Characters / Martin (1992)

Main characters

As a Whole

• Five Temperament Ensemble:
  • Energetic, egotistical Martin is Sanguine
  • Cautious, caring Gina is Melancholic
  • Fiery, fight-happy Pam is Choleric
  • Dimwitted, docile Cole is Phlegmatic
  • Diplomatic, enigmatic Tommy is Eclectic
• True Companions: The five of them, through all of the sniping and annoyances, are still there for each others.

Martin Payne

Played by: Martin Lawrence

The protagonist of the show. He's a rather charismatic person, but is also quite haughty, insensitive and territorial. He dates Gina Waters up until the third season, when they marry.

• Boisterous Weakling: Played with: he can throw a punch (albeit mostly a sucker punch), but as much braggadacio that he has, he is shown to be a lousy fighter and a coward, be it against professional boxer Tommy Hearns or Michael Jackson.
• Get Out!: He has no qualms against throwing anyone out of his house that disrespect him, legitimately or not (but usually not).
• Happily Married: To Gina, the only other person aside from himself and his mother that he always has respect for.
• Height Angst: Intentionally invoked by Pam, who always teases him over it.
• Heterosexual Life-Partner: With Tommy and Cole, his childhood friends.
• Jerkass: At his worst.
• Large Ham: Subtlety is not his (or by greater extension, Lawrence's) style.
• The Scrooge: He's a pretty stingy guy, even around Christmas, substituting a box of tissues as a gift for Tommy instead of the initial gift of silk handkerchiefs.
• My Beloved Smother: His mother, Edna, is considered insufferable to everyone except him, but especially towards Gina.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With Pam; the two are always sniping away at one another and hassling the other about their looks and obnoxious attitudes.

Gina Waters-Payne

Played by: Tisha Campbell

Martin's girlfriend turned wife. She works at an advertising agency alongside her best friend, Pam James.

• Forehead of Doom: A Running Gag of the show is for someone to make a joke about her large forehead.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Or in her case, dolls. Her initial apartment had a large collection of them.
• Happily Married: To Martin, in the last two seasons.
• Heterosexual Life-Partner: With Pam. This also extends to their respective actresses.
• Morality Pet: To Martin; she manages to rail him in his less sane moments.
• Ms. Fanservice: She's very beautiful and attracts the attention of many male characters throughout the show.
• Not So Above It All: A few times she screws up almost as bad as Martin.
• Uptown Girl: Implied. She usually dresses in higher-end clothing and is seen as a classy woman. Having a father who's a doctor possibly has something to do with that.

Thomas "Tommy" Strawn

Played by: Thomas Mikal Ford

One of Martin's best friends. He's much calmer than Martin and Cole and a Running Gag is that no one knows what his job is, even as he insists that he has one.

• Bait-and-Switch: One episode has him dating a woman named Aquanetta. To the gang's surprise, she was White.
• Catchphrase: “Cole, you stupid.”
• Dad the Veteran: His father is a former Major in the Army.
• Heterosexual Life-Partner: With Martin and Cole.
• One Head Taller: At 6'4", he's this from everyone else.
• Nice Mean And In Between: He is the nice to Martin's mean and Cole's in between.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: He's the former to Martin's latter.
• The Hyena: His signature cackle that will make people laugh.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Pam, until they briefly dated.
• What, Exactly, Is His Job?: It's frequently brought up that while he insists that he's got a job, it's impossible to make him explain just what it is.
• Would Hurt a Child: In one scene, Tommy threatened Roscoe with a belt just because he’s talking back. Neither Gina, Pam, or Cole would go that far.

Pamela "Pam" James

Played by: Tichina Arnold

Gina's best friend and Martin's rival. While Gina is more of a calm and diplomatic person, she on the other hand is somewhat more loud and confrontational, especially towards Martin.

• Heterosexual Life-Partner: With Gina. This also extends to their respective actresses to this day.
• Hidden Depths: She is quite adept at singing, being able to show off this talent at times to the point of impressing Martin's mother (who interestingly enough likes her better than Gina).
• Kissing Cousins: Thankfully averted; her cousin, the Reverend Leon Lonnie Love, is implied to be attracted to her, but she manages to sidestep his advances.
• Light Feminine Dark Feminine: The personalities of Gina and herself respectively.
• Ms. Fanservice: Pam is highly attractive and wears outfits that shows off her figure, despite being the butt of Martin's animal or man jokes.
• Would Hurt a Child: After Roscoe lied about his raffle ticket costing $5 and not $25, Pam decides to borrow Tommy’s belt.

Cole Brown

Played by: Carl Anthony Payne II

Best friend of Martin and Tommy. He's a airplane mechanic, even as not one of the brightest people out there.

• The Alleged Car: His beloved Pacer.
• Brutal Honesty: He's not known for his tactful manner.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Toward Pam in the earlier seasons.
• Heterosexual Life-Partner: With Martin and Tommy.
• Mama's Boy: He loves his mother dearly, to the point of still living with her into his late twenties.
• The Millstone: His stupidity coupled with his tendency to be brutally honest often spells disaster or strife for his friends.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: After getting momentarily kicked out of his mother's home, he ends up as a guest at Martin and Gina's, quickly wearing out his welcome.
• Too Dumb to Live: Cole is an overall Nice Guy, but he certainly isn't bright. It occasionally crosses over into being lethally stupid as he nearly kills a comatose "Tommy" by messing with "his" heart monitor thinking it was a radio.

Stan Winters

Played by: Garrett Morris

• Jerkass: He is defined by his selfish acts, culminating in selling off the WZUP radio station, screwing over everyone in the process.
• Kavorka Man: He's a terrible person, but has no problem attracting beautiful women.
• May–December Romance: He is almost always seen with younger women.
• Mean Boss: Of the highest order. He's stingy, obnoxious, cantankerous and manipulative. He does not care at all about his employees' well-being and only acts on his selfish desires.
• The Sociopath: He does not care for anyone but himself, manipulates other people into doing as he wishes and scoffs at the idea of a serious relationship, calling those who try to maintain it "punks."
• Toxic Friend Influence: Many episodes have Stan planting toxic ideas into Martin's head by catering to his ego (such as suggesting that Gina is trying to control his life just because she wants Martin not to do night shifts with no pay at WZUP), leading to Martin acting on those ideas and ending up in failure or making a fool of himself.
• Two Decades Behind: He dresses likes it's still the 70s.

Shawn McDermott

Played by: Jon Gries

• The Ditz: He is not the sharpest tool in the shed, making himself easily manipulated by Stan.
• Hidden Depths: In his final appearance, he shares a warm goodbye with Martin, but not before giving him sage advice on how to move forward with his life.
• Nice Guy: One of the friendliest people on the show.
• Token White: Is the only white character to ever be named in the opening credits.
• Undying Loyalty: To both Martin and Stan, in spite of how they both treat him (particularly the latter).

Recurring characters

Sheneneh Jenkins

Played by: Martin Lawrence

• Gossipy Hens: She is quite nosy and always knows the scoop of what's going on.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: She always wears flashy, gaudy and cheap clothing.
• Jerkass: To pretty much everyone, especially Pam.

Edna "Mama" Payne

Played by: Martin Lawrence

• Even Evil Has Standards: She is terrified of her extended family due to their craziness and criminal activities. This even prompts her to run away from a planned Thanksgiving dinner.
• Jerkass: Even though she dislikes Gina, she's not too cordial to anyone else save for Martin.
• Large Ham: She is played by Lawrence, right?
• Obnoxious In-Laws: She despises Gina, in spite of her being nothing but courteous and friendly.

Bruh Man

Played by: Reginald Ballard

• Big Eater: In one of the Thanksgiving episodes, he happened to eat a full Thanksgiving dinner left in Martin’s apartment when he and his friends were at the movies. Bruh Man is still hungry despite all the food he ate.
• Catchphrase: "Nuttin, just chillin'."
• The Ditz: Played with; he lacks plenty of common sense, but he was occasionally able to spout some rather insightful musings.
• Drop-In Character: Literally; he almost never comes through the front door, preferring to come down through a fire escape and through a window.
• Innocently Insensitive: He's a great pain in Martin's side due to coming over uninvited and borrowing his belongings without permission, but he's never malicious in his motives.
• Silly Walk: His signature walk is a slow, exaggerated swagger.
• Trademark Favorite Food: He loves his “sammiches”.

Roscoe

Played by: Martin Lawrence

• Karma Houdini: He actually got away with making a false police report saying that Gina is his mother.
• Mouthy Kid: He talks back to Gina every time he visits.

Other characters

Varnel Hill

Played by: Tommy Davidson

• Always Someone Better: He is this to Martin, who increasingly grows jealous of his exponential fame.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Or in his case, stolen would be more appropriate: he takes Martin's "Wassup?!" catchphrase and uses it as his own.
• Character Catchphrase: His primary catchphrase is "Did ya miss me?", but he also uses "Wassup?" too.
• Expy: He is one of Arsenio Hall, right down to his "dog pound" studio audience.
• Karma Houdini: Even though Martin managed to call him out on his show, at the end of the day, he is still an obscenely rich hack comedian.
• Large Ham: He is seen as very flamboyant and animated, regardless of his mood.
• Nice Character, Mean Actor: Although he portrays himself as being a real people person who cares about children, in reality he is nothing more than an egotistical, manipulative, joke-stealing sell out.
• Where da White Women At?: On the set of his show, his harem of ladies are all White.

Reverend Leon Lonnie Love

Played by: David Alan Grier

• Dark and Troubled Past: Discussed and Played for Laughs. It involves some "backsliding" (that implies he was a pimp), but he claims to be a man of God in spite of still being quite the pervert.
• Inelegant Blubbering: After Martin and Gina expose him, he is forced to give a tearful confession to his congregation a la Jimmy Swaggart.
• Kissing Cousins: Attempted with his cousin Pam, who is clearly not interested.
• Large Ham: It's David Alan Grier playing a crooked pastor. Of course he's going to be over the top.
• Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: He's so perverted yet sexually repressed, you have to wonder why he even is a reverend.
• Sinister Minister: Played with: he's a pretty slimy dude, but he's willing to admit his wrongdoings whenever he's confronted, which is pretty often.