Former Oscar Host Steve Martin Gives Helpful Advice To Eddie Murphy

COMMENTS (38)

• HILARIOUS

  This should remind us that comedians/stand-up comics should be the ONLY ones hosting award shows…..no Jane Lynches or James Francos.

  Comment by MZ — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 2:58pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • Wow.
    No offense but if you thought this was “HILARIOUS” then you must have been in heaven watching Two and a Half Men last night.

    Comment by a higher bar — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 3:21pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • Let me paraphrase what you just said:

      No Offense but…Actually, yea, offense.

      thats like saying “I dont mean to be rude but…::follows with something rude::”

      Martin IS hilarious.

      Comment by da truf — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 3:41pm PDT  Reply to this post

      • da truf (by the way, do you live on Planet Earf?) et al.,

        I guess zingers like the one about smuggling an Oscar out in his pants is the height of hilarity for you. Excuse me while I catch my breath from laughing.

        I didn’t say Steve Martin is never funny.
        But this pathetic attempt at comedy is as flat as unleavened bread.

        You may now return to watching reruns of the “King Tut” skit.

        Comment by a higher bar — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 6:24pm PDT  Reply to this post

        • Really dude? Steve Martin wrote a letter to a friend. It wasn’t supposed to be a comedic masterpiece. It was funny and light-hearted.

          Comment by B — Wednesday September 21, 2011 @ 11:01am PDT  

    • Just because you didn’t think it was funny doesn’t mean it wasn’t funny to other people.

      Comment by The Ritz — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 4:34pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • It’s the kind of humor that obviously does not appeal to you, higher bar. But, don’t knock it. It’s called a “sense” of humor because everyone’s sensibilities are different. I thoroughly enjoyed the letter. Steve Martin is comedic genius and 2.5 Men made me LOL several times. P.S. Your way isn’t the only way.

      Comment by Just Me — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 4:36pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • But…isn’t Lynch a stand up?

    Comment by Tawdry Hepburn — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 3:59pm PDT  Reply to this post

• The New Yorker’s got nothing on Deadline…

  Comment by Barry from Omaha — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 3:05pm PDT  Reply to this post

• See this is fun. so why didn’t he write something like this when he hosted the last time. Anyway I can’t wait to see what Eddie will do. Hopefully something old school in the vein of Raw and Delirious. But can he be fun without the swearing and the inappropriately…yet funny, gay and chauvinist jokes. I guess he could always do some impersonations and a song.

  Comment by gerd — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 3:11pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Well Steve, you forgot to include the reason you aren’t hosting the Oscars again this year: Because you’re not funny.

  Comment by Jeremy — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 3:16pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • Interesting. We’ve all been under the impression that he’s been funny for about 35 years or so…one of the best, actually.

    Comment by JohnDoe — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 3:34pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • I agree as well with you. A lot of people tend to mistake “Steve Martin” for “SNL” for some reason. And in fact, if you ever get a chance to watch Steve and Alec hosting the Oscars again, it was hilarious! The critcs had their head up their assess and panned it out of habit. But they were great, and so was a lot of their material.

      Comment by Rocky Robillard — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 4:29pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • Just because someone is famous or on tv or has a “career” in the public eye doesn’t mean they deserve it or are capable. See: George W. Bush. Steve Martin is a hack of the first order. I’d have no problem liking him if he said he was an “actor” or a “dramatist” because that’s how he comes off. But to call him funny or a comedian is an insult to the people who can actually tell jokes.

      Comment by Jeremy — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 4:39pm PDT  Reply to this post

      • And of course you are the final say on whose funny arent you? Wait why dont you just say what you mean. He’s old so he cant be funny.

        Comment by ohplease — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 4:47pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • I’m of the opinion that people like Jeremy who make these blatant statements regarding who is funny or who isn’t funny fall between the age range of narcissism and know-it-all-ness. It’s mildly frightening that guys like you (Jeremy) grow up to be comedy execs or run non-cable networks. Steve Martin was funny before you were born and will be selling dvds long after you’re gone.

    Comment by JaneDoe — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 4:43pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • “I’m of the opinion that people like Jeremy who make these blatant statements regarding who is funny or who isn’t funny fall between the age range of narcissism and know-it-all-ness.”

      I guess this only applies to those who disagree with you as you go on to declare Steve Martin funny.

      Comment by “Hypocrisy: prejudice with a halo” — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 6:46pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • Actually, the people who go on to become network and studio execs are the ones who LIKE Steve Martin. That’s why Cheaper By the Dozen was made, along with anything else he’s done in the past 20 years. Anyone with a clue and a penchant for anything good and funny and well written hates Steve Martin. I don’t really have to say more here because his “filmography” speaks for itself. The guy is a joke – a better written one than he could ever write.

      Comment by Jeremy — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 7:11pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Eddie Murphy absolutely deserved an Oscar nomination for Bowfinger, and probably one for 48 Hrs. And Steve Martin, definitely, for All of Me.

  Comment by Nick — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 3:21pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • And Roxanne.

    Comment by Sir Charles Phantom the notorious Lytton — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 3:57pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • I’ve been saying for years that when Steve Martin not winning for ALL OF ME was when I realized award shows didn’t think comedians was on par with dramatists. Any monkey can cry on cue but can anyone make you laugh on cue… I think not.

    One of the quotes I can actually remember from an awards show is when Steve Martin said the execs did not mess with one word on his screenplay, and that word was on page 87

    Comment by baby jesus — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 5:05pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Steve Martin = True Greatness.

  Comment by taffin — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 3:30pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Steve Martin is a comedy genius. Funny, but doesn’t go over the top. I thought what he wrote was hilarious, too.

  Comment by HenryO — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 3:50pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Eddie should have won for “Dream Girls.” He deserved it.

  Comment by HneryO — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 3:51pm PDT  Reply to this post

• And Steve was also right about Eddie and Bowfinger. A very funny, underrated comedy – and Murphy was hilarious in it.

  Comment by randi Neil — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 5:40pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Not sure what to expect from Murphy but I will tune in for the first time in 4 years.

  After Murphy: Jamie Foxx, Jon Stewart, Cedric The Entertainer, Robin Williams… so many to choose from. Please don’t give us another Hathaway-Franco disaster.

  Comment by lala — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 7:09pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I never thought Murphy deserved an Oscar for anything he ever did – all he ever does in his movies that’s great is his “Eddie Murphy Laugh”, and that’s all – nothing in the emotional range of very distressed, sad, remorseful, you know, that whole other emotional spectrum besides “light, hearted” comedy.

  Comment by anon — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 8:05pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • “Distressed, sad, remorseful” – quite encompassing…..

    Comment by MexyMartini — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 9:56pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Here is better advice. Be a GENTLEMAN. Be the person who would represent the U.S. in a sophisticated way. Be a man. Don’t fight to be so funny, no matter what you do, the writing is embarassing, always. Bruce Vilanch, Jon Macks, Dave Boone, they really don’t hold a candle to you. You will be really noticed if you appear on that stage and just be the funny man you are without the one liners. Show the huge audience the sophistication that these silly awards use to posess.

  Just keep the show moving, don’t allow bad jokes, rise above it all.

  Comment by Sally — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 9:22pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • Forget those “one-liners” – and comedy, you know.

    Comment by MexyMartini — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 9:56pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Steve Martin is the Thinking Person’s Comic, talented in so many different directions.

  Eddie Murphy will be great.

  Larry David and Wanda Sykes together would have been great too.

  Comment by Bowfinger International, This is Mark — Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 10:02pm PDT  Reply to this post

• It’s precisely this sort of smug, we’re-so-hip humor that has destroyed Oscar. It’s no longer a reward for excellence, it’s a show about showing off, even by ex-hosts a few years down the line.

  Comment by Jack — Wednesday September 21, 2011 @ 12:12am PDT  Reply to this post

• Lame. Steve Martin, go play banjo.

  Comment by fredjones — Wednesday September 21, 2011 @ 12:25am PDT  Reply to this post

• I happen to love it when people disagree. It shows that everyone isn’t alike or has to be put in a box. There are people who think Steve is funny and there are people who think he’s not. That’s why we have variety when it comes to comedy.

  Comment by Free Will — Wednesday September 21, 2011 @ 9:03am PDT  Reply to this post

• Meh. A bit desperate to get attention.

  Comment by Fraz — Wednesday September 21, 2011 @ 10:29am PDT  Reply to this post

• This letter was great and useless. But…

  It is amazing to me that the Oscars don’t recognize comedies. They’ll give Oscars to snoozefest dramas but they won’t acknowledge a comedy. And now cartoons can win a best picture award.

  And Bowfinger was a great movie.

  Comment by Comedies are real movies too — Wednesday September 21, 2011 @ 3:14pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Love Steve Martin. Love Bowfinger… so underrated. Love the ending where the illegals are talking about Kubrick and lighting.

  Comment by CT — Wednesday September 21, 2011 @ 4:16pm PDT  Reply to this post

• When was the last time Steve Martin was funny? 30 years ago?
  Eddie Murphy: all he ever did is play an 80′s style tough black wise guy. Chris Rock is way funnier, and not Gay like Murphy.

  Comment by Wade Collins — Wednesday October 26, 2011 @ 1:09pm PDT  Reply to this post