Eddie Murphy Says Eating Dog Food Saved His SNL Job

Saturday Night Live released the first episode of its brand new web series Stories From the Show, which features interviews with both former and current cast members reflecting about their time on the long-running NBC sketch comedy program.

Starting their series off with a bang, Eddie Murphy was tapped for the inaugural interview and it didn’t disappoint. The 58-year-old comedian and actor made his return to SNL last month, but was a cast member from 1980 to 1984. He says that it wasn’t easy after most of the original cast was let go.

“You would walk down the street and people are like, ‘You on the new Saturday Night Live? Y’all ain’t s**t!’” he said, before claiming head writer Michael O’Donoghue “came in and fired everybody,” from the show except Joe Piscopo and himself. 

The reason?

“When O’Donoghue fired everybody, he came in and he said, ‘The only reason Murphy didn’t get fired is because he ate that dog food!’” Murphy recalled. “And I was like, ‘But that wasn’t dog food, that was hash!’ And he looked at me like, What the fuck? But it was too late, and I kept the show… If he had known that was hash, none of this would be happening.”

Eddie Murphy’s dog food tale kicks off Stories From the Show, which is slated to feature upcoming episodes with Aidy Bryant and Will Ferrell. Watch Murphy’s full episode below.