Eddie Murphy Finally Explains Why He Didn't Play Bill Cosby on SNL

Eddie Murphy returned to Saturday Night Live's 40th anniversary special for the first time after 30 years. Fans anticipated Murphy on the show. But strangely Murphy did not perform, Chris Rock walked out on the stage and introduced Murphy. Murphy came out on stage and accepted praise from the audience and that was it.

There was no reel clips of Murphy and he did not participate in any sketches. Fellow ex-SNL cast member and one of the main writers for the special revealed to Twitter that they intented for Murphy to play Bill Cosby for a edgy joke sketch.

Eight months later Murphy explains to The Washington Post why he sat the Bill Cosby sketch out. Right up until the night the night of the show writers were under the impersion that Murphy would play a Jeopardy sketch as Cosby by rape allegations.

Murphy told The Washington Post, "I totally understood. It was the biggest thing in the news at the time. I can see why they thought it would be funny, and the sketch that Norm wrote was hysterical."

Murphy elaborated, "Theres's nothing funny about it. If you get up there and you crack jokes about him, you're just hurting people. You're hurting him. You're hurting his accusers. I was like, "Hey, I'm coming back to SNL for the anniversary, I'm not turning my moment on the show into thisother thing."

Cosby stated that "I am very appreciateive of Eddie and I applaud his actions".