Before the show started, The BusBoys performed "(The Boys Are) Back in Town" over a montage of pre-show footage of Murphy traveling with his road crew. Then, he is introduced after the song and thanks The BusBoys for the opening act before starting his comedy routine.
Among the topics Murphy addresses is the lure ice cream trucks have on children. Once the ice cream was bought, they would sing and dance mockingly in front of kids who could not afford it.[4] The phrase "The Ice Cream Man is coming!" from this segment was sampled by rapper Raekwon on the 1995 single "Ice Cream". Other topics that he addresses are family parties (his cookout skit featuring a humanoid cryptid for an aunt-in-law and an uncle who ignites the whole backyard in an attempt to work the grill) parental discipline (his shoe-throwing mothers monologue), Michael Jackson, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, racism, Reaganomics, gay people, (including a routine depicting "The Honeymooners" Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton as same-sex sweethearts), AIDS, and Marian Anderson. After his routine, the video ends with Murphy and his road crew walking to his dressing room while the credits roll.
The special received positive reviews and is widely cited by comedians as a seminal stand-up work.[5][6][7][8] The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 83% approval rating based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10.[9] However, it was criticised for being anti-gay.[10][11][12]
"When I did Delirious," Murphy reflected in 1989, "I got all this flak for my material being so filthy. The truth is, it's nowhere near as filthy as some of the stuff they're doing now. I'm feeling like a fucking old guy watching Sam KinisonorAndrew Dice Clay."[13]
One of the topics that Murphy addresses in Deliriousishomosexuality, and using the homophobic slur "faggot".[14] However, in 1996, he released a one-page statement apologizing for his use of that slur, saying: "I deeply regret any pain all this has caused."[15]
