphy right before the show dishing on all sorts of things. At the end of their talk he thought the legendary comic was going to portray Cosby, but at the last minute Murphy decided that he did not need to kick a man when he was already way down just for laughs.

Cosby has spent the last four months watching his career literally crumble beneath allegations of sexual assault by a string of women spanning the decades who also claim he drugged them. His development deal with NBC was pulled, Netflix dropped Cosby's special and more often than not, previously scheduled concert dates ended up canceled at the last minute. It probably does not get much lower than the position that Cosby is sitting in.

Is Murphy a better man for not using Cosby to bolster his return to the SNL stage? Do you think that maybe he will pop up again to appease fans who were disappointed? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby