Eddie Murphy confirms that famous Chappelle's Show Prince basketball sketch story really happened. The legendary sketch comedy show from Dave Chappelle aired a lot of hilariously memorable bits during its abbreviated three-season run on Comedy Central. But perhaps no sketch had more lasting impact than the famous one about music superstar Prince and a pickup basketball game.
As all fans remember, in a segment styled after E! Network’s True Hollywood Stories series, comedian Charlie Murphy tells of the night he and his friends were challenged to a game of basketball by Prince. The segment then recreates this epic basketball match with Chappelle himself in the role of the Purple One. Despite Prince and his friends wearing blouses, they are able to defeat Murphy and his crew. The sketch memorably ends with Prince serving pancakes to his vanquished foes.
The story of Prince and the late-night basketball game may seem like the stuff of a tall tale, but it all happened according to Prince’s fellow legend, stand-up comedian and Coming 2 America star Murphy. In an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Murphy confirmed that everything in the sketch really went down one strange night, including Prince and his teammates wearing blouses and beating Murphy and his brother’s team (the interview clip can be seen in the space below, with the Prince bit beginning at around the 6:04 mark):
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