The downfall of odd-couple pairings is that they can quickly devolve into “look how crazy it is that these two are matched up!” and give us nothing more.
Which, sure, is the expected reaction upon hearing — wait for it — that Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg will host dinner parties for a new, weekly, unscripted VH1 show, premiering this fall. (Yeah, it’s happening.) Just imagine the brownie joke potential. How often will this 75-year-old white lady who built an empire upon crafts add “izzle” to the end of her sentences? In what ways will a man named Mr. Dogg exhibit his fanciness?
But we have high hopes (sorry) for this celeb matchup, with each host inviting friends over for an evening of cooking, cocktails and conversation. Stewart and Snoop Dogg have been matched up before, and the chemistry is pretty solid.
Snoop Dogg appeared on Stewart’s show more than once. In one episode, yup, they bake brownies. On another, it’s Stewart’s mother’s mashed potatoes recipe. Stewart gets Snoop to peel potatoes and comments that he has his “own vocabulary” that he invented.
“Do your kids understand you?” she asks.
“No, they don’t,” Snoop deadpans, prompting Stewart to erupt into earnest laughter. “And you know what’s crazy, Martha: I don’t even understand it.”
Stewart plays the perfect straight man to Snoop Dogg’s laid-back persona — but she has just enough zany in her to make herself entertaining, too.
The two also appeared together on ABC’s “$100,000 Pyramid” this year. Apparently, they are friends. During a Reddit AMA two years ago, a user asked Stewart what it’s like “to be friends with Snoop Dogg,” to which she responded, “I wish I were closer friends with Snoop Dogg.” (Don’t we all?)
And then there was the “The Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber,” where the two sat side by side. When it was Stewart’s turn at the dais, she quipped: “One of the highest-rated episodes on my show ‘Martha Stewart Living’ was when me and Snoop made brownies together, and I’ve used his recipe ever since. As a matter of fact, I ate three of them right before they called and asked me to do this roast.”
In a release announcing the new VH1 series, Snoop Dogg said: “My homegirl, Martha and I have a special bond that goes back. We’re gonna be cooking, drinking and having a good time with our exclusive friends.”
According to Stewart, “at our dinner party, we will exemplify America’s fascination with food, entertaining and celebrity” with a show that “will redesign the traditional food competition shows in a new, different and very funny way.”
And isn’t the strength of any dinner party in the diversity of its guests and hosts? Who wants to sit around and listen to conversation between people who are exactly like each other? Let’s just hope they cool it on the “izzle” talk.
