“Whatever, Martha!” debuted on the Fine Living Network tonight. I had already figured it was going to be bad. It’s much worse.
As previously noted, the hosts of the show are Stewart’s daughter, Alexis, and Jennifer Koppelman Hutt, who is apparently a pal of Alexis’. She’s also the daughter of Charles Koppelman, the chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. In the show, this pampered, bratty pair sit on an opulent set, look at a giant flat-screen TV showing segments of Martha’s TV show “Martha Stewart Living,” and make catty comments. It’s vaguely reminiscent of MST3K, of course, and Martha herself invoked the show (somewhat disingenuously) when she described it to The New York Times. And I suppose it’s sort of a perverse tribute to how accepted and universal the riffing premise has become.
Actually, this show is far more reminiscent of “Cheap Seats”–with one crucial difference: “Cheap Seats” was funny. The riffs here are mostly what the Brains used to call “state park” jokes. They’re simply describing (and chortling cattily about) what they’re seeing. There’s not a hint of wit. Their comments are also profane and shrill, and every time these two open their mouths, they reveal what sheltered, hot-house flowers they are. These two make Paris and Nicole seem down-to-Earth.
Worse, Alexis has no compunction about bringing up private disputes and issues she has with her mother. Now, I’m sure Martha and Alexis have issues. All mothers and daughters do, and stony Martha and her spoiled brat kid can hardly NOT have them. But how is airing their dirty laundry funny? It feels less like comedy and more like a therapy exercise. The result is that Alexis manages what few people could do: she makes Martha a sympathetic figure.
Hmmm… Martha approved this project. Is this Martha’s secret plan to humanize herself? We’re through the looking glass here, people.
Jennifer’s animus toward Martha is less creepy, but just as graceless. It’s clear her pampered lifestyle is possible, at least to some extent, thanks to the revenue generated by Martha’s many far-flung enterprises. How ungracious is it to cackle meanly at her benefactor? The longer you watch this, the worse an idea it seems.
Every once in a while, some critic or observer of MST3K will make the bold statement that he or she can or has made funnier riffs than the ones the Brains did. I’ve always likened this to the guy who sits in the stands of a major league baseball game, looks at the players and thinks, “I could do that!” If he ever actually had to face down a 95 mile-per-hour fast ball with 30,000 people watching him, he might discover it’s not so easy.
It’s possible Jennifer and Alexis may eventually have that realization–that is, if they ever find themselves outside of their cushioned little world and find out what real people think.
Just my $0.02.
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I watched the show tonight. I agree that it was like an unfunny version of Cheap Seats. There is a real lack of coherence to the show. There is too much cutting away to the hosts.
The comments, such as they are, should be heard as we watch the Martha Stewart programs. And, there’s the other problem, programs. I think this show would have been better with an edited down version of a single Martha Stewart program rather than these several short segments from different shows.
Now, I think the closest comparison that we can make between this show and MST3K is the instructional shorts that were on the show. Unlike the shorts, which were often filled with dated material and just odd narration, Martha Stewart’s programs aren’t too bad. She’s very direct in what she does and there’s never any kind of humor to be drawn from it. Personally, I don’t get the sort of “required hatred” that people have about Martha Stewart.
In the end, this show just two women going over, what amounts to, old home movies of Martha Stewart.
Do you guys remember the MST3K ripoff Game Show Network tried a few years ago? I think it was “Faux Pause”.
From what I remember of it, it was really horrible.
Yeah, whatever happened to Sean Donnellan, anyway?
Interesting:
Post Faux Pause Sean Donnellan was in “The Kingdom,” and parts in the episodics “Monk,” “Without a Trace,” and “Las Vegas.” At least it didn’t destroy his career, but I doubt he’s willing to talk about it.
Faux Pause wasn’t too kind to Mary Gallagher, though. Hardly any work in television afterwards.
hmmmm your ‘milage’ has varied quite enough already ;)
Oh my, I may have to tune in next week. Sounds like an opportunity to watch some really bad TV!
A comedic riff-style show with Martha Stewart involvement, how could such a concept go wrong?!
I mean when I think comedy and funny jokes, I can’t help but think of Martha Stewart! She’s like the hub of the comedy universe.
Remember that one joke she’s famous for?! Heh heh heh! My sides hurt!
p.s. Can I get a receipt for your $0.02?
The mighty dollar will speak and when the show loses the tiny ratings it has now, they will realize that they suck at riffing. At least I hope so. So while it would be very easy, I can’t be too hard on the girls. (Especially with iRiffs looming which will make us noobs prove that we can do better.)
another great idea…. wait for the show to fold, buy the rights, plug in the shadowrama and RIFF THE RIFFERS !
( Or maybe rifftrax can handle it…. )
Your $0.02 is worth a bundle more to me Sampo, that was bloody funny!
Wow thx #10. I’m glad it wasn’t longer. 1 minute left me feeling kind of empty. and depressed. 10 minutes and I might have been jumping out the airlock.
Though.. “who needs family and friends when you have twine?!” isn’t a bad riff. Definitely NOT in their defense, of course. But still… good line.
I don’t get Fine Living Network — No, it’s not the wind, baby, I just don’t RECEIVE it. And I’m GLAD, I tells ya!
Kind of on the subject..
A couple Sunday mornings ago I was flipping thru and caught one of those hunting shows. I think it was on the Outdoor Network. But in between the regular hunting stuff they were cutting to an MST-like theater segment with what I guess was the host guy AND a big buck deer puppet (with big antlers) riffing on hunting footage. The sight gag consisted of pointing a rifle at the on-screen deer’s neck while riffing about non kill-shots or some such. I think it was about what to do when you shoot the deer and it just wont die. Damn those non-dying deer. :neutral:
Put today’s date in your notebook. This will be all gone by November. Nuff said.
I agree. a well-spent $0.02. very well written, and very funny. thanks, Sampo!
#15: if only we had an ‘Animal Theme Park Death’ version of that, or a ‘When Animals Attack/Kill/Go Bad’ ad nauseam segment, told from the animals’ point of view. awhile back in one such program I watched a couple feed a bear from a bag of marshmallows, with dire consequences.
Outline of Large Black Bear, watching footage shot by husband of wife feeding him marshmallows from her hand while husband and wife laugh at bear:
Bear: can you believe these two?
Other Bear: it’d be funny, if it weren’t so sad.
[husband on footage: ‘that’s all, Mr. Bear! We ain’t got no more marshmallows!’- protracted screaming as Bear mauls wife.]
Bear: what’d you expect, you ridiculous crackers?
Other Bear: I prefer my meat come from a more intelligent species.
I’ll wait for it to come out on DVD. I bet SG IV will love it. :thereisnosmileyforsmugsarcasm:
Cheap Seats was funny?! :shock:
hey another reality show hoarking people no one should care about. they will go the way of the dodo, but less tastefully
Honestly, this really has nothing to do with MST3K and associated projects.
Reading the review I can visualize the whole thing. What a true horror it must have been to behold.
There are two new episodes tonight, coming up next. Watch them and pretend you’re Joel or Mike who’s just received another painful experiment from Dr. F.
OH MY GOD I’M WATCHING IT RIGHT NOW !!!!!
( 9:08 PM, Wednesday NYC )
I’m sort of speechless. But not because it is in any way intensely good or bad. It just sort of lays there… these 2 over-privileged, unattractive, and under-talented people talking to each other about what’s on TV. Once you’ve seen 4 minutes of it you’ve seen it all ( I’ve seen about 20 minutes ).
Strangely enough, I think if Martha was in the room with them, it might possibly get interesting.
But as it is, it’s just sort of empty. I take back my earlier comment about depressing. It’s not enough of anything to have that level of emotional impact. It’s kind of… annoying ?
Hey Samp, my man!! Nice biting and crtical review. You should definitely apply at Variety. Peter Bart could use another point of view.
Anyway, I’m actually watching Whatever Martha! right now!! Fine Living Network has decided, in their infinite wisdom, to generate “hype” for the show by showing it at the extremely popular midnight to 1 a.m. slot on a Wednsday night. The whole thing about S’mores was enough to put me into therapy!
The friend of Alexis is a bunch of cheap jokes waiting to happen.
She’s not exactly slim. Her married name is Hutt. And now she goes on and on about how much she loves s’mores. :lol: :twisted:
Although, I must agree with Alexis. I never found s’mores all that appealing either.
Plus the daughter makes more nasty, bitter jokes about her mother having sex than I can really feel comfortable with a daughter making.
Unless of course I’m watching the Carrie Fischer segment of the Aristocrats.
The women are no talent spoiled brats. The show is in extremely bad taste and not fit for children of any age to watch. So be careful. Alexis has no personality only hate filled nasty remarks. The chubby friend has a lot to talk about when criticizing anyone. What has either of them achieved? Nada! Except spend their parents’ money. Short lived show hopefully.
That analogy might be stretching it a bit. If you don’t have the talent and the training, you will NEVER be able to hit a 95 mph fastball. Almost anybody could come up with a funny riff OCCASIONALLY. The trick is doing it over and over for a 90 minute movie week after week. The baseball analogy works in another way though. Not every riff is going to be funny, even from the “pros,” just not every pitch is goint to be a home run.
I figured out what that hunting show was. It’s a show called “Winchester World of Whitetail with Larry Weishuhn”. I’m almost 99 percent sure it was episode 2 by the description of it. I’ll have to keep an eye out for that episode online. Pretty ridiculous I know but so is this Martha stuff. :???:
“Cheap Seats was funny?! :shock:”
That’s exactly what I was thinking. I can’t erase the sound of those unfunny brothers’ voices from my mind. I’ve never seen this “Whatever, Martha” show, but I have doubts it could be any worse than Cheap Seats.
“The trick is doing it over and over for a 90 minute movie week after week.”
Yeah, and even Joel/Mike and the bots couldn’t manage that. They definitely had a lot of great episodes, but not all of them were consistently funny. Many of the episodes from the first couple of seasons are boring and episodes like Hamlet are completely unwatchable.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned that her last/married name is HUTT.
Whatever Martha is certainly not in any way, shape or form MST3K, so I don’t think it has a lot of cross-over appeal. It’s either for people (like me) who like Martha Stewart, but sometimes think she is, I don’t know, insane. Or people who watch Martha Stewart, but couldn’t actually see themselves making any of the projects or cooking any of the recipes. Or people who hate Martha. I couldn’t really see MST3K fans liking it, because why would you? You don’t know or care about Martha Stewart.
For one of the Whatever, Martha episodes,there was a segment where Martha had a “clown” on called Peanut Butter. (seriously) He was the absolute gayest, creepiest guy you could imagine. (Not that there’s anything wrong with gay — but when it’s combined with creepy it gets kind of scary.) If you had to hire a clown and your only two choices were John Wayne Gacy and Peanut Butter, you would pick Gacy. He was like if the guy from Strangeland was also a clown. He was all airbrush painted and had two giant spikes coming out of his cheeks. More like a dancer from a gay bondage club than a kid’s clown. He painted up some terrified children as Martha commented on how beautiful the make up was. You totally have to see this to beleive that a scary, scary clown named Peanut Butter exists. You could probably find it on YouTube.
I think it’s silly for MST3K fans to take offence at it or to even think it would have come close to being the same thing. Why would some (probably) male, sci-fi, comedy, movie geek think he’d like the show? I like it, and my mom thinks it’s amusing, so there.
BTW, I am a huge Mystery Science Theater fan. (So I’m not making fun of anyone for being a sci-fi/movie geek.) I’ve watched it almost since the beginning — all the way to the end — except maybe the “elusive” season 7. I’ve never posted before, but I emailed my impressions of Whatever to my boyfriend and he suggested I post them here.
I think this show is absolutely hilarious. Come on, people. It is dry and tongue in cheek. It was actually Martha’s idea for the show in the first place. Lighten up. It’s an absolute riot. :lol: :lol:
anything martha stewert leaves a bad taste in my mouth
How can anyone make such a show? It’s horrible.