History Creator / AndyKaufman

* TheUnwittingComedian: Kaufman occasionally ''subverted'' this trope, most famously in a 1980 appearance on Creator/DavidLetterman's original morning show in which he came onstage disheveled (complete with a runny nose), claiming to have fallen on hard times due to both a drop in gigs and a divorce. When the audience, catching on to the fake sob story, laughed he chided them for doing so; he ended the segment by going into the audience to panhandle -- and made a few bucks before stagehands led him away.

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 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. Kaufman even 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]].

** 2000's ''The Real Andy Kaufman'' was assembled by Seth Schultz, who as a young friend of Kaufman's interviewed him for a separate documentary about a comedy club. The interview took place on Thanksgiving weekend 1979 immediately after the latter's disastrously-received performance at a resort in the Catskills (which went off the rails when Kaufman brought his other family members on stage to show off their talents and the crowd became bored), and aside from a few in-character bits at Schultz's request, ended up an excellent record of his offstage self. The finished program combines the interview with highlights of the resort performance and many "ordinary" friends of Kaufman sharing their favorite/typical memories of him.

* "The Rotowhirl" is a spoken-word piece by Music/LaurieAnderson from her album ''The Ugly One with the Jewels'', in which she reminisces about her friendship with Kaufman; she used to be his straight man, at one point, including being his wrestling opponent.

By the end of '82, Kaufman was so unpopular that a viewer vote (his idea) banished him from ''[=SNL=]''. Although it was deeply damaging to his career, while ''Taxi'' was cancelled in early 1983, he continued to make ''Letterman'' appearances, wrestle, and so forth -- even turning his rejection by the masses into new material for his act! But at the end of '83, he was diagnosed with a rare, inoperable form of lung cancer despite not smoking cigarettes. Because so much of Kaufman'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 occasionally performed 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 May, 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 Kaufman's estate maintains that the death hoax theory is an "urban legend" and have released his death certificate to the public in response.

By the end of '82, Kaufman was so unpopular that a viewer vote (his idea) banished him from ''[=SNL=]''. Although it was deeply damaging to his career, while ''Taxi'' was cancelled in early 1983, he continued to make ''Letterman'' appearances, wrestle, and so forth -- even turning his rejection by the masses into new material for his act! But at the end of '83, he was diagnosed with a rare, inoperable form of lung cancer despite not smoking cigarettes. Because so much of Kaufman'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 occasionally performed 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 May, 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

* PersonaNonGrata: Several stars have been banned from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' over the years, but Andy is unique in that his ban was his idea, inspired by the then-recent "Larry the Lobster" vote (in which people could call in to determine whether a lobster would be cooked or not). Because of the controversy around his wrestling stint, he suggested that SNL viewers phone-in votes for or against banning him 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 Debbie Harry) at the time; adding insult to injury, that play only had one official performance so it was AllForNothing.

** Zig-zagged with his day-to-day shooting on ''Taxi''; Kaufman not only 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 (fewer than that in the late seasons). He didn't want Latka to be overexposed, but his reduced schedule and aloof nature didn't make him any friends. On the 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 time for meditation before shooting, which made him extra-focused.

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 genuinely understood comedy conventions and was often friendly with those who were comics. (In particular, he encouraged Elayne Boosler, who started her showbusiness career as a singer, to become a comedian instead during their early 1970s professional/romantic relationship.) For many of them, he is seen as an iconoclast who made comedy safer for experimentation. A "comedian's comedian", said Creator/RobinWilliams, another friend and ardent supporter. Performers in acknowledged debt to Kaufman include Creator/TomGreen, Creator/SachaBaronCohen, and [[Series/CrissAngelMindfreak Criss Angel]], but his influence can be seen in performance art collectives like Music/BlueManGroup and Creator/CirqueDuSoleil too, and he's been given credit for helping bring professional wrestling into mainstream American entertainment in the 1980s.

* ''VideoGame/LegendsOfWrestling II'' (2002) features him as one of the titular legends; by playing as Wrestling/JerryLawler in the game's Story Mode, the Southeast Region yields up a storyline ("The Comic Wrestler") inspired by the Kaufman-Lawler feud; upon beating Kaufman, he becomes an unlockable playable character.

** 1989's ''Andy Kaufman: I'm From Hollywood'' is about his wrestling career -- albeit with the catch that it doesn't break {{Kayfabe}} and only covers the first half of the Kaufman-Lawler feud. He was actually working on it prior to his death, and his colleagues completed it later.

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 genuinely understood comedy conventions and was often friendly with those who were comics. (In particular, he encouraged Elayne Boosler, who started her showbusiness career as a singer, to become a comedian instead during their early 1970s professional/romantic relationship.) For many of them, he is seen as an iconoclast who made comedy safer for experimentation. A "comedian's comedian", said Creator/RobinWilliams, another friend and ardent supporter. Performers who are particularly in acknowledged debt to Kaufman include Creator/TomGreen, Creator/SachaBaronCohen, and Creator/CrissAngel, but his influence can be seen in performance art collectives like Music/BlueManGroup and Creator/CirqueDuSoleil too, and he's been given credit for helping bring professional wrestling into mainstream American entertainment in the 1980s.

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, 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]]", [[HighHopesZeroTalent 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, [[ApprovalOfGod 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 UsefulNotes/{{Dada}}. Though he claimed not to be a comedian -- he usually referred to himself as a "song-and-dance man" -- he genuinely understood comedy conventions and was often friendly with those who were comics. (In particular, he encouraged Elayne Boosler, who started her showbusiness career as a singer, to become a comedian instead during their early 1970s professional/romantic relationship.) For many of them, he is seen as an iconoclast who made comedy safer for experimentation. A "comedian's comedian", said Creator/RobinWilliams, another friend and ardent supporter. Performers who are particularly in acknowledged debt to Kaufman include Creator/TomGreen and Creator/SachaBaronCohen, but his influence can be seen in performance art collectives like Music/BlueManGroup and Creator/CirqueDuSoleil too, and he's been given credit for helping bring professional wrestling into mainstream American entertainment in the 1980s.

** ''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.

* CharacterAsHimself: Tony Clifton, to the point that ''Man on the Moon'' billed him as such.

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

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, 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, [[ApprovalOfGod Elvis Presley himself]] thought Kaufman's was the best he had seen.)

* {{Documentary}}: Besides being covered on shows like ''Biography'' and ''E! True Hollywood Story'', there are two notable documentaries about him.

* DoNotGoGentle: In his final months, Kaufman did everything he could to cure his inoperable cancer, and was still brainstorming ideas for new work, although he was generally too weak to perform.

* 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. Some believe that he actually [[LogicBomb faked faking his death]], tricking the general public into thinking that he ''was'' faking his death, then making them wait for the punchline that had long since passed them by.

* InsistentTerminology: He never referred to himself as a comedian and disliked being called one, usually claiming he was a "song and dance man".

* {{Manchild}}: Much the way many of his early stage routines originated when he was a child and teenager, he was prone to childlike mannerisms and stubbornness offstage, and sometimes on, if it suited his persona of the moment, despite his very adult intelligence and libido. Perhaps the most famous sequence of his 1977 TV special has him conducting a ''sincere'' interview with Howdy Doody, treating the puppet as seriously as he would any human subject.
* 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 could drive the people he worked with absolutely crazy. In fact, the cast of ''Series/{{Taxi}}'' were practically murderous with anger when Andy showed up as Tony Clifton for the Season One ChristmasEpisode "A Full House for Christmas"; Tony's behavior was so bad they petitioned for Andy to be fired from the series (as they had secretly been told Tony was Andy). The producers managed to settle the issue by publicly firing Tony (security guards had to physically escort him off the Paramount lot) and ensuring that the character wouldn't make another appearance on the show.

* 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 Debbie Harry) at the time; adding insult to injury, the play only had one official performance.

* 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 WWF]], 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.

* 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". In 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.

** Zig-zagged with his day-to-day shooting on ''Taxi''; 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 (and fewer than that in the late seasons). He didn't want Latka to be overexposed, but his reduced schedule didn't make him any friends. On the 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.

* [[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 self-proclaimed billing 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", and the conga drums.

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: One of the few times Tony Clifton was on his best behavior was when he appeared in the 1982 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 (according to Bob Zmuda, though his story has been disputed. Others say Andy happily used the photo double for rehearsals because he did not want to spoil working with the actual puppet before the cameras rolled).

* SuperOCD: Andy had a number of quirky habits he absolutely refused to break, like waking up at 11AM every morning, never using the same toothbrush twice, and always boarding an airplane with his right foot. When Andy was really sick with cancer, Bob Zmuda saw Andy board a plane with his left foot and knew then that he was a goner.

* TrollingCreator: Practically his entire shtick. Easy to invoke when you don't care how people react to your work as long as they react.

* TheUnwittingComedian: Kaufman occasionally ''subverted'' this trope, most famously in an appearance on Creator/DavidLetterman's original morning show in which he came onstage disheveled (complete with a runny nose), claiming to have fallen on hard times due to both a drop in gigs and a divorce. When the audience, catching on to the fake sob story, laughed he chided them for doing so; he ended the segment by going into the audience to panhandle -- and made a few bucks before stagehands led him away.

* EccentricArtist: His offstage behavior was at least as unusual as what he did onstage, as the other tropes listed here go to show. The neckbrace he wore everywhere for six months after his first match with Jerry Lawler? He didn't actually need it (and indeed removed it for things like shooting ''Taxi'' or going swimming); he was just committing to {{Kayfabe}} and only gave it up when it started to smell bad!

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 genuinely understood comedy conventions and was often friendly with those who were comics. (In particular, he encouraged Elayne Boosler, who started her showbusiness career as a singer, to become a comedian instead during their early 1970s professional/romantic relationship.) For many of them, he is seen as an iconoclast who made comedy safer for experimentation. A "comedian's comedian", said Creator/RobinWilliams, another friend and ardent supporter. Performers who are particularly in acknowledged debt to Kaufman include Creator/TomGreen and Creator/SachaBaronCohen.

** Zig-zagged with his day-to-day shooting on ''Taxi''; 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. On the 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.

* [[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.

* TheUnwittingComedian: Kaufman occasionally would ''subvert'' this trope, most famously in an appearance on Creator/DavidLetterman's original morning show in which he came onstage disheveled (complete with a runny nose), claiming to have fallen on hard times due to both a drop in gigs and a divorce. When the audience, catching on to the fake sob story, laughed he chided them for doing so; he ended the segment by going into the audience to panhandle -- and he actually made a few bucks before stagehands led him away.

* WorkedShoot: They're not just for wrestling! He is effectively the pioneer of the trope, thanks to the confrontation with Jerry Lawler on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' in particular.

->[[TheStinger Tank you veddy much]].

* GlurgeAddict: He had a sentimental streak in his personal life that occasionally surfaced in his act. In particular, the Fabian song "This Friendly World", which he sometimes covered (most famously as the singalong finale of his [=ABC=] special) really was his favorite because he believed so much in its message. He also might be the only person to ''subvert'' ItsASmallRide. When he performed "It's a Small World" in his act, though the African drum troupe backing him would be completely poker-faced, his singing was only a touch exaggerated in its cheerfulness.
* [[GranolaGirl Granola Guy]]: Kaufman was a macrobiotic vegan and devoted to Transcendental Meditation, the latter of which he credited with both helping him both give up the drug and alcohol use he'd indulged in as a teen and find the focus he needed to become a professional performer. 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. Sadly, he was in effect excommunicated from the TM organization in 1983 due to higher-ups believing his public behavior reflected poorly on the faith.

* PlayingTheVictimCard: His wrestling heel persona was as a deluded SmugSnake would-be wrestler, who would [[BullyingADragon bait better wrestlers]] into kayfabe injuring him, and then play the victim and try underhanded ways to get revenge on them.
* 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.

** 2000's ''The Real Andy Kaufman'' was assembled by Seth Schultz, who as a young friend of Kaufman's interviewed him for a separate documentary about a comedy club. The interview took place on Thanksgiving weekend 1979 immediately after the latter's disastrously-received performance at a resort in the Catskills (which went off the rails when Kaufman brought his other family members on stage to show off their talents and the crowd became bored), and aside from a few in-character bits at Schultz's request, ended up the best record of his offstage self ever filmed. The finished program combines the unedited interview with highlights of the resort performance and many "ordinary" friends of Kaufman sharing their favorite/typical memories of him.

** 2000's ''The Real Andy Kaufman'' was assembled by Seth Schultz, who as a young friend of Kaufman's interviewed him for a separate documentary about a comedy club. The interview took place on Thanksgiving weekend 1979 immediately after the latter's disastrously-received performance at a resort in the Catskills (which went off the rails when Kaufman in SincerityMode brought his other family members on stage to show off their talents and the crowd became bored), and aside from a few in-character bits at Schultz's request, ended up the best record of his offstage self ever filmed. The finished program combines the unedited interview with highlights of the resort performance and many "ordinary" friends of Kaufman sharing their favorite/typical memories of him.

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, [[ApprovalOfGod Elvis Presley himself]] thought Kaufman's was the best he had seen.)

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 even 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]].

By the end of '82, Andy was so unpopular that a viewer vote (his idea) banished him from ''[=SNL=]''. While it was deeply damaging to his career, and ''Taxi'' was cancelled in early 1983, he continued to make ''Letterman'' appearances, wrestle, and so forth, even turning his rejection by the masses into new material for his act! But at the end of '83, he was diagnosed with a rare, inoperable form of lung cancer 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 occasionally performed 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 May, 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

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 particular, he encouraged Elayne Boosler, who started her showbusiness career as a singer, to become a comedian instead during their early 1970s professional/romantic relationship.) For many of them, he is seen as an iconoclast who made comedy safer for experimentation. A "comedian's comedian", said Creator/RobinWilliams, another friend and ardent supporter. Performers who are particularly in acknowledged debt to Kaufman include Creator/TomGreen and Creator/SachaBaronCohen.

* AffectionateParody: Some of his spoofs of children's entertainment.

* AlterEgoActing: Virtually every appearance he made.
* AntiHumor: A significant portion of his work is this.

* AuthorAppeal: Elvis, children's shows, wrestling, and so forth.
* BadImpressionists: Foreign Man, ''most'' of the time.

* {{Documentary}}: 1989's ''Andy Kaufman: I'm From Hollywood'', about his wrestling career -- albeit with the catch that it doesn't break {{Kayfabe}} and only covers the first half of the Kaufman-Lawler feud. (He was actually working on it prior to his death, and his colleagues completed it later.)