In the pantheon of North American comedy, few entertainers possess the kinetic, joyful, and utterly relentless virtuosity of Martin Short.
Spanning over five decades across sketch revues, Broadway musicals, Hollywood blockbusters, and late-career streaming triumphs, Short is the ultimate comedic decathlete. While other performers rely on deadpan detachment or cynical irony, Short’s superpower has always been shameless, uninhibited commitment. He leaps into grotesque physical slapstick, high-camp vocal acrobatics, and breathless theatricality without ever winking at the audience.
From his seminal days in the Canadian improv trenches alongside Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara—whose revolutionary ensemble work we explored in our deep dive into The Second City and SCTV’s comedy empire—to his Emmy-nominated renaissance on Only Murders in the Building, Short remains an irreplaceable national treasure.
Here are the 10 best Martin Short movies and TV shows, ranked.
10. The Prince of Egypt (1998)
The Role: A deceptive, flamboyant Egyptian high priest who uses smoke, mirrors, and sleight-of-hand to maintain royal superstition.
Teaming up with fellow comedy titan Steve Martin to voice the Pharaoh’s cunning high priests Huy and Hotep, Short delivered a dazzling vocal masterclass. Their show-stopping villain number, “Playing with the Big Boys Now,” allowed Short to blend theatrical menace with operatic showmanship, helping make DreamWorks’ biblical epic an enduring animation landmark.
9. Damages (2010)
The Role: The deeply compromised, calculating personal attorney to an aristocratic Ponzi schemer family facing ruin.
For audiences who only knew Short as an energetic clown, his Season 3 turn in FX’s legal thriller Damages was an absolute revelation. Stripped of physical gags and exuberant smiles, Short played Leonard Winstone with icy, quiet terror and desperate moral degradation. Acting toe-to-toe with Glenn Close and Lily Tomlin, Short earned a well-deserved Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
8. Primetime Glick (2001–2003)
The Role: An oblivious, obese, doughnut-chomping entertainment journalist who asks A-list celebrities insulting and unresearched questions.
Encased in a massive fat suit, prosthetic chin, and sweeping comb-over, Short turned Jiminy Glick into one of the most brilliant parodies of Hollywood junket journalism ever conceived. Because Short improvised the interviews live opposite bewildered guests like Mel Brooks, Tom Hanks, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Primetime Glick showcased his lightning-fast conversational wit and total fearlessness.
7. Saturday Night Live (1984–1985)
The Role: Bringing fully formed character powerhouses—including Ed Grimley and synchronized swimmer Lawrence Cowley—to revitalize a struggling show.
When producer Dick Ebersol hired Martin Short, Billy Crystal, and Christopher Guest for SNL’s landmark tenth season, the show was on the brink of cancellation. Short practically saved the franchise single-handedly.
His filmed mockumentary sketch about men’s synchronized swimming (co-starring Harry Shearer) remains one of the greatest pre-taped sketches in television history, while his hyperactive Ed Grimley dance became a national playground sensation.
6. Clifford (1994)
The Role: A sociopathic, toy-dinosaur-obsessed 10-year-old boy (played by a 40-year-old Short) who systematically dismantles his uncle’s sanity.
Utterly misunderstood upon its initial release, Clifford has since been rightfully reclaimed as an avant-garde masterpiece of dark physical comedy. The surreal sight of a grown Martin Short in knee-socks and bowties tormenting the legendary Charles Grodin is comedy gold. Grodin’s seething, deadpan exasperation acts as the perfect combustible fuel for Short’s psychopathic inner child.
5. Innerspace (1987)
The Role: A timid, hypochondriac grocery store clerk accidentally injected with a miniaturized submarine containing Dennis Quaid.
Joe Dante’s dazzling sci-fi comedy placed the entire physical burden of the film on Short’s shoulders. Playing a man whose body is secretly being steered by a voice in his ear, Short turns every scene into a breathless masterclass of conflicting physical impulses—culminating in an unforgettable, spontaneous barroom salsa dance to Sam Cooke’s “Twistin’ the Night Away.”
4. Father of the Bride (1991)
The Role: The lavishly accented European wedding designer who drives Steve Martin’s George Banks into financial and nervous ruin.
Short enters the film more than thirty minutes in, speaks in an utterly indecipherable Germanic-Romance dialect, and proceeds to steal the entire movie. His pronunciation of words like “the chek-kuhn” (chicken) and “the cake-uh” entered the cultural lexicon, creating the supreme comic foil to Steve Martin’s simmering middle-class anxiety.
3. SCTV (1982–1983)
The Role: The Canadian satirical laboratory where Short perfected Ed Grimley, smarmy lounge lizard Jackie Rogers Jr., and albino reggae star Irving Cohen.
Joining the cast of Second City Television alongside John Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, and Andrea Martin, Short helped elevate the show to its artistic peak. SCTV wasn’t just a collection of sketches; it was an intricate television station parody. Short’s high-wire parodies won him a Primetime Emmy for writing and established him as one of the most inventive satirists of his generation.
2. ¡Three Amigos! (1986)
The Role: A former child actor and silent screen gunslinger who mistakes a real Mexican bandit war for a theatrical audition.
Holding his own between comedy giants Steve Martin and Chevy Chase, Short’s Ned Nederlander is the endearing, enthusiastic heart of the trio. Dressed in ornate mariachi costumes, Short’s precision slapstick—from his furious quick-draw demonstrations to the unforgettable “My Little Buttercup” cantina performance—created a timeless comedy classic that generations of fans quote by heart.
1. Only Murders in the Building (2021–Present)
The Role: An impoverished, dip-obsessed Broadway director wrapped in flamboyant silk coats who launches a true-crime podcast with his neighbors.
There is no role in Martin Short’s extraordinary career that synthesizes his unique genius quite like Oliver Putnam.
Oliver is the consummate theater creature: hopelessly theatrical, financially ruined, sustained entirely by Gut Milk and hummus dip, yet vibrating with unquenchable artistic ambition. Short turns every single line reading into a comic aria, whether delivering breathless Broadway gossip or mourning a flop production of Splash: The Musical.
Paired with real-life best friend Steve Martin and Selena Gomez, Short delivers not just non-stop laughs, but deep, aching emotional vulnerability. It has earned him four consecutive Primetime Emmy nominations and cemented his place as one of the greatest screen clowns in television history.