Jimmy Kimmel is taking the summer off, like he did last summer, which means for the next couple of months, every week there will be a different celebrity guest host taking over for him, starting with Martin Short this week. These days, Martin Short comes with an entourage: all the residents of the Arconia. It’s been a parade of Only Murders in the Building cast members and it’s great promotion for the show – season four premieres August 27 and, also, Only Murders is expected to contend at the Emmys.
But also, even without Only Murders, it’s not like Martin Short needs the motivation. He was made for this – there are few celebrities who are better at talk shows than Martin Short, he’s legendary for it at this point. When Martin Short is the guest on a talk show, you know it’s going to be a good time. The New Yorker did a piece on this back in 2018: “Is Martin Short the Greatest Talk-Show Guest of All Time?” was the headline and it’s a fascinating read about how Marty treats his talk show appearances like proper performances, the preparation he puts into it, and how appreciated he is by hosts and producers for, basically, making their jobs so easy.
On the other side of the desk, then, as the host himself, Marty brings the same energy. And he’s been doing it all week, right off the top, while stepping in for Jimmy Kimmel. On Monday night, Steve Martin popped in during the monologue and they riffed on each other, as they do, for a few minutes to jack up the energy. But that was just the lead-in to one of Marty’s most beloved characters, Jiminy Glick, interview wi Bill Hader. Bill cannot keep his sh-t together, if you haven’t seen this yet, please change that now because it’ll change your day, an instant mood lifter. All the times that Bill Hader broke during SNL are nothing compared to how Jiminy breaks him, he completely loses it, it’s wonderful television, and it’s also another example of Martin Short’s status among funny people, comedians, comic actors. These are people who, ostensibly, know what funny is… and so many of them have said he’s funnier than all of them.
Anyway, here’s the Bill Hader clip for those who haven’t yet had the pleasure and again for those who have. I’ve watched it three times, once when I was eating, and I almost choked.
Marty’s guest last night was Selena Gomez and I know Sarah and I have written a lot about it over the years but the unexpected and unpredicted friendship between Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez has been such a pop culture delight. And the best part of it is, the delight is theirs – they are delighted by each other, all three of them, which is unmistakable whenever they are together.
Watching Marty interview Selena is giving both friend and grandfather. The jokes are there but there’s also pride. He is so proud of her accomplishments, and then he lets her put makeup on him and it’s just so fun and wholesome and, seriously, protect Martin Short, everybody. May we all protect Martin Short!
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