YMMV / Martin (1992)

• Awesome Music: All three versions of the opening credits definitely qualify.
• Designated Hero: Martin. He's loud, rude, confrontational, unable to accept responsibility for his actions, and not always the most loyal of friends. Granted, it's shown many times that he's a very insecure person,^note Plus having a mother like Mama Payne surely didn't and doesn't help anything. yet it barely excuses his actions.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Bruh Man (from the "fifth flo'"). The audience would go wild whenever he appeared and fans were disappointed that he was phased out in the later seasons.
  • Whenever asked who their favorite character played by Martin, an overwhelming majority of fans will say Sheneheh.
  • Varnel Hill. He only had two appearances on the show, but fans love him and the "Hollywood Swinging" two-parter he was featured in. To this day, Tommy Davidson still gets compliments on this role (which came as a stroke of luck, as Arsenio Hall declined a guest spot on the show).
  • The Reverend Leon Lonnie Love, Pam's sleazy cousin and Gina's one-time rebound after she and Martin broke up. David Alan Grier's brilliant performance made for a memorable character.
• First Installment Wins: Most fans or even people with a passing knowledge of the show mainly remember when Martin was a radio host for WZUP versus any of his other jobs.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Living Single, which aired back-to-back on Thursday nights in the 90s. While the shows were occasionally nominated for the same awards, like the Soul Train Awards, fans of both shows feel they complement each other (and had their respective actors guest-star on the other show) and reminisce fondly on their popularity when speaking about them.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Watching the "Why Can't We Be Friends?" two-parter is now this after Thomas Mikal Ford died in 2016 from a stomach aneurysm. Even right after his death, the second part was temporarily cut from syndication out of respect for him.
  • In the 1995 episode "C.R.E.A.M.", MC Hammer comes into the restaurant that Martin and his friends have in the hopes of buying it. Former boss Stan then tells Martin to take him to the cleaners, saying that he looks like he has a lot of money. Hammer would go on to declare bankruptcy in real life the following year.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In the 1992 Halloween episode "The Night He Came Home," Martin jokes about it being a "dark and gloomy November... Bush got re-elected." This counts as being doubly hilarious; not only was it not to be in 1992, but it eventually ended up being completely accurate in 2004. Also in the same episode, Tommy ends up possessed, although it was only just a prank he and the others were pulling on Martin and at one point yells out "I'M NOT TOMMY!"
  • Martin's radio station, WZUP, a play on Martin's Catchphrase, "Wassup?!", became defictionalized in 2011 when La Grange, North Carolina made an actual WZUP radio station.^note Albeit it's Spanish language instead of R&B/hip-hop.
  • Martin's Catchphrase, which became pretty popular, if not infamous, a few years after the show ended.
  • One episode has Martin complaining that Charley Pride was the only black man in country music. Not only was that always untrue, but Darius Rucker, previously of Hootie and the Blowfish, has made quite a name for himself in the genre over a decade after the episode first aired, even winning both a Grammy and a CMA Award.
  • One episode had Martin scared of a ex-convict looking for him and tried to keep his friends out out of fear, requesting they watch "House Party 6" or something. At the time, there was only three in the movie series. Two more entries have sprouted up since the show ended.
  • This series wouldn't be the last time that Tisha Campbell would be surprised with a performance by Brian McKnight for an engagement/wedding gift.
• One-Scene Wonder: In the first part of "Why Can't We Be Friends?", while going to see A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Martin and his friends annoy a moviergoer who eventually only identifies himself as Aggravated Man. He is played by Buddy Lewis.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Martin Lawrence's drug use and his sexual harassment of Tisha Campbell. The final season shows how much tension there was behind the scenes and the quality of the show suffered because of it.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Jon Gries and Tracy Morgan appeared on the show before hitting it big.
  • For better or worse, radio personality and television host Wendy Williams is seen in the background as a guest at a convention in "Radio Days".
  • Michael Jai White played one of the male partners at the couple's retreat in "Arms Are for Hugging".
  • Jurnee Smollett was one of the children in the Big Brothers program in "I Saw Gina Kissing Santa Claus".
• The Scrappy: Shanise, Cole's girlfriend and eventual fiancée from Season 5. She was even dumber than Cole and her jokes were way too obvious, making them painfully unfunny.
• Signature Scene:
  • Any of Martin's fights with "The Puppy" in "Romantic Weekend". Never has scene chewing been this good.
  • Martin having Varnell Hill on his radio show in the first half of "Hollywood Swingin'" (especially Varnell's brief but soulful song).
  • Martin's breakdown in "No Justice, No Peace" when while in court, he tries to plead insanity for a parking ticket.
  • The Shout-Out to New Jack City in "Suspicious Minds" with Martin "interrogating" his friends with a fake Doberman.
  • Martin and Gina's break-up in "The Break-Up".
• Unintentional Period Piece: With the fashion, attitudes and perhaps noticeably the slang, this show was clearly a representative of the '90s. The episode "Suspicious Minds" has Martin bragging about buying a CD player and freaking out when he thinks one of his friends had stolen it when it had gone missing. He ended up paying $400 for it in 1994, whereas nowadays you can buy it for even as low as $20.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: The later seasons' opening featured a dancing CGI Martin. It looks about like you'd expect for the time.
• Unpopular Popular Character: On the show, Sheneheh is an obnoxious, loud-mouthed and combative person that very few people like. The audience, however, adored her for her gaudy outfits, great one-liners and ability to attract any man in spite of her looks and personality. It helped that Jackée Harry paved the way for her.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Children of the 90s loved the series, in spite of there being plenty of episodes and storylines more aimed at adult audiences (case in point, the penultimate Christmas Episode had Martin and Gina accidentally attending a swingers' party). Martin himself was even nominated for a few Kids' Choice Awards back in the day.