Martin Short Claims That Roger Ebert Didn’t ‘Get’ ‘Clifford’
Martin Short is one of the most beloved comedians in the world. Who doesn’t love characters like Jiminy Glick, Nathan Thurm and Ed Grimley? You know, other than that one guy.
But despite his comedy icon status, Short’s cinematic efforts haven’t always gone over too well with film critics. For example, Three Amigos was panned when it first came out. And Jiminy Glick in Lalawood was rated about as highly as a fungal infection – even though it features the best ever David Lynch performance by someone who isn’t actually David Lynch.
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In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Short was asked about how it feels to make a movie that “did not necessarily hit in the moment.” Short explained that, while it may be “a drag” to get bad reviews, it’s “only really a drag if you think the film’s not very good. Then you feel (like), ‘Oh, they caught us.’” To illustrate his point, Short cited a comedy that he believed in, even though it wasn’t a hit at the time: Clifford, the deranged 1994 comedy that starred Short as a dinosaur-obsessed 10-year-old boy opposite a rage-filled Charles Grodin.
“I always loved Clifford, but certainly Roger Ebert said it was the worst thing he’d ever seen,” Short recalled. “And I thought, Well, I’ve had dinner with you, and that wasn’t great.”
To be fair, it’s not like the Siskel & Ebert star and Chicago Sun-Times critic gave Clifford zero stars. He gave it a whole half a star, calling the movie “profoundly” and “irredeemably not funny.” Ebert also claimed that, at his screening, he was one of only two people to audibly laugh during the movie, and that only happened once.
Ebert, who included a chapter about Clifford in his book I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie, seemed especially put off by how “odd” Short looked in the title role.
“Comedy is the most subjective thing in the world, much more than drama,” Short argued. “Some people love The Three Stooges; some people can’t stand The Three Stooges. No one’s really wrong. Roger Ebert wasn’t wrong. He just didn’t get it.”
In a past interview with Screen Slate, director Paul Flaherty similarly suggested that “Roger Ebert did not get it at all.” The interviewer also suggested that Ebert may have been predisposed to dislike the film because Short had bumped him off in a TV special. 1989’s I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood included a scene in which Siskel and Ebert go on a double date, and Gene Siskel (played by Joe Flaherty) accidentally kills Ebert (Dave Thomas) in the men’s room. (For his part, Short dismissed this theory.)
Short’s faith in Clifford has been somewhat vindicated by the cult following that the film has accrued over the years. And while Short and Ebert may have disagreed about the movie, at least they weren’t forced to hash it out in front of Johnny Carson and millions of TV viewers.
