Eddie Murphy
Norbit / Rasputia / Mr. Wong
Overview
A mild-mannered guy who is engaged to a monstrous woman meets the woman of his dreams, and schemes to find a way to be with her.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
CinemaSerf
Eddie Murphy does just about everything here, except make me laugh, in this unsophisticated romp that makes the "Carry On" films look like Ingmar Bergman. To be fair he's adaptable - thanks almost entirely to the skills of the Oscar nominated make-up team (33 folks get credited!) - as he plays the eponymous geek, his own larger-than-life wife "Rasputia" and his adopted Chinese dad "Wong" who runs the orphanage into which he was unceremoniously dumped as a baby. When fellow orphan "Kate" (Thandiwe Newton) returns to their hometown, he is desperate to rekindle their childhood friendship but he's gonna have to deal with his own wife and her fiancé "Delon" (Cuba Gooding Jr). Whilst all of this is going on, the orphanage takes centre stage as "Rasputia" and her hoodlum brothers have designs on the place that is going to makes matters even more awkward for "Norbit" and his romantic plans with "Kate" who is looking to buy the place, too. Can he save the day and get the gal? It might've looked good on the drawing board or perhaps Eddie Murphy just surrounded himself with people ill-prepared to just say no, but after about five minutes it's clear that this is for his die-hard fans only. It reinforces just about every stereotype going but not in a funny way. It's all written as if the audience were supposed to be eight years old watching a pantomime with fake boobs, wobbly bits where there shouldn't be and, well you get the drift. On the plus side, it doesn't hang about and the action comes quick and fast but to be honest, I found myself cringing way more than smiling, let alone giggling. Johnny Depp just about got away with wearing purple in "Wonkaland" in 2005 but it doesn't work for Murphy here at all. Nor does anything else. Puerile and vulgar, sorry.
Read full reviewAudience Opinions
Audience 4.7/10
"A deeply divisive comedy that earns its reputation as the ultimate guilty pleasure—outrageous and quotable for some, mean-spirited and offensive for others."
Eddie Murphy’s multiple roles and big, cartoonish character work create a loud, chaotic farce with lines and moments that stick in the memory and keep a loyal group rewatching it for the sheer silliness. At the same time, the story is seen as a thin, predictable remix of his earlier fat-suit comedies, built on nonstop fat jokes and crude stereotypes that many find cruel rather than funny, leaving overall scores sitting firmly in the below-average range.
What viewers praise
- Showy multi-character performance Murphy’s transformations into Norbit, Rasputia, and Mr. Wong are seen as a technical and comedic showcase, impressing viewers who enjoy his over-the-top style.
- Endlessly quotable moments Lines and scenes, especially involving Rasputia, are repeated from memory and used as in-jokes, giving the film lasting meme and quote value.
- Guilty pleasure energy For a segment of the audience it lands as “so bad it’s good,” delivering big laughs precisely because it is crass, excessive, and dumb.
- Scene-stealing side characters Supporting turns from Terry Crews, Eddie Griffin, Katt Williams and others are singled out as reliably funny bright spots.
Common complaints
- Cruel and offensive humor Heavy reliance on fat-shaming, racial caricature, and mean-spirited gags makes the comedy feel hostile and uncomfortable to many viewers.
- Recycled concept The premise and style are frequently compared unfavorably to earlier Murphy vehicles, coming off as a lazy retread of the Nutty Professor formula.
- One-note characterization Rasputia in particular is viewed as an unnuanced, relentlessly nasty caricature, which undermines both the comedy and any emotional stakes.
- Predictable love story The underdog-romance plot with the childhood sweetheart feels generic and by-the-numbers, offering no surprises.
- Spotty laugh rate Even some who enjoy crude humor report long stretches where jokes fall flat or feel dragged out, making the film an uneven watch.
Recommended for
Guilty pleasure comedy fans Eddie Murphy completists 2000s studio comedy nostalgics Over-the-top character comedy lovers Quotable movie collectors
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsNorbit Exposed: Oscars Cursed, Stand‑In Scandals & The Rasputia Backlash That Won’t Die
You thought Norbit was just chaotic on screen? Behind the scenes, it helped wreck an Oscar run, sparked protests, and left its own stars spilling tea years later. Grab a harpoon and a plate of ribs — we’re going in.
Awards Drama & The “Norbit Effect”
- Eddie Murphy walked into 2007 as Hollywood’s comeback king — fresh off a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Dreamgirls — and then dropped Norbit right in the middle of awards season. The comedy opened just after his nomination was announced, and the industry immediately started whispering that the clownish fat-suit farce had torpedoed his big night
. - Murphy lost the Oscar to Alan Arkin, but Norbit did clean up somewhere else: the Razzies. He racked up multiple nominations and “won” for Worst Actor, Worst Actress (for Rasputia), and even Worst Actor of the Decade, all off this one movie [3].
- Eddie’s response? Pure unbothered king. He’s still loudly Team Norbit: “I love Norbit… I wrote the comedy with my brother … and we think Norbit is funny,” he said, brushing off the Razzie pile‑on as people “just hating” and insisting “s— ain’t that bad” [3].
- To this day, trade pieces and Reddit threads talk about “the Norbit effect” — the idea that one wildly panned comedy can sink an Oscar coronation [1][3]. Murphy’s verdict? Dreamgirls and Norbit are “two different movies,” and he’s not taking the blame [1][3].
On‑Set Drama: Thandiwe Newton vs. Eddie’s Stand‑Ins
- Thandiwe Newton later revealed that working opposite Eddie Murphy wasn’t quite the dream some fans imagine — because he was barely there. She says Eddie was “hardly ever there” on set and that she did “most of the movie with his stand‑ins” rather than Murphy himself .
- According to Newton, Murphy’s doubles were so convincing it was eerie: “Eddie has the best stand‑ins you've ever seen. Literally, from five feet away, you would think they were Eddie” [2]. Imagine rom‑com chemistry… with a decoy.
- Adding insult to comedy, Newton says producers made her “jump through hoops” to prove she could even do comedy before landing the role of Kate [2]. Meanwhile, the film her kids cherish? Not Crash, not prestige dramas — Norbit. “The only movie my kids have seen that I'm in,” she admitted, low‑key haunted by that fact [2].
The Rasputia Illusion: Body Doubles & a 75‑Pound Secret
IGInstagram·The Secret Behind Eddie Murphy's Rasputia in Nor… https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNSKw4_uYAa/Loading Instagram post…
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNSKw4_uYAa/- Rasputia wasn’t just one of Eddie’s most outrageous characters — she was a full‑blown visual effects operation. For scenes where Norbit and Rasputia appear together, the production used a stand‑in actress, Lauren Christine Miller, in the Rasputia bodysuit while Eddie’s face was composited in later [4].
- Murphy’s transformation into Rasputia took roughly 2–3 hours of prosthetic makeup, and that infamous “big girl” suit weighed about 34 kilograms — around 75 pounds [4]. So yes, every time Rasputia charges, that’s practically a weighted workout video.
- Social clips and behind‑the‑scenes breakdowns still go viral dissecting the trick — people are weirdly obsessed with how often you’re actually watching Lauren Miller with Eddie’s digital face on top [4].
Scandals & Cultural Backlash: When Comedy Sparked Protests
- The loudest drama around Norbit didn’t come from the set — it came from the audience. Commentators and activists slammed the film for what they saw as a brutal caricature of a fat Black woman in Rasputia: “overweight, cruel, selfish and abusive,” visually summed up by the image of “an obese black woman wearing pink lingerie and a garish smile [crushing] the frightened black man lying beneath her” .
- Essays and radio segments tore into the movie for leaning into the old “angry, domineering Black woman” stereotype, explicitly tying Rasputia to the racist “myth of black matriarchy” and even citing social science reports that blamed Black women’s supposed dominance for family breakdowns [5].
- The criticism went beyond think‑pieces. The film drew protests and organized pushback from Black scholars and activists, with calls for apologies and debates over why two Black male writers — Eddie and his brother Charlie — would build a story around a character like Rasputia [5].
- The uproar was so loud that coverage of Norbit often appeared in the same breath as Murphy’s Dreamgirls awards story, muddying his triumphant dramatic comeback with questions about what, exactly, he was laughing at [1][5].
Deleted Scenes, Pimp Weddings & Lost Improv Chaos
- Among fans, the holy grail of Norbit extras are the extended and deleted moments featuring Katt Williams and Eddie Griffin as retired pimps turned churchmen, Lord Have Mercy and Pope Sweet Jesus.
- Clips floating around social media show a gloriously unhinged deleted “pimp wedding” interruption — the duo crashing a ceremony with rapid‑fire banter and ad‑libbed one‑liners that feel way looser than the theatrical cut
. - Commentary in those posts notes that much of their back‑and‑forth was improvised, and rumor has it some of their strongest, most outrageous riffing died on the cutting room floor to keep the film (barely) under control [6]. Comedy fans still treat those scraps like contraband.
Fan Theories Gone Dark: “This Isn’t a Comedy, It’s Horror”
- Over on Reddit, Norbit has been rebranded by some viewers as… a horror movie. One viral post argues that if you strip away the wacky music and slapstick, the story is “about a man forced to marry a woman who physically and psychologically abuses him and even rapes him”
. - Fans in that thread frame Rasputia as a genuinely terrifying abuser and see Norbit as a victim trapped in a nightmare, turning the movie into accidental psychological horror about domestic violence rather than a goofy rom‑com [7].
- This is purely fan speculation, but the take has spread enough that people now rewatch the water‑slide and bedroom scenes with a lot more discomfort — and a lot less laughter [7]. Eddie, for the record, has never publicly weighed in on the “secret horror film” angle.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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