Steve Martin Shares Martin Short’s Ripped Up Acceptance Speech After Emmy Snub

Martin Short lost out on an Emmy again on Monday night (September 14), but his Only Murders in the Building costar Steve Martin made sure to give fans a glimpse of what would have been his acceptance speech.

Short was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series alongside Steve Carell (Rooster), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Wonder Man), Jason Segel (Shrinking), and eventual winner Matthew Rhys (Widow’s Bay). As Rhys took to the stage to accept the award, the camera cut to Short comically tearing up his speech and throwing it to the floor.

Martin joined in by snapping a photo of the ripped-up speech and sharing it on Instagram. It was impossible to make out full sentences because the paper was torn, but fans could pick out phrases such as “To my brilliant,” “good as winning,” “Oh yes Steve Martin,” “kind enough to hire me,” and “Boy is it fun.”

Martin Short ripping up his speech on camera after losing to Matthew Rhys deserves an Emmy by itself 😂 insane he has won zero for acting during his entire career pic.twitter.com/iawYbE2qgA

— Todd Spence (@Todd_Spence) September 15, 2026

The official Only Murders Instagram account commented on Martin’s post, writing, “Best ripped up speech award goes to Marty.”

Fans also flooded the comments, with one user writing, “This is adorable.”

“Marty is a winner every year,” said another.

“This real time post is perfect,” another added.

Another wrote, “Poor Marty.. he’s still a winner in my books.”

Only Murders was nominated in four other categories, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series, Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Program (Half-Hour), and Outstanding Contemporary Costumes for a Series.

The show lost out on all of those nominations, with the first four categories going in favor of Widow’s Bay and the latter going to Margo’s Got Money Troubles.

Short, who plays Oliver Putnam in the hit mystery-comedy, has been nominated in the Outstanding Actor category for each of the show’s five seasons but never won. He’s also been nominated as an executive producer, but again, never picked up a trophy.

Across its five seasons, Only Murders has won seven Emmys from 61 nominations. The only on-screen award went to Nathan Lane for his guest role in the show’s first season. Its other wins came in the music, sound mixing, and production design categories.

Short isn’t totally Emmy-less, though, as he took home the trophy for Outstanding Variety Special in 2014 for AFI’s Tribute to Mel Brooks and picked up an Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program award in 1983 for SCTV Network.