When Eddie Murphy made his grand return to Studio 8H back in February for Saturday Night Live’s 40th anniversary special, he left viewers scratching their heads over his curiously brief appearance. Despite being preceded by an awesome (and lengthy) introduction by Chris Rock, Murphy stepped to the stage for an awkward “thank you” speech that was shorter than a full minute.

Later, fellow SNL alum Norm MacDonald hopped on Twitter to dish on the plenty of happenings that went down behind the scenes of the special and revealed that Murphy was asked to play Bill Cosby in the “Celebrity Jeopardy!” sketch. He turned down the opportunity and Kenan Thompson eventually went on to play the role, but now Murphy has opened up about the experience in a revealing interview with The Washington Post.

“There’s nothing funny about it. If you get up there and you crack jokes about him, you’re just hurting people. You’re hurting him. You’re hurting his accusers,” he said. “I was like, ‘Hey, I’m coming back to SNL for the anniversary, I’m not turning my moment on the show into this other thing.’”

Cosby, himself, was appreciative of Murphy’s restraint back in February, saying in a statement from his spokesperson, “I am very appreciative of Eddie and I applaud his actions.”

Meanwhile, other than talking SNL40, Murphy also spoke on whether or not we will soon see him returning to the stand-up stage, something he hasn’t done in 29 years.

On that note, he said, “Every now and then when I think about it, I think, What would I even talk about onstage? It’s never been, I wonder if I’m funny. I wonder if I can come up with jokes. It’s more, What would it be like without the leather suit and the anger?”

We can only dream…