[Cultutre] 7 Greatest Bill Murray Stories Ever Told

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1 Bill Murray Does Karaoke with Complete Strangers
The Story:

A group of friends went out to have a few drinks at a local Karaoke bar called Karaoke One 7 in New York City. Mike, the guy who reported this story to authorities, noticed that there were a couple of women who had just walked in with a guy that looked just like Bill Murray... Because he WAS Bill Murray.

After they did the good ol' "celebrity confirmation", they proceeded to invite Bill Murray into their Karaoke room.

15 Minutes later Bill Murray knocks on their door.

Bill Murray and the girl he was with, notably from Amsterdam who sang a bunch of French songs, bought everyone these weird green drinks made out of something called Chartreuse. After these Bill Murray himself sang an Elvis song with Mike and the group, of course, took a bunch of photos.













Believable?

The photos are pretty irrefutable, but the verdict is still vague. There have been a few discrepancies, first being exactly when this incident took place. It was also first reported that he showed up at Karaoke One with a group of women, then later corrected that it was one Dutch woman. The details aren't 100% clear; however, Murray is known for randomly crashing strangers' parties, so there's a good chance this one is true. And it is probably the realization of every Bill Murray fan's biggest dream.

Amazing.


2 Bill Murray Accidentally Stars in Garfield

The Story:

Bill Murray sees the name "Joel Cohen" (THIS Joel Cohen) attached to the Garfield script, believing it's the famed director of Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink and No Country for Old Men -- Joel Coen... as in THIS Joel Coen (no H, you see.) Academy Award winning Joel Coen.

According to Esquire magazine, Murray says "I looked at the script, and it said, 'So-and-so and Joel Coen.' And I thought: Christ, well, I love those Coens! They're funny. So I sorta read a few pages of it and thought, Yeah, I'd like to do that."

Then he saw the movie. And only AFTER that did he realize that it wasn't Joel Coen, but Joel Cohen. No Fargo, No Country for Old Men or Big Lebowski, but Daddy Day Camp (The Sequel to Daddy Day Care), Evan Almighty and Cheaper By the Dozen Joel Cohen.

"I kept saying, 'Who the hell cut this thing? Who did this? What the f**k was Coen thinking?' And then they explained it to me: It wasn't written by that Joel Coen."

Believable?

Although this might be the actor-celebrity version of sleeping with someone questionable and then claiming you were drunk, there's obviously no doubting the accuracy of the interview. It's just a shame that it took the movie being finished before Murray realized his mistake. But hey, every paycheck helps even someone like Bill Murray so why the hell not.


3 Bill Murray Surprise Bartends at Shangri-La at SXSW
The Story:

The story begins when Bill Murray attends Austin's SXSW festival and hangs out with Wu-Tang clan.

He shows up with them at the Shangri-La bar and insists on bartending, only serving patrons shots of tequila. No matter what they ordered he would pour them a lot of tequila.

Everyone there was Tweeting, Facebooking and blogging about it and someone even took a video:

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Throughout the rest of the week, Murray was spotted at various parties, including one Redditor's (a Redditor is a person who frequents the popular website Reddit.com) friend's house party:








Believable?

This story is widespread, and there's video to prove its accuracy. It also proves the extent of Murray's awesomeness. Who knows how many of the details and secondhand accounts are true, but the video is pretty indisputable.


4 Bill Murray Reads Poetry to Construction Workers Building NY's Poet House


The Story:

While the Poet's House, a library, was being built in Manhattan, Bill Murray stopped by to read poems to the construction workers who were working on the building. In the middle of reading, he says, "It gets worse. If you want to take a sick day, do it now." Workers laugh and take photos with their cell phones.

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Believable?

Indisputably true.

5 Bill Murray Pairs Up with Blonde Girl in Foreign Country... Goes to Party
... kind of like in Lost in Translation.


The Story:

Instead of calling it an early night in St. Andrews after the bars were winding down and the golf tournament he was there for had ended, Bill Murray decided to go out and explore the city.

He'd been out to drinks with fellow golfers when he met a beautiful blonde Nordic woman named Lykke Stavnef, who was there with her friend Marie Bergene who, naturally, invited him to a party.

Bill Murray said yes.

When they showed up, the 22 year old Lykke Stavnef says that nobody could believe that she had brought him to a house party. She was concerned that there were not enough clean dishes there, so Bill Murray actually decided to start washing dishes. Everyone was amused when he cleaned some dishes so that people could drink, but even more charmed when he happily accepted drinking vodka out of a coffee mug.

Before he left, he finished cleaning the feet-high dishes pile left by the college students, then went back to his hotel.

Believable?

Well, it was reported by telegraph.co.uk, so it's a reputable news source. There were also over a dozen eye witnesses. This is not only believable, but it is absolutely awesome how humble, nice and awesome he was.

New Rule: if you meet Bill Murray somewhere and he seems relaxed and in a good mood, and it's late enough, invite him to a party.

6 Bill Murray Gets Drunk and Drives a Golf Cart

The Story:

Bill Murray was caught driving down the streets of Stockholm, Sweden on his way back from a fancy nightclub less than a mile away from his hotel, where there happened to be a golf cart on display for a few days. Murray and other VIPs from the gold tournament they were there for were stopped on the short drive back to the hotel because they were on a golf cart and, according to authorities who have been doing their jobs there for over 40 years, this is the first time they'd ever seen anything like this.

After he was stopped, Bill Murray cited American law and refused to take a breath test. He later let a police office plead guilty for him in court if it ever came up, but most likely, he'll just get a few fines.

Now, the great part of this story isn't that he wow'ed a hotel manager, or even that he drove drunk (because who wants to glorify that?) The great part of this story is that Bill Murray illustrated the fact that he's the type of guy who will see something he wants, know he can afford any of the consequences of his actions financially and just goes ahead and takes it. He can pretty much do anything he wants, he knows it and he's having an absolutely amazing time with it.


When police accost him to take a breath test, he refuses, but later admits to them that he was, indeed, driving under the influence.

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Believable?

Watch the video and hear it straight from the source. Apparently, the golf cart belonged to the hotel at which Murray was a guest and had been parked outside during his stay.

7 Bill Murray Throws Bottle at Stranger, Gives an Offensive Eulogy

Since the story about Bill Murray throwing a bottle that accidentally broke a guy's nose isn't remarkable enough (see the video below, where the victim doesn't only forgive him, but laughs with him -- Bill Murray gets a full minute of laughs from a crowd that just saw him split a guy's nose open, Bill Murray is just that awesome) here's a heartwarming story to wrap up this whole thing.

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The Story:

Bill Murray was really great friends with comedy great and Saturday Night Live star John Belushi (Animal House) at the time of Belushi's demise due to accidental drug overdose. The man lived in excess, was known for doing a lot of disgusting things and for making everyone laugh doing them.

So, after Ghostbusters, when Bill Murray got the go ahead to make his pet project (a film called The Razor's Edge based on W. Somerset Maugham's 1944 novel about a disillusioned World War I vet, Larry Darrell, who travels the globe to find the meaning of life.) He only really did Ghostbusters so that Columbia Pictures would allow him to do this.

He did and it was met with some critical acclaim, but overall box office failure, but included one gem of a scene where a character is eulogized. Given that this film was made a little after John Belushi's death, Bill Murray decided to use the eulogy in his film, which he co-wrote, to say goodbye to his dear friend John:

Here's the Eulogy:

"He was a slob. Did you ever see him eat? Starving children could fill their bellies on the food that ended up on his beard and clothes. Dogs would gather to watch him eat. I never understood gluttony, but I hated it...I hated that about you. He enjoyed disgusting people—being disgusting—that thrill of offending people and making them uncomfortable. He was despicable. He will not be missed."

Murray then explained why he eulogized Belushi in such a fashion, "It comes from this old Persian thing where if somebody dies you tell horrible stories about him. That's what I did when John died... What it does is remind you not to get sentimental. You say, 'That guy was a rat,' and I'm a rat too, and I'd better do something about it rather than weep my life away."

Believable?

True. Check the source, as well as this is a well-known story told about Bill and why that scene exists.

Bill Murray is one of the greatest actors of our time and rarely do we get someone who is not only that great onscreen, but just as amazing offscreen. Just goes to show you, if you ever meet Bill Murray treat him like a friend -- and he's likely to do the same to you.