The other day, Norm McDonald noted something about Eddie Murphy that I hadn't considered - he was the most talented young comedian ever.
It blows my mind that Murphy was performing at such a high level when he was just 20-21.
I think that was more a sign of the times. Like Andrew Dice Clay's filthy routine. That type of humor was needed during the 80s to distract people from the stress everyone was under. It wouldn't work today. A lot of Eddie's jokes were something that people never talked about or even heard of, like pre-nups, and wives taking half your cash today. I agree he was one of the early greats, but look how quickly his style wore off after that time period. I wouldn't consider him in the realm of timeless like Dangerfield or Carlin.
Eddie's jokes may no longer be PC but his old routines (Raw and Delirious) are still funny as hell. My wife and I regularly quote from them. "He didn't tell you you could take half? Well, he didn't tell you half the story....Oh hi Eddie." If you're not too uptight, watch it again and tell me it's not still funny.
My point was more he had his time, and it's gone. He hasn't lived on past that. Carlin and the likes were relevant until their death.
Carlin did comedy his whole life though. And I don't personally hear Carlin references more than I do Murphy ones. Eddie quit pretty early as you know, so I can't help but suspect his time was over voluntarily. Not long ago, he had to give a speech for the Mark Twain award and his Bill Cosby bit still had people laughing.
This is an unfortunate side effect of being a popular comedian, people will literally laugh at any word you say. The podcast escapes me, and I've read numerous articles, where big comedians often consider just quitting because they can't tell if they are actually funny anymore. Everyone just ends up laughing at everything that comes out of their mouth. It sounds like a good problem to have, but you can see how it would weigh on someone.
Read about Freddie Prinze. He died at age 22, IIRC.