I get why other boomer comedy performers are funny. Bob Newhart. Mel Brooks. Peter Sellers. But how THE FRICK is Steve Martin funny? Being dry with an arrow through your head and a giant nose? Even his cameo in the Muppet Movie is lame.
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People just kept confusing him with Leslie Nielsen
kek
It's true for me when I was la kid
Just watched columbo episode Identity Crisis. By god was he good.
Get this OP. Hold on to your horses because its about to get wild.
DIE GAS PUMPER
He was funny in The Man with two brains and that noir mashup movie and that one with Mikael Caine. Otherwise I haven't seen much of him.
I met him in real life. I was walking my dog near the lakefront during the pandemic and he came up and asked if my dog was friendly. He was the only one around without a mask on pretty much. I said "You are Steve Martin!" He said "I know that." I said the Jerk was a a great movie and he said "Yeah, everyone likes that one. Anyway, good dog." and walked off.
I saw Steve Martin at a grocery store in Los Angeles a few years ago. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.
He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?”
I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying.
The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.
When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.
LOL
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-saw-flying-lotus-in-a-grocery-store-copypasta
>needing to look that up on knowyourmeme instead of recognizing it implicitly and even thinking it in your head automatically when you saw the previous post
His early humor was surreal with a tongue and cheek veneer of irony---the arrows or balloon animals on the head, a sure sign of a hack or childish comedian to boomers due to mail order gags like that being the nadir of comedy. There was novelty and shock value to some extent to his comedy, which is probably best exemplified by the Jerk. You may not like it, but I'm sure you can understand that the inversion of certain expectations with unusual results is often what counts as humor. His album I like to get small is probably the best encapsulation of his humor in stand up, and a few of it's bits are dramatised in the Jerk, so it likewise subverts certain comedy trends at the time, especially stoner but also racial humor like Pryor, Smothers brothers-type/yeehaw comedy, really just stand up in general, there's obviously the irony and antihumor aspects to that as well. Problem was, he was funny for a brief time then he started thinking of himself as an intellectual, that's when his comedy overall took on a smug quality, or at least it lost the cutting edge aspect and all that's left was the smug part of his schtick because even his 'better' works later on like LA Story, though they have surreal and unexpected aspects, are still geared toward being satire with a heart, just like Leap of Faith, Mixed Nuts, Roxanne... Then, after seeing the money he could make phoning in family movies that took over his career while he sat at home and collected art and became 'facinated by architecture' and all that yuppie shit, writing shitty novels he thinks are art. The closest he comes to recapturing his early humor is the stuff he's been doing with Martin Short for the last 10-15 years because Martin Short still is funny and brings out a less self-seriois part out of Martin. Despite that he's still been in some good comedies, like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Good post. Thanks.
agreed. good post.
Bowfinger was awesome
That's true, I forgot about that one. An incredible movie for Eddie Murphy, too, especially at the time. It was sort of a blip, tho, didnt do much to revive them as serious forces in comedy, and it was directed by Frank Oz as was Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, so I guess they work well together like Steve and Martin Short do.
No love for the Three Amigos!?
his humor is largely based on subverting expectations and exposing prejudices/biases. it's usually very subtle except when it's completely absurd and even then there's almost always a second layer.
the joke is almost always on the audience tho and that turns off people that don't have a good sense of humor about themselves.
Dirty rotten scoundrels
The man with two brains
Trains, planes and automobiles
Bowfinger
All good
Everything else, not so much. I liked sgt bilko as a kid, though.
he's wild, he's crazy. what's not to love?
those were the days with a 12'er and my camaro parked at the cruisin spot
no blacks
no tattooed women
a troony meant a car part
no cell phones in sight
and kids played outside
He had Robin Williams levels of energy (ie cocaine)
>Robin Williams levels of energy
But not Robin Williams levels of talent.
Steve is only funny in very, very small doses. Otherwise he's a massive try-hard. I love The Muppet Show and his episode is one of the worst.
He only did comedy and acting to break into the banjo scene. Like fassbender with acting to racing, or Gallo with racing to acting; but bluegrass.
He's just a wild & crazy guy
He was fine in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and not much else. Robin Williams was smart enough to land dramatic roles and he was great in them ... probably should've won an Oscar or two. Even Stephen Wright was smart enough to play a straight role at least once.
Planes, Trains & Automobiles was a rare moment of brilliance from him, he's mid in everything else.
>mid
Stfu broccoli head
i liked Parenthood
Him and Chevy chase always pissed me off for not being funny