What Happened to the Funny Steve Martin?

I miss Steve Martin. Not the novelist, playwright or the actor in countless remakes of classic comedic films, but the one in the white suit with an arrow through his head (or occasionally bunny ears), letting loose with an exaggerated, "Excu-u-u-u-se Me!" I've become pretty convinced that aliens abducted Steve Martin in 1985 and replaced him with the guy who was in Father of the Bride (I and II).

No one was a bigger Steve Martin fan than me. I remember vividly the first time I heard him. My Dad and I were riding in the car one night and Martin began to sing the song his grandmother had sung to him so many times, "Be courteous, kind and forgiving...." It didn't take long for the lyrics to deteriorate into, "Put a live chicken in your underwear...." We stared incredulously at each other for a moment before breaking out in raucous laughter. I had to hear more and so, like virtually every other teenager, bought a copy of Martin's classic comedy album, "Let's Get Small." That was followed by "A Wild And Crazy Guy," which included Martin's satire on the popularity of the ancient exhibit, the song, "King Tut." Both albums won Grammy Awards.

But that guy - who "got small," was "wild and crazy" and became a fixture on Saturday Night Live as one of the swinging Czech brothers" and its most frequent host - can't be the author of the artsy "Shopgirl" or "Picasso At The Lapin Agile" (the Lapin what?). He just can't. Or the actor in disastrous remakes of earlier comedies such as Sgt. Bilko, Father of the Bride, Cheaper by the Dozen and The Pink Panther. And, by the way, Bilko and the Pink Panther became classics not because of the material but because of the unique talents of their stars, Phil Silvers and Peter Sellers. As an accomplished comedy writer and performer Martin should know better than to even trod on that kind of comedic hallowed ground. Didn't he learn anything from watching Ted Wass and Roberto Benigni each flop trying to recreate Seller's Clouseau? Martin should instead continue to mark his own territory in the way he began to in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

It would be impossible to list the funniest films ever made without including The Jerk. It made both the AFI and Bravo lists. Martin's bumbling Navin Johnson must still be lurking down, deep inside him somewhere. The Man With Two Brains succeeded on Martin's pure genius as an actor in an absurd comedy. Small parts in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Little Shop of Horrors also showcased Martin's comic prowess over the zany. I'd even include All Of Me in the list of Martin's funny films, even though his leaning toward more higher-brow material can be detected in that movie. The few minutes of his portrayal of Ruprecht the Dog Boy also launches Dirty Rotten Scoundrels onto the funny list.

There have been the other, occasional movie high points. My Blue Heaven was Steve Martin at his funny best, as the stereotypical mobster placed by the witness protection program in a suburban neighborhood that was just too clean for him. Planes, Trains and Automobiles, with John Candy, provided an outstanding mix of character and comedy. And Ron Howard's Parenthood even provided Martin with a few chances to shine. But those bright spots have been fewer and farther between since the aliens abducted the original, funny Steve Martin.

A strong case can be made that Martin invented absurd comedy. Before his cavorting that spawned the "Let's Get Small" album, most comedians were joke or storytellers. Martin's comedy took oddball comedy such as Soupy Sales, the Smothers Brothers (whose television show he wrote for) and George Carlin to a whole different plane. Without his blaze of the trail subsequent edge comedians such as Sam Kinison, Gallagher, Carrot Top, Steven Wright and Andrew Dice Clay, might never have made it. Martin defined the market for funny without jokes and punchlines.

Martin undoubtedly has many artistic talents. Acting, writing, playing the banjo, making balloon animals. So I'm not against him writing books, as long as they're funny. His first book of bizarre essays, Cruel Shoes, has been sent underground. Instead, Martin puts out Shopgirl and similarly poignant, but unfunny, prose in its place. I understand his desire to be taken more seriously as a performer. You can't wear an arrow through your head for the rest of your life. And Martin has succeeded in making the transition to more mainstream roles, but at the expense of playing to his true strength - mastery of the crazy comedy.

If the torch must be passed the only thing close to the funny Steve Martin today is James P. Connolly. In fact, listening to Connolly on satellite radio I can hear Martin's wild and crazy guy. If we can't get Steve Martin to return to Earth and the genre that made him famous, Connolly may be the best substitute available.

Sources:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7331/steve_martins_the_jerk_celebrates_its.html?cat=40

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/884739/born_standing_up_a_comics_life_by_steve.html?cat=38

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9916/misguided_steve_martin_to_star_in_remake.html?cat=9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jerk

http://www.amazon.com/Cruel-Shoes-Steve-Martin/dp/0399123040

http://www.getasite.com/gj/cruelshoes.htmAliens abducted Comedian Steve Martin in 1985Martin abandoned the genius of his early comedy for a more artistic careerHe co-wrote and starred in The Jerk, which is consistently ranked as one of the funniest movies everMartin was part of the Emmy award-winning writing team for The Smothers Brothers Show in the 1960shttp://www.stevemartin.com/http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/king-tut/976141/http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7331/steve_martins_the_jerk_celebrates_its.html?cat=40