History Creator / AndyKaufman

Andrew Geoffrey "Andy" Kaufman (January 17, 1949 -- May 16, 1984) was perhaps the most eccentric performer to emerge from the comedy scene of the 1970s. Born and raised in Great Neck, Long Island, Andy was something of a [[TheGadfly gadfly]]. As he began to stake out a career as a professional entertainer in the early 1970s, he unveiled a colorful variety of strange acts on the comedy club circuit. Some were simple routines he conceived as a child, others were... more complex; all were based on defying audience expectations. One signature routine worked as follows: When Andy appeared on stage he was already in character as "[[FunnyForeigner Foreign Man]]", stumbling through weak jokes and wretched impressions in broken English, to the audience's displeasure since they did not know this ''was'' a character. But then came the last impression, "de Music/ElvisPresley". Revealing that his suit was a disguised Elvis outfit, the resultant ''serious'', extremely accurate impression was enough to bring the audience to their feet. To their applause, the Foreign Man reverted back to his "normal" voice -- [[CatchPhrase "Tank you veddy much."]] -- and the act ended. (And this was in the days before doing an Elvis impression had become a cliche. Reportedly, Elvis Presley himself thought Kaufman's was the best he had seen.)

Andy Kaufman's life and work, ''Taxi'' excepted, is still argued about. Haters think he was self-indulgent and perhaps insane. Lovers think he was as close as comedy will come to {{Dada}}. Though he claimed not to be a comedian (he usually referred to himself as a "song-and-dance man"), he was often friendly with those who were; in turn he is seen as an iconoclast who made comedy safer for experimentation. A "comedian's comedian", said Creator/RobinWilliams, a friend and ardent supporter.

* AbsenteeActor - His ''Taxi'' contract dictated that he didn't have to appear in every episode, and he didn't.
* AffectionateParody - Some of his spoofs of children's entertainment.
* AllPartOfTheShow - The eternal question he asked of his audiences was whether what he was doing at any given moment was this.
* AlterEgoActing - Virtually every appearance he made.
* AntiHumor - A significant portion of his work is this.
* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign - Foreign Man's language.

* AudienceParticipationSong - Many, ranging from the self-penned "The Cow Goes Moo" to the Fabian song "This Friendly World".
* AuthorAppeal - Elvis, children's shows, wrestling, and so forth.
* BadImpressionists - Foreign Man, ''most'' of the time.
* BecomingTheMask - According to Bob Zmuda, Kaufman (who was in real life a shy, sensitive vegetarian who never smoke, drank or anything) would become Tony Clifton for as much as a week straight without rest, going around having anonymous sex, getting drunk and basically reveling in the character's persona.
* BrokenRecord - [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSYV-nEE300 "I trusted you, I trusted you, I trusted you, I trusted you..."]]
* CharacterAsHimself - Tony Clifton, to the point that ''Man on the Moon'' billed him as such.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}- He rarely appeared as his actual self on TV, stage, etc., but by all accounts he really was this in RealLife.
* CryingWolf - According to Bob Zmuda, there were fans who saw Andy as he was wasting away from cancer who outright told him what a great gag he was playing...

* DeadArtistsAreBetter - Averted. While his early death undoubtedly added to his legend -- especially among fellow comics -- unlike many performers whose lives were cut short his reputation didn't go up appreciably with the general public after his death. His work was just too divisive for that. To compare a comic or comedic work to what Kaufman did is not so much to call it brilliant as LoveItOrHateIt: Tom Green, ''TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob'', etc.
* DoingItForTheArt - Most of his work. When you don't care how people react to your work, it's that much easier to invoke this trope...

* DontExplainTheJoke - He strongly adhered to this trope.
* ElvisImpersonator - One of the first! It was typically set up by an "impression" of Jimmy Carter which was simply him saying "Hello, I'm Jimmy Carter" in the same Foreign Man voice, then blowing the audience away by how good an impressionist he could really be.
* ExcitedKidsShowHost - One of his personas was Type 1 (treating his adult audience as if they were children); he actually worked as an entertainer at birthday parties as a teen and hosted a children's [=TV=] show in college.
* FakingTheDead - It was long rumored that Kaufman faked his death in 1984 as part of the ultimate practical joke against society. For the 20th anniversary of his death in 2004, collaborator Bob Zmuda staged his "return" with a series of live appearances (himself in Tony Clifton's costume) and internet postings.
* FunnyForeigner - Foreign Man/Latka Gravas of course, but also British Man, who was responsible for those lengthy ''Great Gatsby'' readings.
* [[GranolaGirl Granola Guy]] - Kaufman was a macrobiotic vegan and into Transcendental Meditation.

* HatesTheJobLovesTheLimelight[=/=]DepravedKidsShowHost - His kiddie show host persona turned out to be bossy and contemptuous of his audience "off screen", though it's suggested in the 1977 special and his ''Soundstage'' episode that he's just jaded after all these years and not a bad person at heart.
* HollywoodToneDeaf - Averted with Tony Clifton; the hatred he engendered wasn't because he couldn't hit notes, but because 1) his voice was nasally to begin with and 2) he was an aggressive {{Jerkass}}. (Andy probably knew that he had to avert this trope to maintain the fiction that Tony was a real lounge performer.)
* IdentityImpersonator - He had friends and even his brother pose as Tony Clifton so they could appear together. Eventually, he handed the role off to colleague Bob Zmuda but let people believe it was him under the costume and makeup. Since Andy's death, Bob and other performers have reprised the role on occasion.
* ImpersonationParadox - His take on Elvis (though Elvis himself loved it).
* IncurableCoughOfDeath - He had been afflicted with a cough since the mid-1970s; when he finally decided to see a doctor about it, his cancer was diagnosed (the disease caused the cough).
* {{Kayfabe}} - Andy's fascination with this was just one reason he loved wrestling, and he applied it to the rest of his work as well.
* LoungeLizard - Tony Clifton.

* SelfDeprecation - A key theme of his 1983 [=PBS=] ''Soundstage'' special was how hated he was by that point in his career; one whole segment is based around him getting arrested and banished to an island for "going too far". At the end, via DoubleVision, Foreign Man confronts Andy and points out that "you've not only ruined your career, but you've ruined my career too" -- and winds up reducing him to tears.
* SmallNameBigEgo - This was key to Tony Clifton's persona; he claimed Andy was using him to get places. This was also key to Andy's Heel persona, especially when he took it to Memphis and constantly bragged about his Hollywood stardom and superiority to the "hicks" of the deep South. The ''real'' Andy did have a lot of quirks and demands that could make him difficult to work with, particularly where ''Taxi'' was concerned (oh, the hijinks when Tony Clifton was ''supposed'' to be the guest star one week in lieu of Andy), but how much of this was ego and how much was just his eccentric nature is hard to fathom.

* StarMakingRole - Latka on ''Taxi'' (as the page image confirms).
* StayInTheKitchen - As a wrestler, he egged women to fight him by claiming they were a weaker and dumber gender that was fit only to do this.
* StealthParody - Tony Clifton, but played to create a genuine {{Hatedom}} more than a MisaimedFandom.
* SubvertedKidsShow - Several of his stage routines and specials invoked this trope, most famously his 1977 hour-long [=ABC=] special...which wasn't aired for two years because the network was scared by how strange (if benignly so) it was: the host continually vacillating between ExcitedKidsShowHost and HatesTheJobLovesTheLimelight, the screen dissolving into static at one point, the sincere interview with Howdy Doody, etc.

* {{Troll}} - As noted, several of his acts hinged simply on pissing off his audience. Basically, if you didn't understand what he was doing, the joke was on you.

* WorkedShoot - They're not just for wrestling anymore!

* ElvisImpersonator - One of the first!

* IdentityImpersonator - He had friends and even his brother pose as Tony Clifton so they could appear together. Eventually, he handed the role off to colleague Bob Zmuda but let people believe it was him under the costume and makeup. Since Andy's death, Bob and other performers have reprized the role on occasion.

* BecomingTheMask - According to Bob Zmuda, Kaufman (Who was in real life a shy, sensitive vegetarian who never smoke, drank or anything) would become Tony Clifton for as much as a week straight without rest, going around having anonymous sex, getting drunk and basically reveling in the character's persona.

On February 24, 2010, Andy Kaufman was [[AscendedMeme declared]] the Patron Saint of {{Troll}}s by [[ImageBoards /b/]] and Encyclopedia Dramatica. However, his sainthood has yet to be confirmed by the Catholic Church.

Andy Kaufman's life and work, ''Taxi'' excepted, is still argued about. Haters think he was self-indulgent and perhaps insane. Lovers think he was as close as comedy will come to {{Dada}}. Though he claimed not to be a comedian (he usually referred to himself as a "song-and-dance man"), he was often friendly with those who were; in turn he is seen as an iconoclast who made comedy safer for experimentation, a "comedian's comedian". Creator/RobinWilliams A friend and ardent supporter.

Andrew Geoffrey "Andy" Kaufman (1949-1984) was perhaps the most eccentric performer to emerge from the comedy scene of the 1970s. Born and raised in Great Neck, Long Island, Andy was something of a [[TheGadfly gadfly]]. As he began to stake out a career as a professional entertainer in the early 1970s, he unveiled a colorful variety of strange acts on the comedy club circuit. Some were simple routines he conceived as a child, others were... more complex; all were based on defying audience expectations. One signature routine worked as follows: When Andy appeared on stage he was already in character as "[[FunnyForeigner Foreign Man]]", stumbling through weak jokes and wretched impressions in broken English, to the audience's displeasure since they did not know this ''was'' a character. But then came the last impression, "de Music/ElvisPresley". Revealing that his suit was a disguised Elvis outfit, the resultant ''serious'', extremely accurate impression was enough to bring the audience to their feet. To their applause, the Foreign Man reverted back to his "normal" voice -- [[CatchPhrase "Tank you veddy much."]] -- and the act ended. (And this was in the days before doing an Elvis impression had become a cliche. Reportedly, Elvis Presley himself thought Kaufman's was the best he had seen.)

Andy's big break into the mainstream came as a special guest on the first ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' in 1975, where he performed a childhood routine: simply standing next to a record player playing the ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouse'' theme song and doing little other than standing their nervously until each appearance of the line "Here I come to save the day!", which he would grandly lip-synch. Over the years Andy made many guest appearances on ''[=SNL=]'', usually adapting his stage material, ranging from further Foreign Man exploits to a "serious" reading of ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby''. The unifying thread of these acts was total commitment to his chosen character, no matter what reaction he got, so long as '''a''' reaction was evoked. This commitment often extended to his offstage behavior as well.

Over 1981-83, he frequently was in Memphis, Tennessee furthering his wrestling career via a lengthy feud with Jerry Lawler that culminated in a brutal match where Lawler appeared to break the taunting Kaufman's neck with repeated pile drivers. The feud gained national attention in '82 when the two appeared on ''[[Creator/DavidLetterman Late Night With David Letterman]]'', ostensibly to make up. To the shock of many, including Dave, Jerry smacked Andy (wearing a neck brace at the time) out of his chair; Andy responded with a barrage of obscenities. This would now be called a WorkedShoot, as only Kaufman and Lawler knew what was going to happen, but most viewers [[PoesLaw had little, if any, idea of the concept then]]. By the end of '82, Andy was so unpopular that a viewer vote banished him from ''[=SNL=]''.

Andrew Geoffrey "Andy" Kaufman (1949-1984) was perhaps the most eccentric performer to emerge from the comedy scene of the 1970s. Born and raised in Great Neck, Long Island, Andy was something of a [[TheGadly gadfly]]. As he began to stake out a career as a professional entertainer in the early 1970s, he unveiled a colorful variety of strange acts on the comedy club circuit. Some were simple routines he conceived as a child, others were... more complex; all were based on defying audience expectations. One signature routine worked as follows: When Andy appeared on stage he was already in character as "[[FunnyForeigner Foreign Man]]", stumbling through weak jokes and wretched impressions in broken English, to the audience's displeasure since they did not know this ''was'' a character. But then came the last impression, "de Music/ElvisPresley". Revealing that his suit was a disguised Elvis outfit, the resultant ''serious'', extremely accurate impression was enough to bring the audience to their feet. To their applause, the Foreign Man reverted back to his "normal" voice -- [[CatchPhrase "Tank you veddy much."]] -- and the act ended. (And this was in the days before doing an Elvis impression had become a cliche. Reportedly, Elvis Presley himself thought Kaufman's was the best he had seen.)

Andrew Geoffrey "Andy" Kaufman (1949-1984) was perhaps the most eccentric performer to emerge from the comedy scene of the 1970s. Born and raised in Great Neck, Long Island, Andy was something of a {{Manchild}}. As he began to stake out a career as a professional entertainer in the early 1970s, he unveiled a colorful variety of strange acts on the comedy club circuit. Some were simple routines he conceived as a child, others were... more complex; all were based on defying audience expectations. One signature routine worked as follows: When Andy appeared on stage he was already in character as "[[FunnyForeigner Foreign Man]]", stumbling through weak jokes and wretched impressions in broken English, to the audience's displeasure since they did not know this ''was'' a character. But then came the last impression, "de Music/ElvisPresley". Revealing that his suit was a disguised Elvis outfit, the resultant ''serious'', extremely accurate impression was enough to bring the audience to their feet. To their applause, the Foreign Man reverted back to his "normal" voice -- [[CatchPhrase "Tank you veddy much."]] -- and the act ended. (And this was in the days before doing an Elvis impression had become a cliche. Reportedly, Elvis Presley himself thought Kaufman's was the best he had seen.)

Andrew Geoffrey "Andy" Kaufman (1949-1984) was perhaps the most eccentric performer to emerge from the comedy scene of the 1970s. Born and raised in Great Neck, Long Island, Andy was something of a [=Manchild=]. As he began to stake out a career as a professional entertainer in the early 1970s, he unveiled a colorful variety of strange acts on the comedy club circuit. Some were simple routines he conceived as a child, others were... more complex; all were based on defying audience expectations. One signature routine worked as follows: When Andy appeared on stage he was already in character as "[[FunnyForeigner Foreign Man]]", stumbling through weak jokes and wretched impressions in broken English, to the audience's displeasure since they did not know this ''was'' a character. But then came the last impression, "de Music/ElvisPresley". Revealing that his suit was a disguised Elvis outfit, the resultant ''serious'', extremely accurate impression was enough to bring the audience to their feet. To their applause, the Foreign Man reverted back to his "normal" voice -- [[CatchPhrase "Tank you veddy much."]] -- and the act ended. (And this was in the days before doing an Elvis impression had become a cliche. Reportedly, Elvis Presley himself thought Kaufman's was the best he had seen.)

Andrew Geoffrey "Andy" Kaufman (1949-1984) was perhaps the most eccentric performer to emerge from the comedy scene of the 1970s. Born and raised in Great Neck, Long Island, Andy was something of a ManChild. As he began to stake out a career as a professional entertainer in the early 1970s, he unveiled a colorful variety of strange acts on the comedy club circuit. Some were simple routines he conceived as a child, others were... more complex; all were based on defying audience expectations. One signature routine worked as follows: When Andy appeared on stage he was already in character as "[[FunnyForeigner Foreign Man]]", stumbling through weak jokes and wretched impressions in broken English, to the audience's displeasure since they did not know this ''was'' a character. But then came the last impression, "de Music/ElvisPresley". Revealing that his suit was a disguised Elvis outfit, the resultant ''serious'', extremely accurate impression was enough to bring the audience to their feet. To their applause, the Foreign Man reverted back to his "normal" voice -- [[CatchPhrase "Tank you veddy much."]] -- and the act ended. (And this was in the days before doing an Elvis impression had become a cliche. Reportedly, Elvis Presley himself thought Kaufman's was the best he had seen.)

* TricksterArchetype

* HatesTheJobLovesTheLimelight / DepravedKidsShowHost - His kiddie show host persona turned out to be bossy and contemptuous of his audience "off screen", though it's suggested in the 1977 special and his ''Soundstage'' episode that he's just jaded after all these years and not a bad person at heart.

Over 1981-83, he frequently was in Memphis, Tennessee furthering his wrestling career via a lengthy feud with Jerry Lawler that culminated in a brutal match where Lawler appeared to break the taunting Kaufman's neck with repeated pile drivers. The feud gained national attention in '82 when the two appeared on ''[[Creator/DavidLetterman Late Night With David Letterman]]'', ostensibly to make up. To the shock of many, including Dave, Jerry smacked Andy (wearing a neck brace at the time) out of his chair; Andy responded with a barrage of obscenities. This would now be called a WorkedShoot, but most viewers [[PoesLaw had little, if any, idea of the concept then]]. By the end of '82, Andy was so unpopular that a viewer vote banished him from ''[=SNL=]''.

* CloudCuckoolander - He rarely appeared as his actual self on TV, stage, etc., but by all accounts he really was this in RealLife.

* DeadAir: Andy Kaufman's first appearance on ''SaturdayNightLive'' was supposed to invoke the TV equivalent of this: He stared at the camera for an uncomfortably long moment, then turned on a recording of the ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouse'' theme song, and lip-synched the line "Here I come to save the day!" and nothing else. As Lorne Michaels later said in an interview: "The humor wasn't that he was lip-synching the Mighty Mouse Theme; the humor was that he only lip-synched ''one part'' of it, and the rest of the time he was just patiently waiting for his cue."

* JimCarrey: Besides ''ManOnTheMoon'' and certain comedy sensibilities, Jim and Andy share a birthday (January 17).

<<|{{Actors}}|>>

Andrew Geoffrey "Andy" Kaufman (1949-1984) was perhaps the most eccentric performer to emerge from the comedy scene of the 1970s. Born and raised in Great Neck, Long Island, Andy was something of a ManChild. As he began to stake out a career as a professional entertainer in the early 1970s, he unveiled a colorful variety of strange acts on the comedy club circuit. Some were simple routines he conceived as a child, others were... more complex; all were based on defying audience expectations. One signature routine worked as follows: When Andy appeared on stage he was already in character as "[[FunnyForeigner Foreign Man]]", stumbling through weak jokes and wretched impressions in broken English, to the audience's displeasure since they did not know this ''was'' a character. But then came the last impression, "de ElvisPresley". Revealing that his suit was a disguised Elvis outfit, the resultant ''serious'', extremely accurate impression was enough to bring the audience to their feet. To their applause, the Foreign Man reverted back to his "normal" voice -- [[CatchPhrase "Tank you veddy much."]] -- and the act ended. (And this was in the days before doing an Elvis impression had become a cliche. Reportedly, Elvis Presley himself thought Kaufman's was the best he had seen.)

Andy Kaufman's life and work, ''Taxi'' excepted, is still argued about. Haters think he was self-indulgent and perhaps insane. Lovers think he was as close as comedy will come to {{Dada}}. Though he claimed not to be a comedian (he usually referred to himself as a "song-and-dance man"), he was often friendly with those who were; in turn he is seen as an iconoclast who made comedy safer for experimentation, a "comedian's comedian".

In 1992, the [[{{REM}} R.E.M.]] song and subsequent video "Man on the Moon" invoked Andy to illustrate the song's theme of the tendency of people to wonder what is and is not real (i.e. the ConspiracyTheory that the 1969 moon landing was faked). The song became the title for a 1999 [[Main/{{Biopic}} biopic]] of Andy's career in which he was played by JimCarrey, another admirer.

On February 24, 2010, AndyKaufman was [[AscendedMeme declared]] the Patron Saint of {{Troll}}s by [[ImageBoards /b/]] and Encyclopedia Dramatica. However, his sainthood has yet to be confirmed by the Catholic Church.

* RobinWilliams - A friend and ardent supporter.

* StandUpComedy

Andy Kaufman's life and work, ''Taxi'' excepted, is still argued about. Haters think he was self-indulgent and perhaps insane. Lovers think he was as close as comedy will come to {{Dada}}. Though he claimed not to be a comedian(he referred to himself instead as a "song-and-dance man"), he was often friendly with those who were; in turn he is seen as an iconoclast who made comedy safer for experimentation and sometimes referred to as a "comedian's comedian". (''Pee-Wee's Playhouse'' literally wouldn't have existed without Andy's inspiration; PaulReubens asked his permission to do his own take on Andy's SubvertedKidsShow routines.)

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Tony Clifton; not only is he a JerkAss, but he was created on the premise that "everybody loves a villain".
* WorkedShoot - They're not ''just'' for wrestling anymore!

* CryingWolf

Over 1981-83, he frequently was in Memphis, Tennessee furthering his wrestling career via a lengthy feud with Jerry Lawler that culminated in a brutal match where Lawler appeared to break the taunting Kaufman's neck with repeated pile drivers. The feud gained national attention in '82 when the two appeared on ''Late Night with DavidLetterman'', ostensibly to make up. To the shock of many, including Dave, Jerry smacked Andy (wearing a neck brace at the time) out of his chair; Andy responded with a barrage of obscenities. This would now be called a WorkedShoot, but most viewers [[PoesLaw had little, if any, idea of the concept then]]. By the end of '82, Andy was so unpopular that a viewer vote banished him from ''[=SNL=]''.

* {{Kayfabe}} - Andy's fascination with this was just one reason he loved wrestling.

Andy's big break into the mainstream came as a special guest on the first ''SaturdayNightLive'' in 1975, where he performed a childhood routine: simply standing next to a record player playing the ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouse'' theme song and doing little other than standing their nervously until each appearance of the line "Here I come to save the day!", which he would grandly lip-synch. Over the years Andy made many guest appearances on ''[=SNL=]'', usually adapting his stage material, ranging from further Foreign Man exploits to a "serious" reading of ''TheGreatGatsby''. The unifying thread of these acts was total commitment to his chosen character, no matter what reaction he got, so long as '''a''' reaction was evoked. This commitment often extended to his offstage behavior as well.

In 1978, Andy embarked upon his biggest mainstream success, the ensemble sitcom ''{{Taxi}}'', where his Foreign Man character had been developed into the mechanic Latka Gravas. The following year he sold out Carnegie Hall for a one-night-only performance, but his work was becoming more experimental and controversial since his signature routines had lost their surprise value. In his stage act he challenged women to wrestle him, virtually always pinning them and proclaiming himself "The Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion Of The Word". He in fact played the {{Heel}} so well -- professional wrestling was one of his great lifelong passions because of {{Kayfabe}} -- that audiences believed he actually was a sexist pig (in truth, it was one heck of a way for him to break the ice with women). His alter ego Tony Clifton, a repellent LoungeLizard who [[Main/AlterEgoActing had to be treated as a separate entity from Andy]], caused almost as much trouble. He arranged with the producers of ''Fridays'', another sketch comedy show, to completely derail it the night he hosted in February 1981; the live show climaxed with him objecting to the content of a sketch and picking a fight with the crew. His attempts to break into film boiled down to one word: ''[[SoBadItsGood Heartbeeps]]''.

Andy's big break into the mainstream came as a special guest on the first ''SaturdayNightLive'' in 1975, where he performed a childhood routine: simply standing next to a record player playing the ''MightyMouse'' theme song and doing little other than standing their nervously until each appearance of the line "Here I come to save the day!", which he would grandly lip-synch. Over the years Andy made many guest appearances on ''[=SNL=]'', usually adapting his stage material, ranging from further Foreign Man exploits to a "serious" reading of ''TheGreatGatsby''. The unifying thread of these acts was total commitment to his chosen character, no matter what reaction he got, so long as '''a''' reaction was evoked. This commitment often extended to his offstage behavior as well.

* DeadAir: Andy Kaufman's first appearance on ''SaturdayNightLive'' was supposed to invoke the TV equivalent of this: He stared at the camera for an uncomfortably long moment, then turned on a recording of the ''MightyMouse'' theme song, and lip-synched the line "Here I come to save the day!" and nothing else. As Lorne Michaels later said in an interview: "The humor wasn't that he was lip-synching the Mighty Mouse Theme; the humor was that he only lip-synched ''one part'' of it, and the rest of the time he was just patiently waiting for his cue."

Andy Kaufman (1949-1984) was perhaps the most eccentric performer to emerge from the comedy scene of the 1970s. Born and raised in Great Neck, Long Island, Andy was something of a ManChild. As he began to stake out a career as a professional entertainer in the early 1970s, he unveiled a colorful variety of strange acts on the comedy club circuit. Some were simple routines he conceived as a child, others were... more complex; all were based on defying audience expectations. One signature routine worked as follows: When Andy appeared on stage he was already in character as "[[FunnyForeigner Foreign Man]]", stumbling through weak jokes and wretched impressions in broken English, to the audience's displeasure since they did not know this ''was'' a character. But then came the last impression, "de ElvisPresley". Revealing that his suit was a disguised Elvis outfit, the resultant ''serious'', extremely accurate impression was enough to bring the audience to their feet. To their applause, the Foreign Man reverted back to his "normal" voice -- [[CatchPhrase "Tank you veddy much."]] -- and the act ended. (And this was in the days before doing an Elvis impression had become a cliche. Reportedly, Elvis Presley himself thought Kaufman's was the best he had seen.)

* TheGadfly - Tony Clifton practically defines this trope. People couldn't even tell the stage persona from the actual person.