Ari Lennox is speaking up about how certain jokes on the ’90s sitcom Martin landed for her, specifically the constant digs at Pam.
In a recent radio interview, which Rain the Plug posted on Tuesday, July 29, Lennox said, “The thing that pissed me off about Martin was how much he was goin’ in on Pam.”
She added, “There are some things where I draw the line. Pam was so f**king beautiful and so fine, and I just feel like growing up as a chocolate girl, I don’t even know if I was able to understand the greatness of Pam because of what I was being fed. Always going in on Pam, that’s all I remember.”
Pamela James—played by Tichina Arnold—was a core character on Martin from 1992 to 1997.
Arnold has previously reflected on the show’s impact and on-set energy, sharing back in 2022 that the cast “had fun literally every day,” and that early in the run “we used to have to push [Martin] on his mark because he wasn’t used to…working in front of the camera.”
She’s also said, “Pam was originally written for a heavyset girl,” but once she booked the role, the writers incorporated her quick wit: “Once I got the role… they didn’t realize that I knew how to crack jokes, too. All the things that happened off camera, they started just… putting them in the script.”
Addressing longtime viewer conversations about colorism tied to Pam being the target of jokes, Arnold said the back-and-forth with Martin wasn’t malicious: “Martin cracking on Pam did not come from a mean place. Our relationship and our dynamic was really built upon, me being the best friend. It had nothing to do with color. It was not derived from that at all because that’s not how Martin is.”
Lennox said she still enjoys the series, but the recurring jokes about Pam stood out to her. Arnold currently appears on The Neighborhood and recently directed the BET Her short Oh Baby Baby.