Eddie Murphy returns to host ‘SNL’ along with Gumby, Buckwheat, more

It’s like Eddie Murphy never left.

The 58-year-old comedian, actor and singer made a triumphant return to “Saturday Night Live,” the show he last visited 35 years ago, bringing back the same in-your-face comedic timing as when he was first on the show.

Anticipation ran high for Murphy’s return, with fans reportedly already waiting in line outside Rockefeller Center early Saturday morning. NYC comic Hari Kondabolu even suggested the event was “like Michael Jordan un-retiring…the first time” on Twitter. Plus, hopes soared for the possibility of A-list cameos by people including comedian Dave Chappelle and “SNL” alum Chris Rock — both of whom were spotted “hanging out” at the studio all week, sources told Page Six.

And after a skewering of last week’s Democratic presidential debate in the cold open — which included cameos by Larry David, Alec Baldwin and “SNL” alumni Rachel Dratch, Jason Sudekis, Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph — Murphy held a big smile as he made his entrance surrounded by poinsettias and Christmas lights on the Studio 8H stage, with the audience chanting, “Ed-die! Ed-die! Ed-die!”

Take note, David Spade: This is definitely no fallen star.

Murphy kicked off the edgy nostalgia trip by noting there would be a demographic spike from African-Americans watching Saturday’s show. “This is the last episode of 2019. Or, if you’re black, this is the first episode since I left in 1984,” he said, adding that he looks as youthful now as he did then. “You know what they always say: Money don’t crack.”

He also suggested that, as a father of 10 now, his stature had taken an unimagined shift.

“If you told me 30 years ago that I’d be this boring, stay-at-home house dad, and Bill Cosby would be in jail, even I would have taken that bet,” he joked, before switching to mimicking Cosby’s voice and asking, “Who is ‘America’s Dad’ now?”

Murphy was soon joined onstage by “SNL” alum Tracy Morgan and, as expected, comedians Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle, who offered him fake sketch pitches and chided him about his work trajectory.

“I followed your blueprint for my career: I became the biggest guy on television and then I quit,” said Chappelle, who couldn’t help but note that between the four of them, “You’re looking at half of Netflix’s budget on this stage,” alluding to the multiple streaming deals landed by the comics.

“Not me. I made all my millions on the road,” said Morgan, before clarifying that it wasn’t from club gigs, but from his serious accident five years ago. “I got hit by a truck!” (Murphy alone is currently streaming his Golden Globe-nominated Netflix film “Dolemite Is My Name” and he is also plotting a return to standup, possibly with specials for Netflix.)

Murphy recently hinted that some of his best-known “SNL” characters — such as Gumby, Buckwheat, Mister Robinson and Velvet Jones — could make a reappearance Saturday. And, true to his word, they were spread throughout the show, with some updated for 2019.

He revisited the rundown apartment of “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood,” his skewering of Fred Rogers’ children’s show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” to teach viewers about the changing demographics around him. “Can you say ‘gentrification,’ boys and girls?” his now-gray-haired Robinson asked his imaginary kiddie audience. “It’s like a magic trick. White people pay a lot of money and then, poof, all the black people are gone. But where do they go, boys and girls? Back to where they come from, of course — Atlanta!”

And in the recurring skit “Black Jeopardy!” he resurrected his trademark pimp Velvet Jones, who in his early days on “SNL” tried to turn women into prostitutes by writing books with titles like “I Wanna Be A Ho.” These days he’s offering them social media training with a new, more timely book, “How to Be an Instagram Ho.”

Meanwhile, his brash-talking, cigar-chomping Gumby paid a visit to “Weekend Update” hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che, who were concerned that viewers today would have no idea who the bendy green character was. “This is the thanks I get for saving this show from the gutter?” he asked, alluding to his role in bringing it back from the cancellation abyss when he was a cast member, adding. “Shame on you, Lorne Michaels! Shame on you, NBC!”

And when an off-camera stagehand tried to coax him away at the end of his segment, Murphy responded, “I’m staying here. Don’t tap me, you bastard, I’m staying!” — an apparently improvised retort that sent Jost and Che into hysterics, along with the audience.

Buckwheat, too, made an appearance in a skit about the Fox singing competition “The Masked Singer,” in which celebs wear all-consuming costumes to do song covers and see if a panel of judges can guess who they are. But his recognizable cadence fooled no one, as the big-haired character butchered song lyrics with abandon, including “Tina Nadies” (Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies’), “Aneese Namina” (José Feliciano’s Christmas tune “Feliz Navidad”), “Dine Teal Tawibba” (Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”) and “R-E-S-P-T-T-D” (Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”).

But the show wasn’t just a sentimental journey. It also pushed some topical buttons, including in a video short looking at the behind-the-scenes dynamics in a black family’s home when relatives — and a white in-law — visit for Christmas. As the father gives blessings for their presence during dinner, his speech is peppered with flashbacks of his hacking and farting father (played by Kenan Thompson) disturbing everyone’s peace, his wife burning the meal and their daughter arguing about their objections to her fiancé because he’s not black.

“Christmas is about family and I am blessed to spend it with mine,” says Murphy’s patriarch, who can’t quite stifle a grimace when his white son-in-law (Mikey Day) responds, “That was great … dad.” The video then closes with the tagline: “To all our families: We love you, even when we don’t.”

For Murphy, the show was an enthusiastic return to a long-unseen form. He joined the show as a cast member in 1980 at the ripe young age of 19 and stayed for four seasons, bringing it acclaim, not to mention plenty of memorable moments that are still easily streamed for those unenlightened about his comedic talent. Rolling Stone writer Brian Hiatt even noted a historical quirk in seeing him back on “SNL.” He tweeted that this was the “first time since 1983 that you could’ve seen a new Star Wars movie on Friday and then watch Eddie Murphy on SNL the next night,” a reference to new franchise installment “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” (The third film in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, “Episode VI: Return of the Jedi,” was released in 1983.)

Whether donning Gumby’s trademark green costume again or giving voice to a new character — like the show-closing, frantic North Pole elf who is out of his mind about a polar bear attack — Murphy’s comic timing and sense of topicality gave the show new life. As one fan noted on Twitter: “Hey, kids … There was once a time when SNL was as funny on a reasonably regular basis as it was tonight with Eddie Murphy.”

Musical guest and Time magazine Entertainer of the Year Lizzo also brought her own trademark booty-baring and -shaking moves to her hits “Good as Hell” and “Truth Hurts.”

“Saturday Night Live” returns on Jan. 25, 2020, with guest host Adam Driver (“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”) and musical guest Halsey.