Steve Martin – King Tut
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One of my All Time Favorites! I miss him/his comedy.
Thx
I usually watch this one at least once a year. Classic!
If only SNL was a tenth this good now.
Of course, as our host knows, this skit periodically pops up over the last several years for various kinds of criticism:
https://www.tmz.com/2022/04/23/steve-martin-snl-king-tut-skit-defended-against-millennials/
1) It’s a case of racist cultural appropriation. (This sentiment actually caused a quasi-riot at Reed College in 2017.)
2) It doesn’t register like it did in 1978 because Tutankhamen doesn’t have the cultural radar signature that it did at that time.
3) It’s just not funny for many in younger (Gen Y, Z) generations.
I think we all know what we think about (1), so there’s no point in belaboring that.
I can sort of see the point of (2), because King Tut *was* a much bigger thing in the 1970’s, when his mortal remains and burial artifacts went on tour (my parents hauled wee little me up to Chicago just to see it); the percentage of 20-somethings who don’t even register the name unfortunately has got to be a lot higher than it is/was for my generation, let alone Bob’s . . . but then, SNL has always leaned heavily on topical humor, so it’s hardly fair to hold that much against it, any more than we would SNL Coronavirus skits from last year in 2067 (even if they were actually funny to anyone *now*, which they’re not).
As for (3), I concede that humor *is* subjective. I recall reading the letters of Captain James Fitzjames, one of the senior RN officers who was lost on the disastrous 1845 Franklin Expedition; Fitzjames was reckoned by all who knew him as a great wit, and yet his jokes were very hit and miss for me. Maybe some of it was in his delivery. Still, though, that’s a distance of almost two centuries from now. But now we’re to believe that the culture has moved so far, so fast in living memory since just 45 years ago that Steve Martin has lost all power of humor. If that’s true, all the worse for us.
“…nobody knew his name, ’til Carter dug him out…”
King Tut
(“Walking on the Sun” by Smash Mouth)
History Teachers (2010)
https://youtu.be/cAQyFO_fPmM
(3:13)
“Walk Like A Joe Biden”
(Walk Like An Egyptian Parody) Louder With Crowder
April 2023
https://youtu.be/ULk8-DGC7Hs
(2:41)
My life is more complete now that I have seen that, thank you. I accurately proclaim that it is, in fact, entertaining and funny.
Cultural appropriation? Give me a break, who the hell says ancient Egyptians actually did the sand-dance? Even if they did, they weren’t as good as Steve Martin and the backup dancers, I tell you.
Richard M: Though the topical aspect of this Steve Martin performance might be lost on younger sorts, if they can’t get its utter silliness and laugh, then they have some serious and very sad mental problems.
Steve Martin
Michael Jackson Billie Jean
(from The New Show 1984)
https://youtu.be/MydUQ8IYKfg
3:44
I’ll throw a monkey wrench into the works: I’ve never understood why this was thought of as being funny.
This isn’t an issue with my age (I’ve just crept past the half-century mark), or a matter of not understanding material from a time long, long ago. I’ve actually received meager restitution for my joke and satire writing over the last two decades, and along the way, my work has been compared to several…dead satire authors, most notably John Kennedy Toole…although I’m not exactly sure that was a compliment.
I have favorites from all over the comedic historical map (for example, the “do you think you’re holding up the building?” gag in the Marx Brothers “A Night in Casablanca” is legendary), and have even studied the origins of comedy, all the way back to the Greeks. To that end, comedy sort of began as an extension of tragedy, at least in reference to the Gods, concerning how they would sit up on Mount Olympus and look down upon poor souls minding their own business, noting how these folks were completely absorbed in their own affairs. Now imagine seeing the Tusken Raiders (from Episode 1) on the sidelines of a pod race, baying their approval not when one of them shoots and takes out a podracer, but when Zeus messes up someone’s [deleted].
See how this works? The fact that the Gods just picked someone at random and ruined the hell out of someone’s day is both a tragedy…and eventually a comedy, in the vein of “it’s a comedy when your neighbor falls off of his roof…but it’s a tragedy when you fall off”. Both aspects are still evident today, especially in such physical comedy hits as “Home Alone”, the late John Ritter, or even the late Chris Farley and his run through the “fatty fall down” comedy model: In all cases, “ouch” is both funny and yet tragic, someone is having their [deleted]t messed up…and hopefully we’re laughing at it.
Now with that out of the way, and my noting that out of all Steve Martin filmography, “Bowfinger” and “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” are my two favorite selections of his, Martin’s earlier comedy offerings…for me, anyway…are extremely hit and miss…with most of his work in the ‘miss’ category. Even “The Jerk” was somewhat painful to sit through.
I will also note, however, that Martin’s rather odd visit to “The Muppet Show” is one of my favorites out of that series, although the original Muppet Show is a comedy goldmine if you don’t mind sifting through all five seasons…and that’s if you can find season 4 and 5 somewhere without having a Disney+ subscription (last I checked, those two seasons were never released on DVD).
So to that end, I don’t understand where this is thought of as funny, and it also isn’t due to my lack of understanding of Egyptian history: Arthur Weigall’s “The Glory of the Pharoahs”…published in 1923…is among many books on the subject on my shelves, and I think I’d be heavily engaged with archaeology if I didn’t mind being broke all the time….and didn’t mind having my career destroyed by all of the institutional dogma present in current day archaeology.
All I see here is a 1970’s comedian attempting to be funny and hamming it up for the camera, SNL-style. If anything, I think that most people who find it funny are doing so because of the production values, just look at it, it’s an awesome attempt, theoretically, it should be funny.
But for me, it appears as if SNL was throwing something at the wall…on someone else’s dime…to see if it stuck, and it just sorta slid off, like Steve Martin sliding slowly off of a large window, screeeeeeeing all the way down.
The amazing (?) thing is those who are offended are being offended FOR an extinct culture. There’s literally no Egyptians left who revere the pharaohs as gods, the fashions are long-gone, as is the art style. Who is being mocked? Who is being insulted? The dead?
And, from what I understand, the Egyptians would be thrilled at the idea their names live on, and we make “sacrifices” (of a sort) to their memory.
Stinky Pete: Your comment went to moderation because you used an obscenity, twice, barely disguising it with some asterisks.
My rules are clear. No such thing is allowed. I expect those who comment here to be civilized adults who don’t do such things. This is a warning. Do it again and I will suspend you for a week.
Considering the thoughtfulness of your comment, it baffles me why you also chose to debase yourself with such use.
Robert: Most sincere apologies, there wasn’t any intent on slipping anything in or hiding something, nor was there any attempt to sully or darken anything associated with this website.
Duly noted, thank you for being polite, but I shall take this time to quietly exit the building. I understand entirely what I did wrong, and my intent was to simply demonstrate the level of what extent the Gods would mess up your day. Text does a poor job of capturing what I was trying to do, once again, my fault. I have been lurking here in the background for quite some time, hesitant to add any sort of commentary, as I didn’t think I was worthy enough to add anything useful to any of the conversations in here. In the end, this is your website, and just because you’ve got a comment section at the bottom of every article or link doesn’t mean I am entitled to just show up and post whatever the heck I want. Lots and lots of wayward individuals often gleefully make that mistake, I hesitated greatly before posting that earlier this morning, and the one other time that I posted in here.
Normally, I would try to go overboard to make amends for my mistakes, as it is never my intent to offend those who I consider to be a heck of a lot smarter than I am. However, the fields of endeavor that I pursued to this point in life include a rather in-depth view into the fields of psychology and communications (not the NFL football star variety), and I have encountered…yet again…another experience that is to be added to the “never try to meet your heroes” file. In other words, I can read between the lines.
Yes, I screwed up, but a simple reply of “Hey, please read the rules concerning acceptable language. Thank you, Management” would have gone to great lengths to make me realize that my choice of language (if I had been saying those two words in person, I would even bleeped it out while speaking to you, I actually want my material to be read and seen by all age groups) probably wasn’t the greatest idea.
I have moderated several websites over the last two-plus decades, I’ve owned a few more. I’ve written absolutely terrible articles (okay, not really) concerning toxic online disinhibition effect and how I think it expands to arenas beyond simple message boards and comment sections (I think that online college class instructors also engage in this behavior), and to that end, I think that I’m seeing that here, so to that end, yes, it is indeed your site, it is indeed your set of rules, and I am indeed incredibly apologetic for stepping on that set of rules.
Thank you for being a go-to site for me to get my space jonesing out of the way,
Once again, apologies for stepping on toes,
Larry
Larry (Not Stinky Pete): Apology accepted, without reservations. Please feel free to comment more often. You clearly would enhance the comment section if all your comments were as thoughtful as these.
I only rage against the urge so many people have today, on both sides of the political aisle, to routinely use curse words nonchalantly, as if they are almost proud of doing so. Should we not be trying to act like civilized adults instead of screaming toddlers?
And if we complain about drag queens performing sex acts in front of kids, shouldn’t we also complain about exposing kids to bad language as well? Curses have their appropriate place, but since they are expressions of pure emotion, they have no place in a rational discussion. They replace thought, which is the whole point of rational discussion. We should be teaching children this fact.