The actor who body-slammed Bill Murray in revenge: “He was attacking me, and I got him”
Whenever Bill Murray shows up anywhere, nobody knows what to expect. That’s been his way for decades, and when someone doesn’t take too kindly to the actor and comedian’s antics, they’re well within their rights to respond, whether that’s verbally or physically.
The star never seems to go too long without getting dragged into another feud or causing an on-set incident, whether it’s deliberately antagonising Richard Dreyfuss on What About Bob? or ending up on the receiving end of a barrage from his Charlie’s Angels co-star, Lucy Liu, for being unprofessional.
He also clashed with McG on that movie, which saw him respond to the director’s allegations that Murray almost broke his nose by saying he should be pierced with a lance and killed instead. That’s without mentioning Chevy Chase, Anjelica Huston, or Harold Ramis, all of whom had their issues with his behaviour.
Since he’s a world-famous celebrity who generates intense media interest wherever he goes and whatever he does, most people wouldn’t even contemplate body-slamming Murray after growing weary of his constant needling. However, Jay Pharoah did, and he had no regrets about exacting his revenge on the Groundhog Day favourite when he made an unscheduled visit to Saturday Night Live.
When Shannon Sharpe asked him why he slammed Murray, the comic’s response was simple: “He wouldn’t stop hitting me.” Pharoah had gone into Lorne Michaels’ office to talk to the SNL head honcho, where he discovered one of the sketch show’s most famous sons, who wasted little time in pissing him off.
“He’s like, ‘Come here, fat boy,'” he recalled, which didn’t go down too well, and things got worse from there. “He calls me ‘fat boy’, then he gets on me. He starts hitting me, in the same place, over and over again. Right. Now, I don’t give a damn who you are. If you hit somebody in the same place, eventually, it’s going to start getting a little sore.”
When that happened, Pharoah only had one option. “When it started stinging, I said, ‘I gotta drop him, son.'” And that’s exactly what he did, with the SNL star scooping Murray up on his shoulders and slamming him onto the couch in Michaels’ office. That didn’t stop him from continuing to hit him, which led to only one conclusion.
“Drunk out of his mind,” Pharoah theorised. “No recollection, probably, of this. But I slammed him, and I had to hold him down. He was still trying to fight me! But he was just attacking me, and I got him.” With that, he vacated the area and left Murray lying on the sofa to have a good, long think about his actions. If someone starts punching you for no reason, why wouldn’t you give them their comeuppance?
Just because it’s Bill Murray, it doesn’t mean that Pharoah was going to stand for it. Quite a few actors have no doubt fantasised about doing the exact same thing when he annoyed them, but he was the one who actually followed through and put the veteran in his place.
