He used to be funny, but like many other comics, he got gradually less funny as he aged. Some of his early films are pure gold: The Jerk, The Man With Two Brains, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid are all classics of their genre. Some of his early SNL appearances are also superb, although that was back when SNL was a who's who of American comedy talent. Damn fine banjo player too.
A very nice bloke in real life - met him in Ireland on honeymoon and he was a delight, staying in the same hotel as we were.
As an actor, I can't stand him - there's something skin-crawling in the way his body language is conveyed. However, there is one outstanding movie in his repertoire for me and that's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels where the three of them, Michael Caine, Steve Martin and Glenne Headly really work well off each other.
American comedy movies is a genre I tend to avoid, and Martin has done a lot of those.
He was OK in Roxanne and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, but not outstanding.
Is he funny? Not when he is delivering unfunny lines written by other writers.
I like the sort of ‘daft’ of Morecambe & Wise so Steve Martin movies and The Pink Panther with Peter Sellers are right up my street. More of that sort of innocent, inoffensive ‘daft’ around now might encourage people not to take themselves or life so seriously and remember how to laugh.