History Creator / AndyKaufman

In 1978, Andy embarked upon his biggest mainstream success, the ensemble sitcom ''Series/{{Taxi}}'', where his Foreign Man character had been developed into the mechanic Latka Gravas. The following April he sold out Carnegie Hall for a one-night-only performance -- one that famously ended with him taking the entire audience out for milk and cookies (''and then'' continued the following day on the Staten Island ferry, for anyone still interested). But since his signature routines no longer had surprise value, he was developing increasingly experimental and controversial acts to supplement them. In particular, in his stage act he challenged women to wrestle him, virtually always pinning them and proclaiming himself "The Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion Of The World". 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. (He loved women, rather, and dated quite a few of his opponents, often using the matches to secretly flirt with them.) 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 ''Series/{{Fridays}}'', another sketch comedy show, to completely derail it the night he hosted in February 1981. In a sketch about a double-dating couple sneaking off to the bathroom to get high on marijuana, Kaufman stopped the sketch by saying, "I can't play stoned," which angered Michael Richards and embarrassed Maryedith Burrell and Melanie Chartoff. After Creator/MichaelRichards takes the cue cards and throws them on the table, Kaufman hurls a glass of water in Richards' face. One of the stagehands tells Kaufman to back off and do the sketch, but Kaufman punches the stagehand in the face and the entire sketch degrades into a fight that turned out to be an elaborate prank[[note]]the movie ''Man on the Moon'' has this moment, with Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman, former ''SNL'' cast member Creator/NormMacDonald as Michael Richards, Creator/CarolineRhea as Melanie Chartoff, and Creator/MaryLynnRajskub as Maryedith Burrell[[/note]].

Over 1981-83, he frequently was in Memphis, Tennessee furthering his wrestling career via a lengthy feud with Wrestling/JerryLawler 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 Kaufman and Lawler knew what was going to happen but they didn't tell anyone else besides Letterman what was in store -- and he didn't reveal he was in on it for ''decades''. Many fans and wrestlers of that era and otherwise feel that Kaufman missed his true calling and that he always should've been involved in professional wrestling because of how innately he understood the business. By the end of '82, Andy was so unpopular that a viewer vote (his idea) banished him from ''[=SNL=]''.

While the vote was deeply damaging to his career, he continued to make ''Letterman'' appearances, wrestle, and so forth until he was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer at the end of '83 despite not smoking cigarettes. Because so much of Andy's career was based on tricking audiences -- and he ''had'' considered faking his death, to the point where his best friend Bob Zmuda mentioned he was almost obsessed with the idea -- many people did not think he was actually dying. He continued to perform while battling the disease, shocking fans with a gaunt appearance. Despite everything from radiation therapy to healing crystals and "psychic surgery", he apparently died the following year, age 35. Having always claimed that if he faked his death he would return 20 years later, many fans eagerly awaited 2004 in hopes of TheReveal of the ultimate Kaufman prank. Sadly, he has yet to resurface, but to this day some insist that HesJustHiding

** ''Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond'' is a 2017 retrospective documentary about this film's production and the intense MethodActing Carrey used to play Kaufman (and Tony Clifton) throughout the shoot. (Carrey felt this was the only way to properly honor Kaufman and his work and found the experience, while exhausting, both creatively and personally freeing.)

* StealthParody: Tony Clifton, but played to create a genuine target of hate more than a Misaimed Fandom.
* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: One of the few times Tony Clifton was on his best behavior was when he appeared in the Muppet special ''The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show'' (it was actually the last time Kaufman played the role). After they were done filming, Andy geeked out with Creator/JimHenson over getting to work with Series/HowdyDoody, and shared his heartbreak over initially getting sent Howdy's photo double and not the original puppet.

* PersonaNonGrata: Several stars have been banned from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' over the years, but Andy is unique in that his ban was his idea. Because of the controversy around his women wrestling stint, he suggested that SNL viewers phone-in votes for or against banning Andy from the show. The majority picked banning, and although the initial plan was to subvert this by having him turn up again after a little time had passed as a surprise, it was instead played straight and he never performed on SNL again (though a few weeks later a commercial he recorded asking New Yorkers to reconsider aired as part of ''Weekend Update''). He ''might'' have been brought back for the Creator/JoanRivers-hosted episode later in Season 8 -- as she requested the producers do so -- had he not been busy with the Broadway play ''Teaneck Tanzi: The Venus Flytrap'' (a wrestling-themed comedy toplined by Creator/DebbieHarry) at the time; adding insult to injury, the play only had one official performance.

* [[GranolaGirl Granola Guy]]: Kaufman was a macrobiotic vegan and into Transcendental Meditation. That said, he would break his veganism and eat meat whenever he was Tony Clifton because that character was ''not'' a vegan, and according to Julie Hecht's ''Was This Man a Genius? Talks with Andy Kaufman'', whenever he went home to visit his family he would eat whatever his mother prepared him, vegan or no. He also had a ''serious'' SweetTooth, particularly for chocolate.

* NonSpecificallyForeign: "Foreign Man". Ostensibly he was from the island of Caspiar in the Caspian Sea, coming to the United States after it abruptly ''sank''.

* PersonaNonGrata: Several stars have been banned from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' over the years, but Andy is unique in that his ban was his idea. Because of the controversy around his women wrestling stint, he suggested that SNL viewers phone-in votes for or against banning Andy from the show. The majority picked banning, and he never performed on SNL again (though a few weeks later a commercial he recorded asking New Yorkers to reconsider aired as part of ''Weekend Update''). He ''might'' have been brought back for the Creator/JoanRivers-hosted episode later in Season 8 -- as she requested the producers do so -- had he not been busy with the Broadway play ''Teaneck Tanzi: The Venus Flytrap'' (a wrestling-themed comedy) at the time; adding insult to injury, the play only had one official performance.

** In a set he performed for the Catch a Rising Star comedy club's 10th anniversary show in 1982, he did his Foreign Man/Elvis act...but with Bob Zmuda planted in the audience and reciting the act along with him until they got into an argument in which Zmuda accused Kaufman of resorting to his old material because nobody liked his newer stuff, and in the act's climax, revealing that ''Kaufman planted him in the audience with this trope in mind''.

* DontExplainTheJoke: He strongly adhered to this trope.

* 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, and some of his simpler early acts were developed then.

* {{Documentary}}: ''Andy Kaufman: I'm From Hollywood'', about his wrestling career -- albeit with the catch that it doesn't break {{Kayfabe}}.

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 UsefulNotes/{{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. Performers who are particularly in acknowledged debt to Kaufman include Creator/TomGreen and Creator/SachaBaronCohen.

On February 24, 2010, Andy Kaufman was [[AscendedMeme declared]] the Patron Saint of {{Troll}}s by [[Website/FourChan /b/]] and Encyclopedia Dramatica. However, his sainthood has yet to be confirmed by the Catholic Church. In the meantime, he also was the inspiration for, or appeared in, several creative works:

* 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).

* [[GranolaGirl Granola Guy]]: Kaufman was a macrobiotic vegan and into Transcendental Meditation. That said, he would break his veganism and eat meat whenever he was Tony Clifton, because that character was ''not'' a vegan.

* LoungeLizard: Tony Clifton.

In 1978, Andy embarked upon his biggest mainstream success, the ensemble sitcom ''Series/{{Taxi}}'', where his Foreign Man character had been developed into the mechanic Latka Gravas. The following April he sold out Carnegie Hall for a one-night-only performance -- one that famously ended with him taking the entire audience out for milk and cookies (''and then'' continued the following morning on the Staten Island ferry, for anyone still interested). But since his signature routines no longer had surprise value, he was developing increasingly experimental and controversial acts to supplement them. In particular, in his stage act he challenged women to wrestle him, virtually always pinning them and proclaiming himself "The Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion Of The World". 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. (He loved women, rather, and dated quite a few of his opponents, often using the matches to secretly flirt with them.) 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 ''Series/{{Fridays}}'', another sketch comedy show, to completely derail it the night he hosted in February 1981. In a sketch about a double-dating couple sneaking off to the bathroom to get high on marijuana, Kaufman stopped the sketch by saying, "I can't play stoned," which angered Michael Richards and embarrassed Maryedith Burrell and Melanie Chartoff. After Creator/MichaelRichards takes the cue cards and throws them on the table, Kaufman hurls a glass of water in Richards' face. One of the stagehands tells Kaufman to back off and do the sketch, but Kaufman punches the stagehand in the face and the entire sketch degrades into a fight that turned out to be an elaborate prank[[note]]the movie ''Man on the Moon'' has this moment, with Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman, former ''SNL'' cast member Creator/NormMacDonald as Michael Richards, Creator/CarolineRhea as Melanie Chartoff, and Creator/MaryLynnRajskub as Maryedith Burrell[[/note]].

[[TheStinger Tank you veddy much]].

* AbsenteeActor: He agreed to do ''Taxi'' on condition that he wouldn't have to work on the show full-time, so Latka is absent without explanation from about half the episodes.

Kaufman's attempts to break into film boiled down to one word: ''Film/{{Heartbeeps}}''.

In 1978, Andy embarked upon his biggest mainstream success, the ensemble sitcom ''Series/{{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 surprise value. In particular, in his stage act he challenged women to wrestle him, virtually always pinning them and proclaiming himself "The Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion Of The World". 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. (He loved women, rather, and dated quite a few of his opponents, often using the matches to secretly flirt with them.) 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 ''Series/{{Fridays}}'', another sketch comedy show, to completely derail it the night he hosted in February 1981. In a sketch about a double-dating couple sneaking off to the bathroom to get high on marijuana, Kaufman stopped the sketch by saying, "I can't play stoned," which angered Michael Richards and embarrassed Maryedith Burrell and Melanie Chartoff. After Creator/MichaelRichards takes the cue cards and throws them on the table, Kaufman hurls a glass of water in Richards' face. One of the stagehands tells Kaufman to back off and do the sketch, but Kaufman punches the stagehand in the face and the entire sketch degrades into a fight that turned out to be an elaborate prank[[note]]the movie ''Man on the Moon'' has this moment, with Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman, former ''SNL'' cast member Creator/NormMacDonald as Michael Richards, Creator/CarolineRhea as Melanie Chartoff, and Creator/MaryLynnRajskub as Maryedith Burrell[[/note]].

Over 1981-83, he frequently was in Memphis, Tennessee furthering his wrestling career via a lengthy feud with Wrestling/JerryLawler 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 they didn't tell anyone else besides Letterman (and he didn't reveal he was in on it for ''decades''). Many fans and wrestlers of that era and otherwise feel that Kaufman missed his true calling and that he always should've been involved in professional wrestling because of how innately he understood the business. By the end of '82, Andy was so unpopular that a viewer vote banished him from ''[=SNL=]''.

He continued to make ''Letterman'' appearances, wrestle, and so forth until he was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer at the end of '83 despite not smoking cigarettes. Because so much of Andy's career was based on tricking his audiences -- and he ''had'' considered faking his death, to the point where his best friend Bob Zmuda mentioned he was almost obsessed with the idea -- many people did not think he was actually dying. He continued to perform while battling the disease, shocking fans with a gaunt appearance. Despite everything from radiation therapy to healing crystals and "psychic surgery", he apparently died the following year, age 35. Having always claimed that if he faked his death he would return 20 years later, many fans eagerly awaited 2004 in hopes of TheReveal of the ultimate Kaufman prank. Sadly, he has yet to resurface, but some still insist that HesJustHiding.

On February 24, 2010, Andy Kaufman was [[AscendedMeme declared]] the Patron Saint of {{Troll}}s by [[Website/FourChan /b/]] and Encyclopedia Dramatica. However, his sainthood has yet to be confirmed by the Catholic Church. He also was the inspiration for, or appeared in, several creative works:

** ''Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond'' is a 2017 retrospective documentary about this film's production and the intense MethodActing Carrey used to play Kaufman (and Tony Clifton) throughout the shoot, specifically because Carrey felt it was the only way to properly honor Kaufman and his work.

In 1978, Andy embarked upon his biggest mainstream success, the ensemble sitcom ''Series/{{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 surprise value. In particular, in his stage act he challenged women to wrestle him, virtually always pinning them and proclaiming himself "The Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion Of The World". 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. (He loved women, rather, and dated quite a few of his opponents, often using the matches to secretly flirt with them.) 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. In a sketch about a double-dating couple sneaking off to the bathroom to get high on marijuana, Kaufman stopped the sketch by saying, "I can't play stoned," which angered Michael Richards and embarrassed Maryedith Burrell and Melanie Chartoff. After Creator/MichaelRichards takes the cue cards and throws them on the table, Kaufman hurls a glass of water in Richards' face. One of the stagehands tells Kaufman to back off and do the sketch, but Kaufman punches the stagehand in the face and the entire sketch degrades into a fight that turned out to be an elaborate prank[[note]]the movie ''Man on the Moon'' has this moment, with Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman, former ''SNL'' cast member Creator/NormMacDonald as Michael Richards, Creator/CarolineRhea as Melanie Chartoff, and Creator/MaryLynnRajskub as Maryedith Burrell[[/note]].

* PersonaNonGrata: Several stars have been banned from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' over the years, but Andy is unique in that his ban was his idea. Because of the controversy around his women wrestling stint, he suggested that SNL viewers phone-in votes for or against banning Andy from the show. The majority picked banning, and he never appeared on SNL again.

In 1978, Andy embarked upon his biggest mainstream success, the ensemble sitcom ''Series/{{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 World". 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. In a sketch about a double-dating couple sneaking off to the bathroom to get high on marijuana, Kaufman stopped the sketch by saying, "I can't play stoned," which angered Michael Richards and embarrassed Maryedith Burrell and Melanie Chartoff. After Creator/MichaelRichards takes the cue cards and throws them on the table, Kaufman hurls a glass of water in Richards' face. One of the stagehands tells Kaufman to back off and do the sketch, but Kaufman punches the stagehand in the face and the entire sketch degrades into a fight that turned out to be an elaborate prank[[note]]the movie ''Man on the Moon'' has this moment, with Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman, former ''SNL'' cast member Creator/NormMacDonald as Michael Richards, Creator/CarolineRhea as Melanie Chartoff, and Creator/MaryLynnRajskub as Maryedith Burrell[[/note]].

Kaufman's attempts to break into film boiled down to one word: ''[[SoBadItsGood Heartbeeps]]''.

Over 1981-83, he frequently was in Memphis, Tennessee furthering his wrestling career via a lengthy feud with Wrestling/JerryLawler 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 they didn't tell anyone else. Many fans and wrestlers of that era and otherwise feel that Kaufman missed his true calling and that he always should've been involved in professional wrestling because of how innately he understood the business. By the end of '82, Andy was so unpopular that a viewer vote banished him from ''[=SNL=]''.

* ''Film/ManOnTheMoon'': A 1999 {{Biopic}} of Andy's career, featuring many actual costars and associates of his either as themselves or in CastingGag roles, directed by Milos Forman. R.E.M. themselves [[PopStarComposer wrote the score]], featuring another song inspired by Kaufman, "The Great Beyond". Kaufman was played by another admirer, Creator/JimCarrey.

** His colleagues on ''Taxi'' have said that he often wouldn't show up for rehearsals, but when the time came to film the show in front of an audience, he was the only one of them who never forgot a line.
** He and Bob Zmuda had a loose rule that Andy would give the "classic" bits in the first half of live shows (playing the congas, Foreign Man, Elvis, etc) and do weird experimental stuff in the second half.

* ElvisImpersonator: One of the first! It was typically set up by an "impression" or two that would be simply him saying "Hello, I am [fill-in-the-blank]" in the same Foreign Man voice, then blowing the audience away by how good an impressionist he could really be.

* NoodleIncident: Many assumed that Andy's eidetic memory was thanks to his Transcendental Meditation, but Andy confirmed it was thanks to a bad trip on LSD when he was a teenager. He also claimed he saw the future during the trip, which severely freaked him out. "You're ''never'' supposed to see the future!"

* OldShame: His appearance as Tony Clifton on ''Dinah!'' Kaufman got too drunk before shooting, and as a result, he reportedly felt really embarrassed about how he acted on set (though arguably it added more to his character).

* RefugeInAudacity: Foreign Man AKA Latka Gravas was created when Andy was almost mugged on the street. Thinking fast, he started crying and rambling in a made-up language to make it seem like he was a foreigner who didn't have any money worth stealing. The muggers left him alone and his most famous character was born.

* [[RecordedAndStandUpComedy Stand-Up Comedy]]: ''Kind'' of? It's a commonly applied label to his act, but only because there was really no other frame of reference for what Andy was doing. As mentioned above, Andy didn't think of himself as a comedian so much as he did a "song and dance man," as he put it, and whatever the joke was, there was rarely a "punchline" per se. It should be noted that Andy really did live up to his "song and dance man" reputation, as many of his bits had a musical component to them, including but not limited to the Elvis impersonation, Tony Clifton, the ''Mighty Mouse'' gag, "The Cow Goes Moo", the conga drums, and the list goes on.

* {{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!

* ''VideoGame/LegendsOfWrestling II'' (2002) features him as one of the playable wrestlers, with Career Mode featuring his feud with Creator/JerryLawler.

On February 24, 2010, Andy Kaufman was [[AscendedMeme declared]] the Patron Saint of {{Troll}}s by [[Website/FourChan /b/]] and Encyclopedia Dramatica. However, his sainthood has yet to be confirmed by the Catholic Church. He also was the inspiration for several notable artistic works:

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* MethodActing: Whenever he slipped into a persona, he absolutely refused to break character. The only time he ever ''did'' break character in public was during [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrGlWAFy1LU a 1982 interview]] with Creator/OrsonWelles, and even then that was only because Welles saw through the bit (having seen Kaufman on TV already) and commanded too strong of a presence on his own to effectively sway. Of particular note was Tony Clifton, whom Andy treated as an entirely different individual and was even given contracts that were separate from Andy's. This drove the people he worked with absolutely crazy. In fact, the cast of ''Series/{{Taxi}}'' were practically murderous with anger whenever Andy showed up as Tony Clifton and they petitioned for Andy to be fired from the series. The producers managed to settle the issue by publicly firing Tony (security guards had to physically throw him off the set) and ensuring that the character wouldn't make another appearance on the show.

* OldShame: His appearance as Tony Clifton on ''Dinah!'' Kaufman got too drunk before shooting, and as a result, he reportedly felt really embarrassed about how he acted on set (though arguably, it added more to his character).

* ''Can You Believe This Guy? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman'' is a 2018 GraphicNovel biography by Box Brown that puts special focus on his wrestling career.

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 UsefulNotes/{{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.

In 1992, the Music/{{REM}} 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 (e.g. the UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheory that the 1969 moon landing was faked). The song became the title for ''Film/ManOnTheMoon'', the 1999 {{Biopic}} of Andy's career in which he was played by Creator/JimCarrey, another admirer (with R.E.M. themselves [[PopStarComposer writing the score]], featuring another song inspired by Kaufman, "The Great Beyond").

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

* {{Documentary}}: ''Andy Kaufman: I'm From Hollywood'', about his wrestling career.

* NonSpecificallyForeign: "Foreign Man."

* OldShame: His appearance as Tony Clifton on ''Dinah!''. Kaufman got too drunk before shooting, and as a result, he reportedly felt really embarrassed about how he acted on set (though arguably, it added more to his character)

* ProfessionalWrestling: Had a famous feud with Wrestling/JerryLawler in Memphis, as a member of manager Wrestling/JimmyHart's [[PowerStable The First Family]]. Kaufman had wanted to work in [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} the WWWF]], but Vince J. [=McMahon=] didn't want anything to do with him.
** Several people who were involved in the business at the time, including Wrestling/BobbyHeenan, said that Kaufman's true calling was that of pro wrestling heel, rather than a mainstream actor.

* 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.
** Zig-zagged with his day-to-day shooting on the show; Kaufman demanded he only work two days a week versus the five the rest of the cast did, but also that he only appear in half the episodes per season. He didn't want Latka to be overexposed, but his reduced schedule didn't make him any friends. Other hand, Andy had an eidetic memory so he showed up not just knowing his lines, [[UpToEleven but everyone else's lines]], meaning he only needed two days to shoot anyway thanks to the minimum of retakes. He also requested an hour and a half of meditation before shooting, which made him extra focused.

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: One of the few times Tony Clifton was on his best behavior was when he appeared on ''The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show''. After they were done filming, Andy geeked out with Creator/JimHenson over getting to work with Series/HowdyDoody, and shared his heartbreak over initially getting sent Howdy's photo double and not the original puppet.

* [[RecordedAndStandUpComedy Stand-Up Comedy]]: ''Kind'' of? It's a commonly applied label to his act, but only because there was really no other frame of reference for what Andy was doing. As mentioned above, Andy didn't think of himself as a comedian so much as he did a "song and dance man," as he put it, and whatever the joke was, there was rarely a "punchline" per se. It should be noted that Andy really did live up to his "song and dance man" reputation, as many of his bits had a musical component to them, including but not limited to the Elvis impersonation, Tony Clifton, the ''Mighty Mouse'' gag, "The Cow Goes Moo", the bongos, and the list goes on.

* [[RecordedAndStandUpComedy Stand-Up Comedy]]: ''Kind'' of? It's a commonly applied label to his act, but only because there was really no other frame of reference for what Andy was doing. As mentioned above, Andy didn't think of himself as a comedian so much as he did a "song and dance man," as he put it, and whatever the joke was, there was rarely a "punchline" per se.

* ConsummateProfessional: Despite his chaotic reputation, Andy gave his all for TV and stage appearances, even if he didn't get along with his castmates or if the audiences were rude. He and Bob Zmuda had a loose rule that Andy would give the "classic" bits in the first half of live shows (playing the congas, Foreign Man, Elvis, etc) and do weird experimental stuff in the second half.