Steve Martin and Ben Stiller, two comic legends twenty years apart, get super passive-aggressive and fire off some ripping disses in a preview of a big Super Bowl ad for Pepsi. A pretty good insult fest is at hand, though it’s clear, at least in this preview, that the elder Martin, 77, gets in the most trendy meme-type dig, calling Stiller, 57, a “nepo baby.” (Stiller’s parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, were Hollywood stars.)
“As actors, in a way, we never really stop acting,” Stiller says at the beginning of the no frills action. Martin jumps at the prompt: “For example, Ben is acting right now like he’s not intimidated by standing next to me.”
Other insults are calmly hurled. Whether Ben Stiller lands his punch(line) by calling Martin a “banjo player” is a matter of one’s perspective. (Is banjo player really a diss?) In response, Martin issues his “nepo baby” accusation nearly under his breath, winning the round by unanimous decision.
Martin mentions this too: “Oh, and Ben’s acting like that whole awkward thing he does is a character and not his actual personality.”
The battle of wits promises to be just as competitive as the big game itself.
