Is Andy Kaufman alive?

That's the boat I'm in. I remember the Mighty Mouse skit or whatever he did on SNL, and still can't figure out why anyone was laughing at that.

I'm the same way with Robin Williams - don't get the appeal of his schtick at all. But that's for another thread ...

 

Same. Comic genius, my ass.

 

His stuff wasn't really anything that would be funny to a kid. And the douchiness was an act... sort of. Pretty much everything he did was an act, and a lot of it was designed to see just how utterly repellant he could be.

I was and am a big Andy Kaufman fan, but he wasn't everyone's cup of tea, and that's putting it mildly. He was absolutely trailblazing and unique for his time -- you were more likely to come away from it thinking "what the hell did I just witness?" than anything else.

This was one of the first things people saw him do, on an early SNL appearance:

Nearly 40 years later, that still cracks me up. But I absolutely get why a lot of people will stare at that blankly and not see the humor.

A big part of what made him what he was, is he never, ever let people in on the "joke." Ever. He did the wrestling thing and never broke character. He hassled Jerry "The King" Lawler on Letterman until Lawler put him in a pile-driver into the studio floor, and Kaufman wore a neck brace for weeks after that. He went to the grave without ever letting on whether it was legit. (It wasn't.) An obnoxious, talentless lounge singer named Tony Clifton started making public appearances, and would angrily deny it when people would suggest he was really Andy Kaufman. Kaufman never let anyone in on what was happening there. (In reality, a lot of the time Tony Clifton really wasn't Andy; it was frequently his lackey, Bob Zmuda.)

So, basically, those of us who love Andy Kaufman don't feel that way strictly because we found him funny. A lot of it is that he was beyond fearless, and stretched the notion of performance beyond anything anyone had done before. It was closer to performance art than comedy at times. Again, I totally get why people don't "get" his appeal, but I think he was brilliant. Comedy Central used to run an hour long documentary on his wrestling "career" practically every Saturday, and I'd just about pee myself laughing every time.

 

I don't find Robin Williams funny at all now, but I was 11 years old when "Mork and Mindy" debuted, and it's hard to overstate how mind-bendingly funny that was to the elementary school crowd. It was absolutely can't miss TV at the time, solely because of him.

Eventually the Jonathan-Winters-on-cocaine schtick wears really thin.

 

Kaufman's wrestling antics worked only because kayfabe hadn't been broken back then. A lot of people believed it was real sport. Lawler's done plenty of interviews since acknowledging that he helped Kaufman and was in on the joke. Sure, a lot of it was spontaneous, but I think now we'd call it a worked shoot.

Here's one interview with Lawler I found: http://www.thrillermag.com/uncategorized/jerry-lawler-on-andy-kaufman-and-the-early-days-of-wrestling/

 

It wasn't really until Lawler came out with his book that he admitted that the Kaufman thing was a work. For years before, he would protect the business and claim that he legitimately didn't like him.

Kaufman's wrestling antics also worked because it was really the first time that a Hollywood celebrity actually got involved in a wrestling angle and got in the ring. There had been times when other pro athletes had done it (Ali, Alex Karras), but for an actor, it was a different experience.

The funny thing, as Brad's link showed, is that Kaufman approached Vince McMahon Sr. first, and was rejected because Vince Sr. didn't think fans would buy it. His son, of course, took note of Kaufman's success, which ended up getting Mr. T and Cyndy Lauper involved.

 

Kaufman had a the great skill to make people feel so much hate towards him that played so well to wrestling. If he was a heel in today's world, there is no doubt in my mind he would be shot and killed by a fan.

Kaufman also did not care how self deprecating the skit was or the point he was trying to make.

 

The woman who claimed to be his daughter ... she's an actress.
It was a hoax.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/actress-in-andy-kaufman-hoax-675432

 

Exactly. To do the acts he did, he had to be the most-disciplined comic of his time.

The clip with the Mighty Mouse bit was part of about a 6-minute appearance on SNL that had a lot of greatness in it. His "impersonations" -- done in his Latka Gravas voice -- were epic, then he went into his spot-on Elvis impersonation.

 

I was just going to say the impersonations routine was much funnier than the Mighty Mouse deal.

 

It's the small details of Mighty Mouse that make it so perfect. He is nervously shifting his weight from left to right; he is moving his fingers nervously, especially on his left hand; he misses his cue and puts his head down; he drinks water when he is not talking at all.

All that contradicting the confidence and perfection he shows when he actually does the lip sync, to me, makes it wonderful.