Do we like Steve Martin?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Decades of work with no harmful campaigning found, a real gift to the arts, and one badly judged 2013 tweet that he apologised for.
Steve Martin was born in Waco, Texas, in 1945 and grew up in Southern California, where he sold guidebooks and did magic tricks at Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. He quit college in 1967 to write for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, which won him an Emmy in 1969. Hosting Saturday Night Live in 1976 made him a household name, and The Jerk, All of Me, Roxanne and Father of the Bride followed.
The trophy shelf is long: Grammys for comedy albums and for banjo music, an honorary Oscar in 2013, the Mark Twain Prize in 2005 and Kennedy Center Honors in 2007. He also hosted the Oscars three times. Few people go from arena stand-up to bluegrass banjo and keep both audiences.
The real stain is a 2013 tweet. Asked how to spell a word, he posted, then quickly deleted, a joke that critics read as implying African-American people couldn't spell. He apologised on Twitter, wrote that he realised a second later “what an offensive thing I'd done”, but also argued some outlets had misquoted him. One bad gag, owned up to, not a pattern.
In January 2024 he posted on Threads congratulating Jo Koy after the Golden Globes monologue, and some users replied that Koy's jokes demeaned women and that Martin was out of his depth on the topic. It reads as a mate backing a mate who bombed, not a stance against anyone, but it's the kind of thing that cops a pile-on.
The other mark is a 2023 allegation. Miriam Margolyes's memoir described being repeatedly struck on the 1986 set of Little Shop of Horrors and called him “undeniably brilliant, but horrid to me”. Martin denied it, saying he took “EXTREME caution regarding the fake punch”, and director Frank Oz said it wasn't the Steve he knew. It's one contested account from nearly 40 years ago, with no court involved.
On the harm test, we found nothing: no campaigning against LGBTQ+ or trans people, no conspiracy theories, and no run of work with the Daily Wire crowd or faith-film studios. Nothing new has turned up on him lately in the sources we could open. The good side includes a 2005 gift of $1 million to The Huntington to promote American art, plus a charitable foundation that backs arts groups.