Winnipeg gets shout out from Eddie Murphy in “Beverly Hills Cop” sequel

Winnipeggers who tuned in to watch the highly anticipated sequel to the ’80s classic “Beverly Hills Cop” might have been shocked to hear a shout-out that reached far beyond the 90210.

In a scene in “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F”, the fast-talking, titular detective played by Eddie Murphy mentions to a fellow cop that his great-grandfather used to play hockey in an all-black league, on a team called the Winnipeg Black Guys.

Axel, unsurprisingly, is just joking, seeing how long he can get his gullible colleague to buy into the ruse.

It might have been a brief exchange, but Winnipeggers quickly took notice, and quickly took to the Internet to delight in the Prairie shout out.

The clip has made the rounds online, getting posted and reposted to Winnipeggers’ glee, eliciting thousands of comments.

“That was totally worth the 30-year wait,” a Redditor posted.

“I think adding Winnipeg has become an inside joke in Hollywood because they think it’s not a real place,” another posted on Instagram.

It’s a sentiment that became the basis of a now decades-old viral video.

It was made in 2008 by Dougald Lamont, former leader of the Manitoba Liberals.

He then owned a multimedia company, and compiled a supercut of some of the most notable mentions of Winnipeg in movies and television shows.

It starts with a clip from “The 39 Steps,” an Alfred Hitchcock classic Lamont remembers watching as a kid while visiting his grandparents in England in the 1970s.

“How far is Winnipeg from Montreal?” a man in a crowded theatre asks Mr. Memory, a character who delights audiences with his prodigal ability to call up facts and figures.

“Winnipeg, the third city of Canada, and the capital of the province of Manitoba,” he quickly replies.

The young Lamont, thousands of miles from home, was shocked to hear his hometown get a nod from the master of suspense.

“When I heard it, I thought ‘is that the same Winnipeg that I live in? ‘ It seemed slightly unreal,” said Lamont.

Decades later, he edited together four minutes of Winnipeg pride, splicing together mentions of his hometown in everything from “The Sopranos” to “The Simpsons” to “Taking Lives”.

“At the time, most of that stuff wasn’t available online at all, so I would actually go to a movie store, rent the DVD, burn it, get the clip and put it in,” he recalled.

“I guess that’s like the modern-day equivalent of when you used to tell kids how hard it was back in the old days.”

It became part of a campaign by Economic Development Winnipeg to promote tourism in the city.

It also spawned a sequel, thanks in large part to the amount of commenters who suggested clips Lamont had left out.

The original YouTube video has over 212,000 views and counting. Its sequel – 128,000.

When asked by CTV News Winnipeg about our fair city’s latest pop culture name-drop, Lamont said he had yet to hear about it.

Still, he wasn’t surprised about the excitement it generated.

“It’s a Canadian thing. Somebody once said Winnipeg is a place that’s too Canadian for most Canadians. So some of it is that local pride.”