Tony Danza is, at least, personable. But that’s it.
Martha isn’t, never has been, never will be. Her old TV show – we get the reruns here on Sunday morning – didn’t have an audience.
I’ve caught Martha’s new show a couple of times. Meh.
They only say ‘what?’, and they’re all in Spanish.
(You meant to type ‘cue cards’.)
(The good spelling joke had already been done.)
That might have been funny to a real fan of trainwrecks. I can’t imagine what Groucho Marx would have done to her.
I adore Martha. Honestly. But I also know she has the personality of a flounder fillet.
Case in point - I never in my life seen anyone interact with Muppets as other than real characters. I mean Vincent Price, Alice Cooper - hell, even Katie Couric is charming & interactive with them.
Not our Martha. If you can ever find an episode of her show where Elmo is on, it’s painful to watch. She has no charm whatsoever, and even Elmo can’t melt the polycarbide that is Martha.
Almost as bad are her interactions with children. They look petrified and she looks menacing.
VCNJ~
Yes, she is godawful. Her earlier shows, filmed for the most part at her Connecticut house/studio, and without an audience, were at least watchable. The current show is downright painful.
She started her “empire” with her books and her magazine, so when she came to TV she already had a loyal following. If she had started on television, she would have been doomed.
Magic Johnson
Chevy Chase
Dennis Miller
–Martha doesn’t even make the bottom three.
Pat Sajak.
Marsha Warfield.
She’s not in the top 5.
Speaking of segues, The Soup features “Tony Danza: Transitions”. The latest one, he was shooting the shit about something light and fluffy and his next sentence was “You know who died this weekend?” :o
The worst one-time presenter was Elizabeth Taylor, when they had her try to present the Oscar a few years ago, I think for best Picture. She stumbled out and didn’t know where to look and I had this awful feeling she would flub the whole thing and blurt out the winner without the preliminaries (not the worst idea, but it wouldn’t reflect well on her).
But overall, Martha is quite rude. Let the guest present their cooking or whatever, already, without trying to take over and show them the “right” way to do it. I don’t know if she is just uncomfortable/unable to pick up social cues, or if she’s just mean.
I always thought Letterman had a crush on her, though; he seemed to like being browbeaten by someone whose pies could equal Ma’s.
I’ve only seen her show once - she was putting butter on toast for some reason & said “Use about a teaspoon”. Meanwhile she’s just slathering the stuff on.
I’ll count myself lucky that we don’t get Tony Danza then! Let alone the others mentioned.
I’ve never quite figured out what it was about her manner; don’t know if she’s cold, demanding, asocial, shy or whatever. But she always just seems so perfectly composed. When I’ve seen her, I just keep hoping for something to surprise her, for someone to tell a joke, anything that gets a genuine, spontaneous reaction. It’s like waiting for the facade to drop and it never does.
Better.
She had the Cookie Monster on once. She made cookies. Even made one that was covered in blue sprinkles and icing to look like the Cookie Monster. And all through the segment he’s pestering her about how he’s so hungry and wants cookie, trying to grab them, etc. Cookies go into oven, cut to commercial.
Back from commercial and Cookie Monster is wrapped up in very heavy rope. Cookies are out of the oven, Martha is showing off her handiwork, and CM just loses it. Throws off the ropes, grabbing cookies by the handful, and plates go flying. It’s what he does. I couldn’t tell if she wanted to laugh or beat the shit out of him, but it’s the closest I’ve ever seen to a real, human reaction from her.
Joel McHale: Where else on TV will you see a host forget his prop, then almost fall off the stage? Don’t leave us, Tony!
Love that show.
I’ve actually seen a spontaneous, emotional reaction from Martha, in an unguarded moment, in person. I used to be a museum guard in NYC. A few years ago, Martha attended an evening gala celebrating the reopening of our Greek and Roman antiquities galleries, which had been closed for renovation.
She arrived solo, but hooked up with some friends. As the party was ending, and the guests were filing out, past some ancient Roman sculptures, Martha’s friend reached out and cuppthe testicles of one of the sculptures. Martha and friend burst into schoolgirlish giggles. So she does have a sense of humor, albeit a slightly childish one.
(Happily for me, I was not the guard closest to them, so the task fell to another guard to admonish them for touching the art.)
I think she is just so much of a control freak that she has no ability to interact with people in a normal manner.
My SIL worships Martha and, strangely enough, is almost exactly like her in personality. Great presentation, yet uncomfortable around real life conversation and real people.
I avoid both.
That is “cupped the…”
I’ve never heard anyone bring this up, but the once or twice that I saw her TV show (the old one), I was shocked by how little charisma she had. She was stiff, had bad timing, didn’t really even look at the camera much, had no rapport whatsoever with her guests - I didn’t get it at all. It was sort of uncomfortable to watch her, because she came across so uncomfortable on camera.
Incidentally, I never knew the word “segue” was pronounced “segway” until a few months ago. I always thought the word I heard on the radio sometimes was “segue-way” - I figured it was a sort of redundant compound.
Given everything I’ve heard about Letterman, I wouldn’t really take not getting along with him as evidence that someone’s a bitch.
Part of the issue is that Stewart went on Letterman apparently without knowing that he routinely interferes with anyone who’s demonstrating cooking or some other activity on his show. And, even, if she did have no idea, why couldn’t she grasp the concept that no one watches Letterman’s show to actually learn how to do something? Completely clueless.
Martha seems to combine the worst of “holier than thou” with “dull as dishwater” and “tedious as hell”. Never liked her condescending attitude.
This joke list, though, from a couple of years ago, seems to indicate that my view isn’t exactly unique.
The woman doesn’t even own a microwave, for God’s sake, and she’s proud of that fact!
Just here to pile on:
The Master Chef Jr. season finale featured guest judges Martha Stewart and Wolfgang Puck (season 12, 2017). Stewart was introduced as the “ultimate guide in cooking and entertaining.”
During the judging Stewart was nice enough to the eleven year old finalists. However, she tasted their entrees and critiqued them with the food still in her mouth. The three other judges finished their bites (chews and swallows were edited out for brevity).
The takeaway from this is that Martha Stewart is not a good guide for table manners or polite dinner conversation.
I can’t believe how horrible you all are about Martha Stewart. She just needs the right person to bounce off off.
Yeah, she actually makes a better comedian than a daytime TV host. She was really funny at the Comedy Central Justin Bieber Roast. She also started hanging out with Snoop Dog now and I think that helped her to chill out.