Eddie Murphy Refused To Play Bill Cosby, But His Epic ‘SNL’ Skits Still Go

Many of us were left not only disappointed, but also extremely puzzled after watching Eddie Murphy’s bizarre return to the SNL stage during the NBC show’s 40^th anniversary special last Sunday.

Following Chris Rock’s inspiring introduction, Murphy returned to the stage to offer little more than an exaggerated thank you. Subsequently, many of us have been left with one question: what the hell was that about? Well, last night, Norm Macdonald, an SNL regular throughout the ‘90s, took to Twitter to reveal all.

Macdonald revealed that the SNL writers had planned for Murphy to impersonate Bill Cosby in a sketch. However, Murphy refused to do so, and said that he would not kick a man when he’s down.

Before you get into what went down, in celebration of Eddie Murphy’s legendary tenure with SNL, we’ve compiled some of his best memories below:

Macdonald’s reveal over Twitter was incredibly long, so below we’ve only compiled the tweets pertaining to Murphy’s SNL 40 appearance. If You can read all of Macdonald’s tweets here.

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568202246309064704

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568215560418414592

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568215824131104768

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568216678858772481

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https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568217198654676992

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568217267034435584

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568217315872870400

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568217430641627136

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568217809747980288

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568218054275895296

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568218152514883584

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568218458929827840

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568218661451796480

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568219088792584192

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568219362441629697

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568219435594424320

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568219646811197441

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568220013997338624

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568221903808172032

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568222325973204994

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https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568223484855209984

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568223751562596352

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568224043310002176

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568224537432576000

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568224874243563520

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568225228234432513

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568231340564455424

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568231547142340608

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https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568233108236935168

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568233197382672384

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568233411732574208

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https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568234567150145537

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568234746464980992

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568234803293605888

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https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568235617567387648

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568235959839387648

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568236140735541248

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568236197723529216

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https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568236590331330560

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568236763317026816

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568236977730031616

https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/568237061284573184