Primetime Glick

When I was a kid, a broadcast of SCTV would only get my attention if Martin Short was the guy on the screen. Even today my tastes have not wavered. The only reason I am thinking of getting TEVO is so that I can punch in Martin's name and take in a month's worth of his talent when nobody is there to bother me.

Martin Short is without a doubt the funniest human being who has ever lived. His Jiminy Glick character is especially funny, and obviously so "inside" most people don't even get it...or do they?

Martin Short is the only heterosexual man who can make Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn impersonations funny for us straight men. Please don't take this as a homophobic view, rather, it is testament to Short's incredible talent. He's just funnier than a conventional drag queen or a female impersonator. He does what he does, and his straight audience laughs because it's funny, while his gay audience falls off their chairs because it's so hilariously campy and cruel.

Today I watched an episode of Primetime Jiminy and watched Short do a reenactment of Sal Mineo's murder with marionettes. Imagine that...a famous gay murder played out with cheap puppets -- it was so patently gay, yet only a small percent of those watching (and laughing) would understand how horribly and morbidly funny it really was.

C'mon, we all know Jiminy Glick is Merv Griffin -- it's so beyond funny because Martin Short is essentially a straight drag queen.

Thanks, Damien

For those of you who have not witnessed the pure genius of Martin Short on Primetime Glick, I strongly suggest you tune-in or set up your VCR or your Tevo...or what have you...do whatever it takes to make sure you don't miss any more of this true comic gem. Let me fill you in on what you will see, you will see Jimminy Glick(Short) leaving some of the true comic geniuses speechless. I have not witnessed a single guest who has managed to make an even halfway admirable attempt at a comeback or an insult in Glick's direction. He's brash, he's condescending and he's just clumsy, the combination of the three make it near impossible to get any thing across without him making you look like a complete fool. He will misspronounce the guests names, bring up embarrassing things from their pasts that a normal host would never bring up, and he'll see it in the guests eyes if they even get an insult forming in their mind and before they can get out two words he has cut them off with a better one or when all else fails he'll begin to choke on juji fruit or fall out of his chair and they've lost their chance. The things I enjoy most about this show, for one is the acting, I know you wouldn't think that would be a strong point of a comedy talk show, but you rarely see an actor on any level on any medium of entertainment submerse themselves in a character as well and as thoroughly as Short does in Glick, pure genius. The second thing I enjoy most about the show is that as the viewer you almost get the impression that Short is doing this not for the entertainment of the audience, but merely for himself, you can truly tell he has a great time making otherwise hillarious or brilliant or influential people look like bafoons. It is in my opinion that this is one of the funniest shows in the history of television and one of the greatest comic performances day in and day out of any actor ever. Tune in but be prepared to have your sides split...

Primetime Glick is one of those shows that you look forward to all week.

From Adrian's opening line "Am I the only one who needs a Glick fix?" the show never ceases to keep me in stitches.

Martin Short is excellent at keeping the laughs coming a mile-a-minute. The wacky character of Jiminy never allows for the celebrity interviews to slow down or get dull, and the celebrities "play along" very well, although they often have to hold back from breaking into hysterics.

One of my favorite parts of the show, which no one has mentioned so far is "Jiminy's home movies" where we see "home movies" from Jiminy's personal life, usually involving his relationship with Dixie, his alcoholic and clinically depressed wife.

It's a brilliant show, from beginning to end, and I hope it lasts for many seasons.

Martin Short is absolutely hilarious ad-libbing his interviews with famous celebrities and it's very comical watching them trying not to laugh as he makes his ridiculous and extremely loud comments. His interview with Nathan Lane was so funny it should be measured as the benchmark for his show.

I can see why this show has such a low rating. When Primetime Glick was on the air, I hated it too. However, I caught some repeats of this under-appreciated gem late one night and laughed long and hard. Maybe my comedic tastes have matured (or devolved) a little, or maybe I appreciate the lampooning of a late night talk show more nowadays since I've lost interest in most of the late shows except for the occasional Conan. What ever it is, if you ever see this show on again, give it a chance. Glick grows on you, and Short's complete immersion into this character is a performance that's up there with Borat or Andy Kaufman's various guises. That said, Glick isn't perfect. When the celebrities he's interviewing try to get in on the act, it doesn't always work. The ones who try their best to pretend Glick is just another late show host, that's where Martin Short can do his best work. Still, the openings of the show that would follow Glick back stage during an intentionally poor first act, and the closings in the steam room were always priceless bits of comedy.