Martin Short Accidentally Exposed One Star’s ‘Achilles’ Heel’ as Jiminy Glick

With the exception of one solitary journalist, pretty much everyone in the world seems to like Martin Short. In addition to the fact that he’s made us laugh in classic shows like SCTV, and iconic movies such as Three Amigos, he also seems to be a genuinely nice guy. Jiminy Glick, on the other hand, is a giant asshole.

Short recently guested on Amy Poehler’s new podcast Good Hang and attempted to explain his rotund alter-ego’s casual meanness, which surprises even him sometimes. After all, not every interviewer would be so cruel as to introduce Ice Cube as “Vanilla Ice.”

“The thing that was weird for me doing Jiminy Glick was that, because it was improvised, I would say things that even shocked me afterwards,” Short explained. 

One example of an unexpected improv going south involved Edie Falco, of Nurse Jackie and The Sopranos fame. “I remember interviewing Edie Falco, and she was in the middle of an answer, and I went ‘Shhh! Just ‘cause I asked you a question does not mean that I need an answer, thank you!’” Short recalled. “And she said afterwards, she was really thrown because being shushed was her Achilles’ heel as a kid.”

Looking back at the clip, the moment was a tad harsher than Short described. Jiminy doesn’t just shush his guest, he proceeds to scold her, barking, “I got more questions. If you keep interrupting me when I have more questions, how could I possibly double task?” as well as instructing Falco, “I want you to talk to your psychic or shrink, or to your God — God forbid you should go to church — and question why you would interrupt me!”

But for Short, the Jiminy Glick character allows him to tell more mean-spirited jokes without having it reflect poorly on him. “I think it is that ability to say the worst things and have no fingerprints on it,” Short speculated. “Like saying to Mel Brooks, ‘What’s your big beef with the Nazis?’

While most of Jiminy’s celebrity guests have been friends and fans who know that Short’s barbs aren’t intended to be hurtful, not everyone has taken the character’s comedic abuse in stride. In 2005 it was reported that Tom Green had “stormed off the set of Primetime Glick” after the fictional host “asked Green about his battle with testicular cancer — and then pretended to take a phone call.”

“I left the show and told them I didn’t appreciate it, and didn’t want it to air. He pushed hard, and he pushed mean, and I left,” Green said at the time, adding that “the sad truth is, Martin Short hasn’t done anything funny since Ed Grimley. I find it sad that someone who admittedly was once very funny, can become so mediocre and lame.” 

In response, Short’s manager Bernie Brillstein issued a statement arguing that “we interviewed 60 people (or Primetime Glick) and the only one not to get it was Tom Green.”

Okay, so maybe there are two people in the world who don’t like Martin Short.