New York Post Calls for Mary Murphy to Dial It Down
I’ve been calling for Mary Murphy to dial it down as a judge on So You Think You Can Dance for a few years now. Everyone that reads this blog knows how I feel. I’m glad to see that my feelings abour Mary Murphy are shared by the New York Post in this article. Granted, they’re a little more politically correct in how they say it, but the feeling is there. The final section of the article summarizes Mary Murphy’s problems quite well:
Murphy certainly has the knowledge and the experience to be a sharp judge on the show, particularly of the ballroom-style dances, which are her forte.
But for every thoughtful comment about the flow and quality of a dancer’s movement, Murphy gives us one like: “Achoo! I’m allergic to down feathers, what can I say. But I wasn’t allergic to that routine!”
If this were Murphy’s only flaw, we could chalk it up to “hearty enthusiasm” and call it a day. Alas, it is not so.
She also has a nasty penchant for reaffirming her own statements, as in, “What you are selling there, I am buying, yes I am!”
And when she isn’t struggling to move her Botox-tempered eyebrows, she may very well turn on the waterworks and sob over a dance that touched her.
During auditions, she bawled over contemporary dancer Brandon Bryant’s performance, saying, “If you don’t make it to the Top 20, I think I’ll just die this year.” (Sniff, sob.)
Bryant made it. Our ears are not so lucky.
It’s too bad that her cringe-worthy antics cause many to hit the mute button whenever it’s her turn to critique a dance.
Credit to @bookwomanblue for pointing me to this article.
I don’t think SYTYCD would be nearly as entertaining without Mary Murphy – it’s part of the charm, and I LOVE it!! GO MARY!! It’s fun to watch. NYP can just shut it.
i agree wholeheartedly! she definitely needs to tone it down, i’d enjoy her critiques is she wasn’t so over-the-top because she gives great advice to the dancers. i’d mute her or skip over her critiques if i didn’t value them so much :/
I agree that Mary can be a bit much at times and it’s gotten worse each season. But I have to say that I’d take Mary’s antics anytime over Paula’s painful attempts at stringing together a sentence. I cannot bear to watch her stumble through her words, I fast forward her every time. 😡
I liked Mary well enough as a judge the second and even third seasons; she was nowhere near as cartoonish as she is now. It is as if she’s trying to play a caricature of herself. At this point, I am embarrassed for her every time she opens her mouth. I grant you, she isn’t as bad as Paula Abdul, but every time I look at her, I am just filled with bewilderment. Why is she a permanent judge? Why has she become so insurferingly folksy? Why?!
Do you think Mary read the article as well? She was positively human this episode. Very little screaming, almost no stupid puns…how refreshing! I hope she stays this way!
Stephanie, I totally agree! I actually listened to her comments this show, instead of fast forwarding the moment she began talking. THAT was the Mary Murphy that I enjoy seeing – intelligent comments that were still laced with her passion for dancing but didn’t make her sound like an over-the-top, screaming idiot. I really hope she realizes that the audience wants to hear her professional opinion, not her screaming.
I agree with you guys too! I definitely saw a different Mary Murphy on today’s episode. She was a lot more calm and like Kimberly, I actually listened to her comments.
Did anyone else catch Nigel saying “Yes they did!”(or something like that, maybe it was “Yes you did!”) after Mary made a comment about Kayla and Kupono’s(?) dance? I’m not sure if that was a bit of a tease towards Mary but I thought it was funny haha.
I agree that Mary is better than Paula…except that Paula never hurts my ears with high pitched screams! Both drive me crazy. But Paula I can tune out…impossible to do that to Mary.
She WAS much better tonight. And I did catch Nigel poking fun at her (even about the hot tamale train) and thought that was great. My BF says, “Oh yes you did…” all the time to me just because we hate MM’s comments so much.
I hope she does keep it calmer. I can handle the occassional HT train, but that is enough!!
I know many don’t like her because of her screams and hot tamale trains and the need to mute the TV when she’s critiquing. I don’t enjoy it, but I don’t hate it either. Mary herself is an icon of the show. The reason why she joined Nigel for the 2nd permanent judge is because she brings life to the show, and makes chemistry between the judges on the panel work. It apparently annoys some, but I don’t think the show would be the same without Mary on the panel, if you remember season 1 and 2. It’s not as fun and amusing. I mean, I think if people actually see past all the screaming, they will see a really lovely lady behind it. Maybe from there, the screams may not sound so horrible and may even be accepted. Her comments to the dancers are valuable and she and Nigel balance each other out, which is important as Nigel can be really harsh sometimes. Her screams personify her and I wouldn’t want to change that.
buggy,
I don’t think a lot of people want to completely get rid of her. Last night’s Mary was all of the good abut her (intelligent comments, chemistry with dancing) without the really annoying screaming and repetitive, cliche comments.
ITA with Kimberly. I don’t mind having Mary as a judge (you do need judges with different energies and personalities and opinions); I don’t even mind if she does the very-hated-by-me-Hot-Tamale-Train when it is well-deserved. If she tones it down a bit the rest of the time and quits the cheesy lines, we could all handle having her there! Last night was a great example. Before that, she was out of control and worse than I remember in past seasons.
oh god. what do you care? the lady’s having a little freakin fun. yeah so she’s a little off the roof — ok. A lot. But who cares? Everyone’s human. Maybe if more of us would let loose and act as strange as we do in private – life would be more fun. Stop being so uptight and suck it up if you don’t like it. You’re watching the show for the dancing so stop whining.
Wow, Zee. Pretty intense reaction there, huh? None of us mean to offend those who really do like Mary Murphy, but one of the things that I personally love about SYTYCD is the serious judging. Unlike American Idol, I feel like the judges give good, well-thought, constructive criticism. They seem to see themselves as a necessary (although occasionally painful) tool to push the dancers to improve themselves. Fluffy comments just aren’t helpful, and lately Mary’s comments have just been a waste of time. Even worse, because she was so over-the-top, it almost got embarrassing. It is as if you turned in a graduate-level term paper to a professor, and it was handed back to you with big smiley-face stickers and pink hearts all over the place. No matter how sweet or fun the professor may be, you just can’t respect a response like that. I was relieved to see Mary’s performance last night…it still had a flavor of happy fun without completely overwhelming the intelligent and insightful comments she can make when she isn’t pretending (?) to be drunk.
I know many don’t like mary murphy because of her screams and hot tamale trains and the need to mute the TV when she’s critiquing. I don’t enjoy it, but I don’t hate it either. Mary herself is an icon of the show. The reason why she joined Nigel for the 2nd permanent judge is because she brings life to the show, and makes chemistry between the judges on the panel work. It apparently annoys some, but I don’t think the show would be the same without Mary on the panel, if you remember season 1 and 2. It’s not as fun and amusing. I mean, I think if people actually see past all the screaming, they will see a really lovely lady behind it. Maybe from there, the screams may not sound so horrible and may even be acceptable. Her comments to the dancers are valuable to both them and us, and she and Nigel balance each other out, which is important as Nigel can be really harsh sometimes. Her screams personify her and I wouldn’t want to change that.
also, i think we should think about how the dancers feel when they get mary’s scream. it makes them feel good about their dance, and more confident about what they’re doing. so the hot tamale train is ‘well-deserved’. let’s just take it like the dancers need such encouragement from their judges in order to keep going in the competition.
The show is about the viewers, but it is also about the dancers too. the main point is to get people more involved in dance and grow dancers from different backgrounds. so much encouragement is needed. and every dancer on the show don’t seem to be complaining about it. so if we love these dancers, why should we complain about the kind of encouragement which spurs them on?
Tone it down a bit. The dancers love her screaming, they work hard for that crazy enthusiastic response, and they should get it. But when she screams all the time it kind of loses the point. The in-depth critique she can whip out so well (also helps explain some of the fine points of ballroom that are completely lost on me otherwise – I need you, Mary!) peppered with some well deserved screams and trips on the train, that sounds just fine to me.
buggy and AnnaK…I totally agree with you. I think what has frustrated a lot of people is that, last Wednesday’s episode aside, there have been all screams/cliched statements, and no in-depth critique. If she screams all the time, it kind of looses its “specialness”, don’t you think? She should reserve it for the best of the best. Wednesday was perfect. I think we’re all hoping she stays like that. I feel like the positive response to the screaming and whatnot from past seasons made her feel as if she HAD to respond in that way for every good dance. It was as if, instead of the screams meaning “this was an AMAZING AMAZING dance!!” they started to mean, “I liked this dance, it was good.” In other words, if you didn’t get a scream, your dance was crap. Maybe it took a whole bunch of people complaining for her to realize that screams need to be reserved for the best dances.
Nice comments. I wish I was around more this week so I could have replied as they came. Oh well, next time.
Mary was quite a bit better this week. She still had a few moments that reminded me of Crazy Mary, but she actually provided a few thoughtful comments and avoided screaming for every dancer.
Stephanie,
Don’t get us wrong. We’re all for supporting and encouraging dancers. Lil’ C does it with Buc. The occasional scream is ok. No doubt it’s beautiful to see the dancers face when they get a scream. However, when she’s screaming at every dance it means nothing.
At the end of the day, it can’t be good that people are muting a show. SYTYCD, Fox, etc certainly don’t like it and so it’s nice that she kept it at least reasonably under wraps this week. I still think she’s fake and trying to be someone rather than just being herself. I hate that, but she was better this week.
Nigel’s “yes they did” comment was hilarious for me. I was laughing so hard. Nigel is a smart man even if he is a little bit of a creepy old man sometimes.