After 60 Years, Steve Martin Finally Reveals His All-Time Favorite Comedy Scene
Celebrating The Pink Panther’s 20th anniversary, Steve Martin names his favorite gag from a 60-year career — a scene from the 2006 reboot, built to hook younger audiences, that still cracks him up.
Twenty years after Steve Martin slipped on Inspector Clouseau's trench coat, he is still savoring one gloriously dumb joke. With The Pink Panther hitting its 20th anniversary on February 10, Martin pointed to one very specific bit as the crown jewel of his six-decade comedy run.
Martin's pick: the hamburger line
Martin says the 2006 reboot was built to play for a younger crowd than the original films, and he remains especially proud of the scene where Clouseau tries to sand down his French accent in New York City. The mission: pass for local. The tool: a dialect coach. The phrase: a simple line that turns into an escalating demolition derby of vowels.
"We aimed our movie at a younger audience than the originals, and I am proud that the movie has the favorite comic scene I have ever done: 'I would like to buy a HAMMBERRRRGAU.'"
In the film, Clouseau heads to New York on a lead and decides he needs to sound more American. Cue the coaching session, where a single sentence becomes a looping gauntlet, each attempt more mangled than the last. If you have ever had the line stuck in your head, you are not alone.
How the bit came to life
Director Shawn Levy says fans constantly bring up that moment when they meet him. The origin is wonderfully low-tech: a lunch with Martin, a what-if, and a dare to make one sentence carry the whole scene.
"That scene started with Steve Martin pitching me an idea over lunch one day. What if Clouseau had to go to a dialect coach? And the whole scene is maybe one single sentence repeated 50 times. In the most absurd and increasingly ridiculous ways."
Levy called the pitch "juicy" and trusted it would sing with a precision performer like Martin. Two decades later, the proof is in the echo: people still repeat it to the director, and Martin still calls it his favorite.