Back in the 70's, Andy Kaufmann appeared on Saturday Night Live, doing his whole dumb ass routine. The piece ends with Laraine Newman running onstage and telling him to stop, "because you're not funny". Andy says "Of course, I'm funny, the people are laughing". Laraine says, "They're laughing at you". Andy says "No, no, they're laughing with me!". Laraine replies, "Trust me, they're laughing at you, not with you".
And I think that pretty much sums comedy for the last couple decades. It's become acceptable to be lame, rather than witty. Today's comedians are ok with people laughing at them, rather than with them, so long as you spell the name right on the check. Or maybe they're just too stupid to know the difference. (shrug)
Yeah, but knowing Andy Kaufman's type of humor that was probably written into the bit, not ad-libbed by Newman, just like those staged breakdown fights in the middle of skits: that was Kaufman's strange (some would say "sick" ) sense of humor. He enjoyed being "hated". Reminds me of the quote that the function of art is to get a strong reaction, either positive or negative, doesn't matter. It's the 'art' that doesn't get any reaction, good or bad, that is worthless.
Personally, i found some of Andy's most mean-spirited & uncomfortable bits to be the most hilarious. Like when he portrayed the second-rate lounge singer Tony Clifton and he would end up berating the audience when they started booing him for being so lousy. It takes some guts to want to make the audience uncomfortable and "hate" you. Guess i must have a *sick* sense of humor too. Of course, most people don't find that sort of stuff 'funny'.
"Wouldn't it be odd, if there really was a God, and he looked down on Earth and saw what we've done to her?" -- Adrian Belew ('Men In Helicopters')
Oh yeah, I understand the whole bit with Laraine interrupting him was staged, just like him picking a fight with some wrestler on Letterman or him getting himself thrown off the Paramount set (and then reportedly getting upset when he found out that everyone more or less knew he and "Tony Clifton" were one and the same). He thought he was making "art" by doing deliberately lousy comedy (or doing stuff that should have rightfully gotten him fired off of Taxi). Pretentious bullshit, if you ask me.
On the other hand, Andy was also a successful performer, who appeared multiple times on talk shows, was a regular on a high rated sitcom (even after the Tony Clifton incident), etc. So maybe he knew something that we (or at least, I) don't. Then again, that success bit him in the ass when concert audiences resisted him doing anything other than Latka or for instance when ABC refused to air his comedy special.
I did like the idea of him staying in character as "foreign guy" (he wasn't yet known as Latka) when being interviewed by Johnny Carson, and his Elvis impression was pretty good too (made all the better by the fact that he'd basically morph from Latka into Elvis in the space of like 2 minutes onstage). And Latka's alternate personality on Taxi, the one who was supposed to be some hotshot badass, I thought that worked well. Proved that he some actual talent, I just think he generally focused in...well, maybe not the wrong direction, just a direction that I find bewildering. (shrug)
Actually, the best Tony Clifton was something I saw in a program about comedy on TV a few years back. I gather that one of Andy's friends still dresses as Tony Clifton, and he keeps up the ruse of throwing a hissy fit any time Andy is mentioned. So on this particular program, he's being interviewed, and the interviewer says, "What about the rumors that you're actually Andy Kauffman", and he gets up, storms off, goes to the lobby of the studio, asks the receptionist to call a cab for him, then complains that he's on the verge of having a heart attack because the interviewer mentioned Kauffman. I thought that was kinda funny.
But getting thrown off the set of a TV show you should be THANKFUL that you've been cast on because you decided to act like a total asshole towards everyone else (shrug).
Anyway, my original point was that Andy was ok with the idea of a complete moron or asshole onstage, and that seems to be the style of humor of most comedians today. It's like actually being witty is too taxing for them, so instead they just bullshit their way through it, and so long as they get paid and get asked back, they're ok with that. (shrug)
I much rather prefer genuinely witty performers like Bill Cosby, Lenny Bruce, Groucho Marx, Firesign Theater, Laurel & Hardy, etc, people who were actually funny, where you laughed because they did something that was actually funny, as opposed to being "so stupid that you have to laugh at it" or whatever.
Last edited by GuitarGeek; 01-01-2014 at 05:02 PM.
The guy that started playing Tony Clifton, so Andy and "Tony" could be at the same place at once was his friend/manager Bob Zmuda. Before Zmuda started playing Clifton, he would often pretend to just be a "regular guy" in the audience at Tony Clifton shows who would somehow piss off Clifton and who then would be insulted by Clifton and get a drink poured over his head, etc. "Zmuda? What kind of a name is that?!?" I always found this stuff hilarious!
Kaufman would take the 'annoying guy' persona so far that it would eventually alienate everyone like the cast of Taxi, etc. I always found that bizarrely admirable--i must be perverse or something!
"Wouldn't it be odd, if there really was a God, and he looked down on Earth and saw what we've done to her?" -- Adrian Belew ('Men In Helicopters')
My favorite Andy K anecdotes are how he would "punish" audiences that were heckling him or asking him do "do Latka" by reading The Great Gatsby to them. Then he would ask if they wanted him to keep reading or play a record. When they chose the record it was him reading The Great Gatsby again from the place he left off.
IMO Andy"s best bit was the Mighty Mouse song, which may have been his first.
Supposedly, "Tony Clifton" appeared on Letterman once, with it apparently being Zmuda in the outfit. Allegedly, Letterman never caught on til years later that it wasn't Andy Kauffman he talked to that particular evening.
BTW, this talk of Andy Kauffman reminds me I need to watch God Told Me To again.
[QUOTE=syncopatico;200717]The guy that started playing Tony Clifton, so Andy and "Tony" could be at the same place at once was his friend/manager Bob Zmuda. Before Zmuda started playing Clifton, he would often pretend to just be a "regular guy" in the audience at Tony Clifton shows who would somehow piss off Clifton and who then would be insulted by Clifton and get a drink poured over his head, etc. "Zmuda? What kind of a name is that?!?" I always found this stuff hilarious!
QUOTE]
Zmuda has a book about Andy coming out later this year that supposedly is going to tell the straight scoop on his life. Kaufman was the master of messing with people's heads. Personally I thought the guy was brilliant and one of the most unique comedians ever. Not everything he did was funny, but not all of it was meant to be. I think he got as much satisfaction with making people uncomfortable as he did making them laugh.
Steve Sly
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