From Betty:
March 18, 2026
I was watching YOU PEOPLE the other night. It was so funny, so smart, and so good that this was actually my second time watching it. So well written…until the end. At 1 hour and 44 minutes (the movie should technically be over by now…no wonder they’re tired of writing), Julia Louis-Dreyfus turns to Jonah Hill and says, “Yeah. Okay, I didn’t bring you here to buy me shoes.” Okay…it was a really cute and funny little set-up for this moment and it pays off. But then Eddie Murphy turns to Lauren London and says, “Yeah, and, baby girl, I don’t know what I told you to get you down here, but whatever it was, it was a lie.”
CHEATERS.
That’s Eddie Murphy, for goodness sake. Eddie Murphy who’s known for portraying characters that tell hilarious, outlandish tales throughout his legendary film career. He has just pulled off an entire movie as an angry Muslim who is upset, forcing himself to go to extremes, because his daughter is in love with a White Jewish guy and suddenly he “can’t remember?” Seriously?
That’s just lazy. When you have comic genius standing amongst each other, after a terrific script has been delivered by Jonah Hill and Kenya Barris, it’s simply lazy that not one of them could think of a lie Eddie Murphy could have told to get Lauren London down there? I don’t believe it. I was all caught up in the moment and that one lazy line snapped me back to reality and made me remember I was just watching Netflix.
Don’t let your audience down. You CAN come up with something. If you’ve seen the movie, you know he could have invited her to go kufi shopping. That would’ve been funny. But I felt as if they all stood around and said, “The audience has come with us this far…it doesn’t matter how he got her down here…it’s not like they’re gonna leave now.”
Be. Better.
Even when you’re tired. Even when it feels like the movie is over. Even then.