Andy Kaufman - Funny?

[elperromagico]

Poll question: Andy Kaufman - Funny?

[Richardo]

1. Sporadically.

Other times just labored and annoying.

[bobbobbins]

2. He's my idol

A comic revolutionary!

[southpaw]

3. Are you kidding?!?!?!

Kaufman was a visionary! A true genius!

[elperromagico]

4. I rarely kid.

And I, for one, find him hilarious.

[MuseRider]

5. Pushing the edges baby!

Hysterical, yes he was often very annoying but that was part of the deal. Now lets all go get some Cocoa.

[elperromagico]

9. It is generally very annoying when the joke is on you

and not on someone else.

In Kaufman's world, the joke is almost always on the audience. And there's no punchline, no moment when he pulls off the mask and says "It's a joke." Even Don Rickles explains at the end of his act that he's not really an asshole. In some ways, it ruins the act...

But Kaufman never does that. And I find that incredibly amusing.

[MuseRider]

12. Me too.

I admit that I didn't always get it right away. I always knew he was tooling us but you never knew if it would end up being funny or just plain frustrating. The Great Gatsby was one of those moments.

[Melynn]

15. That was the reason Kaufman was controversial

Kaufman never pulled back and said, "I'm just kidding". So the audience never knew if Kaufman was joking or serious. Personally, I thought that Kaufman was great. :thumbsup:

[pscot]

6. In a painful sort of way.

n/t

[southpaw]

8. Agreed...

I sometimes felt guilty for laughing at his shit...

Inter-gender wrestling always made me feel a bit squirrely... but it really lampooned the machismo of pro-wrestling, so it was cool.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. He was a strange one...

and not at all "ha-ha" funny.

But, I saw him live many years a go in a comedy club before anyone had heard of him. Without one single joke, he had us rolling on the floor all night. It was hysterical. The more we laughed, the more "upset" he got, and the more we laughed... We actually hurt from laughing.

We all left, shaking our heads, asking "How the hell did he do that?"

[ProfessorGAC]

10. Too Clever By Half

The joke was supposed to be there was no real joke. I get it! But, i didn't find it funny.

A comic who doesn't make me laugh probably is going to rate very low on my laughometer. Pure schtick, with no real substance is rarely funny. (Think Jerry Lewis.)
The Professor

[Carson]

14. Agreed. The guy was/is definitely over-rated. nt

[johnnie]

17. I agree

He had a moment or two, but I never saw the "genius" part.

[robertpaulsen]

11. Real American Original. And, oh yeah, FUNNY AS HELL!

My Top Ten Andy Moments (in no particular order of importance)

10. Mighty Mouse on SNL - raises lip-synching to an artform!

9. Andy "breaks character" & destroys sketch on Fridays, then comes back the following week to deliver disheveled "apology".

8. Andy curses a blue streak & dumps coffee on Jerry Lawler as shocked David Letterman watches his show get destroyed.

7. Andy becomes a born-again Christian.

6. The Midnight Special. Proves Andy was crazy and knew EXACTLY what the hell he was doing with his wrestling.

5. Andy gets heckled by Zmuda at Catch a Rising Star.

4. Latka. Any Taxi episode he was in ruled!

3. My Breakfast With Blassie. Andy & Fred should have had their own sitcom.

2. Tony Clifton. Need I say more?

1. Foreign Man becomes Elvis. One of the all time classic comic routines.

[MuseRider]

13. And the dog goes

*bark* and the cow goes *moo*. Yes, the Mighty Mouse moment almost killed me.

[AngryAmish]

16. The wrestling fued with Jerry Lawlor

Folks, he was not doing this for TV or for a national audience. he was in f'n Memphis. This was before nationwide cable tv wrestling. Very kayfabe.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

18. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. eom

[barb162]

19. I thought he was funny until I decided he had a real mean streak

[dean_dem]

20. I used to hate him....

...and then I got it. And when you get it, its funny as hell. His whole life was the standup act, and the joke was completely on the audience. That thing when he read the whole Great Gatsby on stage was hysterical. You have to respect a guy that goes to such great lengths just to piss people off.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. See My Post Above

I ALWAYS got it. It just didn't make me laugh. I know he was a performance artist, and that there was actually no joke, merely the whole. Comedy at which i don't laugh isn't great!

I am not one who thinks a performer must whore for the audience. Pissing them off is ok. But, not funny, is not funny, and there was nothing not to get, for me. I got it. It wasn't funny.
The Professor

[dean_dem]

25. Eh, to each his own.

Funny is completely subjective.

[bobbobbins]

26. you just don't get it

[Zuni]

22. Sometimes---His pro-wrestling was good

but other things were just bizarre

[Ronnie]

23. Beyond Bizarre

Some years back my son sat by him on a plane for five hours. He said, "Mom, he's seriously disturbed. I was never so happy to see the lights of Miami in my life."

[Speck Tater]

24. He operated at a whole different level of reality

and I think most people just didn't grok what he was about.

It took me a while to grok it myself. But once I saw the "man behind the curtain" I could appreciate the wizard for what he was really doing.