The Nutty Professor Muse

This week's no writing

Eddie Murphy deserved an Academy Award for Dreamgirls, but the Academy operates under the Unforgiven principle that “deserve’s got nothing to do with it,” although Eastwood won two Oscars for that film, so I’m not sure what my point was.

Even worse, though, is that Murphy wasn’t even nominated for his work in The Nutty Professor, the 1996 remake of the classic Jerry Lewis film from 1963. Lewis played two roles in his comedic riff on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — buck-toothed Professor Julius Kelp and suave womanizer Buddy Love. However, Murphy played seven different parts, including his own Oprah-inspired mother and foul-mouthed grandmother. Murphy’s performance as timid, reserved Professor Sherman Klump is a fully realized creation, opposed to Lewis’s buffoonish Kelp, and while Lewis’s Buddy Love was a not-quite subtle send-up of his former comedy partner, Dean Martin, Murphy’s Buddy held a mirror up to his own famous stand-up persona.

The famous Klump dinner scene is like a David Copperfield illusion that’s nowhere near a pervert island. You can easily forget that you’re not watching a single actor. You believe in the reality of Murphy’s characters. (Watch below.)

Yes, Murphy’s makeup won an Oscar, but not the man underneath. Rick Baker is a genius, but his makeup was still ultimately a tool for the performance the Academy failed to recognize. Baker complimented Murphy’s work during the painstaking process: “He really makes the stuff come to life, and he never complains. When we did The Nutty Professor [...], he spent 80-odd days in the makeup chair. As much as I love makeup, even I would have been complaining by the end, but Eddie didn’t.”

The Nutty Professor was released in late June 1996, and it’s one of the first films I saw after moving to New York. The movie’s soundtrack was also a big hit, even though none of the songs on the official soundtrack were actually in the movie. Instead, they were billed as “inspired by” The Nutty Professor, as if Sherman Klump’s misadventures were a creative muse. In reality, it’s more likely that the studio just selected some random songs and threw them on the soundtrack. This transparent corporate “synergy” was nonetheless effective. You couldn’t go to coffee shop, bar, or club without hearing songs from The Nutty Professor soundtrack. The one I remember the most is Trigger Tha Gambler’s “My Crew Can’t Go 4 That,” which samples Daryl Hall & John Oates’s “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do).” (Watch below.)

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It’s still spring for another few days, so if you haven’t already, please consider taking advantage of my “Spring Fling” subscription sale — 40 percent off the usual annual paid subscriber rate. That’s just $30 a year. Thanks to all who have upgraded to paid subscriber status recently.

I’m still on vacation, so there’s not much new writing this week. My friend Cassandra Cassandra Neyenesch stopped by the podcast to discuss her new book, A Little Bit Bad, as well as her great work with Abortion Stories. Watch below and please subscribe.

Here’s my conversation from last year with my friend Michael Mora about the politics of Superman.

See you next week when I’m back in Portland, Oregon.