If you accept the equation that the Seventies are just the Fifties in drag, then you'd expect this decade—with its flaccid, zonked-out narcissism practically demanding the satirist's blow—to be a great one for laughs. Think about the Fifties. Some of the best comedy this country ever produced—the work of men like Sid Caesar and Ernie Kovacs, and magazines like the old Mad—ca...

Steve Martin has become the comedic rage by the usual means: introducing a couple of readily imitable phrases into the vernacular (excuse me if I don't repeat them). More than that, his characterizations have made being an asshole fashionable again; all he lacks is a lampshade. For this, he deserves a humanitarian award. Now, when you do stupid things people think you're being paid for it.

Un...

The backlash has already settled in against Steve Martin: accusations that this most original of Seventies white comedians has become predictable, overreliant on catch phrases and even – in his movie, The Jerk–too vulgar. But all these criticisms are made by people who never "got" Martin anyway, or who don't realize that he usually shelves his stereotypes about three months before his...