It's about showmanship. The mix, the shake, the pour, presentation. People become various types of alcohol snobs but they don't really understand it. They just do it because it's a fad, not out of appreciation for the liquor.
The martini, traditionally, is about mixing stuff. The holy monkeys list of recipes above as a great example.
Where'd the martini turn stupid? Hollywood James Bond. For instance, the real James Bond martini --
3oz gin
1oz vodka
1/2 oz Kina Lillet
A weird combination, and it'll flatten you, but the gin and vodka together produce a nice little feather of devilry in your soul.
Hollywood changed it to just a plain old vodka martini. Easy to say and be cool, as opposed to the comic scene in Casino Royale where he ordered a real James Bond Martini and everybody was like, "huh?"
When people become martini snobs -- or aficionados -- they go right to the vodka martini and stop. It's trailer trash alcohol snobbery. There are so many recipes that no bartender can make but, nevertheless, define the martini experience. Look to Nubbins' list again -- scotch martinis, whiskey, rum, wild mixes, colors, etc. But all that stuff is faggot stuff, no? Would a whiskey martini be a faggot martini? It's basically an amped up whiskey sour.
Strangely, the best martini bartender I've run across (and I didn't have any sadly, just watched) was a 22 year old behind the Blennerhasset Hotel's bar in Parkersburg, WVA.
