Aside from the random snarky online op-ed writer, Martin Short is universally loved for his high energy humor. So it was on Wednesday when Martin stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live to shill a few projects: Only Murders in the Building on Hulu, the tour he and forever-partner Steve Martin are on, and the announcement of a Netflix documentary coming out about him, appropriately titled Marty, Life is Short. Marty (I can call him that now) was raring to go from the moment he walked out, and the 15-minute interview simply flew by. What’s getting the most attention, though, is a part in the middle where Jimmy asked Marty about Selena Gomez’s September wedding to Benny Blanco. Please enjoy Marty hilariously detailing how he accidentally cut the wedding cake an hour before the bride and groom were meant to do so:
“The wedding was perfect and it was beautiful … So everything was perfect except the night of the reception,” Short said as he began his story.
“It was a big, big party … big tents and at the back of the tent were these individual seating areas with couches and chairs. So that if you had a group, like we had a group, Only Murders in the Building, there was about 12 of us,” he continued, adding that Paul Rudd and his wife Julie were among those he was with.
“And there was a wedding cake by our section but it was a small wedding cake. I just assumed there was a wedding cake for each section in the back,” Short added, to laughs from the audience. “So after a few hours, they haven’t cut their wedding cake yet, Steve [Martin] said he was going to leave.”
Short added while laughing, “Maybe I’d had a cocktail, I don’t know. So I said, ‘Oh Steve you can’t leave’ — I had a fork in my hand. ‘You can’t leave yet without a piece of wedding cake.’ And I cut the wedding cake, one side, cut it the other and then all the people in our group scream, ‘Marty!’”
Short then confirmed: “It was the wedding cake.”
A photo of the “Just Married” love heart cake was then displayed on the screen showing a large slice mark on the side and a fork print as the audience gasped.
“I tried to fix it with a fork,” Short said. “This was bad. This was about an hour before it was to be presented. And so I turned to Paul Rudd and said, ‘So, do we just leave?’”
“And then they called the wedding coordinator and then the chef came out,” he added.
Doing an impersonation of the chef, whom Short said appeared to be French, Short said, “He was like, ‘What the hell happened here?’”
“Then they did surgery but it ended up being like a Hollywood wedding cake and that it was beautiful but now it had a little work done,” he added to huge laughs from the audience.
While Marty had hoped to leave the party with Selena being none the wiser, she found him later and said, “Hey Marty, I hear you tried to eat my cake!” Well-played, Selena. But overall, I’m TEAM MARTY, all the way! Nope, he is in no way at fault here, for obvious reasons. Let’s start with the size and placement of the cake. Selena and Benny reportedly had 170 guests — how on earth was there gonna be enough of that cake for everyone? “C’mon, Kismet, that heart-shaped cake probably wasn’t for everyone, just for the couple and maybe a few others.” Then why wasn’t it set up next to the bride & groom, hmm?? You can’t just leave cake out unguarded, that’s an invitation for premeditated slicing! Doesn’t everyone know that?! (Or is it just people who’ve ever invited me around their cakes who’ve learned this valuable lesson?) Also, how can we possibly have this much coverage of a cake without anyone revealing what kind of cake it was! Vanilla? Chocolate? Lemon? Red Velvet? Coconut? Help us out here, Marty, we need cake details STAT! Or, you know, just cake. Damn, now I really want some cake.
Martin Short mistakenly cut Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco’s wedding cake before it was served to guests.
“There was a cake, a wedding cake by our section, but it was a small wedding cake. I just assumed that there was a wedding cake for each section in the back. So, after, you… pic.twitter.com/c3RLXtJXxm
— CONSEQUENCE (@consequence) January 22, 2026
Photos credit: Faye Sadou/Avalon, Getty and via Instagram