eddiemurphy

Sad news to report on this Christmas Day. James Brown, the true 'Godfather of Soul' passed away earlier today at the age of 73 due to complications from pneumonia. Mr. Brown wasn't a television star, although he did appear in numerous talk, variety and award shows, but he was imitated and emulated by many other TV performers during his lifetime.

One such imitator was comedian Eddie Murphy, who would regularly add impressions of James Brown to his stand-up routines. This eventually fed into his appearances during his run on Saturday Night Live. The clip you'll see after the jump was from, I believe, one of his guest appearances on the show . . . after he left for movie stardom in the mid-80's. It's entitled 'James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub'. There are no celebrities (other than a picture of Dr. Joyce Brothers sitting in the hot tub with Eddie/James). There's just Eddie performing an extremely good impression of James as he is about to get into the hot tub.

In my opinion, it is one of the more memorable skits that Eddie performed on SNL. You can see the video after the jump.