Remembering Eddie Murphy’s “Delirious”

Delirious was released on HBO on August 30, 1983, and boy was it a big deal. People in my neighborhood, who didn’t have HBO, would go over to other people’s homes on the night it was released so that they could watch it. So a lot of living rooms were very crowded in the late summer of 1983, including ours.

My family had HBO and while watching the special was frowned upon because of my age, I managed to catch glimpses of Murphy and hear a lot of his jokes. Even though many of the punchlines were lost in the constant laughter in our living room. I would watch the special by myself when it was repeated a few nights later (when no one was around) and I was, like many, won over to the power of Murphy’s standup.

Releasing it in late summer was genius because school was just around the corner and everyone at school was talking about it. Coverage was surprisingly thorough, with ads running in major magazines and of course being discussed on television entertainment news shows.

Below is a video of the entire special. Enjoy…