Eddie Murphy pays for funerals, but won’t attend: ‘It’s just too much for me’

The iconic comedian says you won’t catch him at a funeral unless it was his own– and even that might not be enough.

“I’ve paid for a lot of funerals, but I don’t go to funerals,” comedian Eddie Murphy told USA Today in a recent interview for his upcoming Netflix documentary “Being Eddie.”

The 64-year-old reflected on his life and the concept of death with USA TODAY when he revealed that he’s paid for the funerals of his “Harlem Nights” co-star Redd Foxx and musician Rick James, his collaborator on the 1985 hit “Party All the Time.” Murphy also purchased tombstones for William “Buckwheat” Thomas Jr. from “Our Gang” and Tim Moore, who played Kingfish on “Amos’n’ Andy.”

Murphy also shared that he’d only attended two funerals in his life. The first was his biological father, Charles Edward Murphy, whom Murphy told Rolling Stone was fatally stabbed by a jealous woman when he was 8. Then his stepfather, Vernon Lynch, who was the best man for his 1993 wedding to Nicole Murphy.

“They shouldn’t even have funerals,” he continued. “I’m like, ‘This funeral is morbid.’ The whole people in attendance, seeing your loved one out there — emotionally, the whole ritual is too much.”

When asked how he wanted to be buried, Murphy explained that he plans to be cremated immediately when his time comes.

“When I kick out, I’m not having no funeral and be laying up there and people coming and looking at me, lowering me in the ground,” the legendary actor and comedian said. “And there’s no funeral, and there’s no memorial or none of that s—. Just keep it rolling. None of that trauma. … It’s way too f–king much, a funeral.”

Don’t expect Murphy to care what happens with his ashes either.

“I don’t give a f— what they do with them,” he said. “Just as long as you don’t have people standing around with my ashes. … I’m not trying to be in the urn while everybody’s crying. I don’t want to have that moment.”

The 1-hour and 43-minute Netflix film, which features interviews with Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson, Jamie Foxx, Tracy Morgan, Chris Rock, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Jerry Seinfeld, premieres on November 12 on Netflix.