Eddie Murphy Will Bring Back Classic Characters When He Hosts ‘Saturday Night Live’

“Oh yeah, I’m gonna do Gumby.”

Eddie Murphy appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live last week to talk about his well-reviewed new movie Dolemite Is My Name, and naturally, the conversation turned to another milestone for the occasionally reclusive comedian: His first turn hosting on his old home turf at Saturday Night Live in more than three decades this coming December.

Anyone who recalls Murphy’s time on SNL as a cast member will be happy to know he is definitely planning on returning to some of his iconic sketch characters.

Kimmel and Murphy first discussed growing up in Brooklyn, and Murphy delivered some hilarious anecdotes about games they played in the street when he was a kid. He also admitted one of his first ambitions was to be a ventriloquist—and that he owns two ventriloquist dummies today. 

“Oh yeah,” he said when SNL came up, “I’m gonna do Gumby.” He continued on to say he is “trying to figure out some reason to do a Velvet Jones and ‘Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood.'”

Kimmel brought up Murphy’s return to standup comedy as well and asked if he was concerned about living up to his previous reputation. His reply was succinct: he isn’t “worrying about stuff like that.” 

Murphy also says he thinks “constructively” when he is “doing something creative. I’m thinking about making it as funny as possible because I wanna shut shit down when I do it.”

Eddie Murphy will host Saturday Night Live on December 21, 2019.