Line #94 Creator/AndyKaufman


1	[[quoteright:276:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kaufman_andy.jpg]]
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3	->''"I am not a comic, I have never told a joke. The comedian's promise is that he will go out there and make you laugh with him. My only promise is that I will try to entertain you as best I can."''
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5	Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman (January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984[[note]][[WildMassGuessing Unless he's actually been playing the world's longest practical joke]][[/note]]) was perhaps the most eccentric performer to emerge from the comedy scene of the 1970s.
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7	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 he conceived as a child, others were... more complex -- all were based on defying audience expectations.
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9	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 -- "Tank you veddy much." -- and the act ended. (And this was in the days before doing an Elvis impression had [[ElvisImpersonator become a cliche]]. Reportedly, [[ApprovalOfGod Elvis himself thought Kaufman's impression was the best he had seen.]])
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11	Andy's big break into the mainstream came as a special guest on the first season of ''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 there 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 a 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.
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13	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). However, he would soon become one of the most loathed performers of his era as more experimental, challenging work took precedence.
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15	In particular, he challenged women to wrestle him in his stage act, 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 [[AlterEgoActing had to be treated as a separate entity from Andy]], caused almost as much trouble -- whether he was serving as Kaufman or Creator/RodneyDangerfield's opening act, doing his own solo engagements, or ''almost'' appearing as a guest star on ''Taxi'' (only to behave so badly that he was fired, with Kaufman's permission). Kaufman even arranged with the producers of ''Series/{{Fridays}}'', another sketch comedy show, to completely derail it the night he hosted in February 1981. After behaving erratically through most of the show, 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 Creator/MichaelRichards and embarrassed Maryedith Burrell and Melanie Chartoff. After Richards took the cue cards and threw them on the table, Kaufman hurled a glass of water in Richards' face. One of the stagehands told Kaufman to back off and do the sketch, but Kaufman punched the stagehand in the face and the entire sketch degraded into a fight that turned out to be an elaborate prank[[note]]The movie ''Man on the Moon'' recreates this moment, with Creator/JimCarrey as Andy Kaufman, former ''SNL'' cast member Creator/NormMacDonald as Michael Richards, Creator/CarolineRhea as Melanie Chartoff, and Creator/MaryLynnRajskub as Maryedith Burrell[[/note]].
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17	Kaufman's attempts to break into film boiled down to one word: ''Film/{{Heartbeeps}}''.[[note]]His other features were a minor role in ''Film/GodToldMeTo'', a key secondary role in Marty Feldman's ''In God We Tru$t'', and the independent ''My Breakfast with Blassie''.[[/note]]
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19	Between 1981 and 1983, Kaufman frequented Memphis, Tennessee furthering his wrestling career via a lengthy feud with Wrestling/JerryLawler that initially climaxed in a brutal match where Lawler appeared to break the taunting Kaufman's neck with repeated piledrivers. 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. Kaufman would eventually get his wrestling due on March 20, 2023, when Wrestling/{{WWE}} announced he would be part of that year's induction class of the Wrestling/WWEHallOfFame (specifically in the celebrity wing).
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21	By the end of '82, Kaufman was so unpopular that a viewer vote ([[HoistByHisOwnPetard 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 on May 16, 1984, 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 has released his death certificate to the public in response.
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23	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/PennAndTeller, Creator/TomGreen, Creator/SachaBaronCohen, and [[Series/CrissAngelMindfreak Criss Angel]], but his influence can also be seen in performance art collectives like Music/BlueManGroup and Creator/CirqueDuSoleil, and he's been given credit for helping bring professional wrestling into mainstream American entertainment in the 1980s.
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25	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's been an inspiration for, or appeared in, several creative works:
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27	* "Man on the Moon": This Music/{{REM}} song and subsequent video, originally appearing on ''Music/AutomaticForThePeople'', invokes Andy to illustrate the song's theme of the tendency of people to wonder what is and is not real -- such as the conspiracy theory that the 1969 moon landing was faked. The song later became the title for...
28	* ''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 Creator/MilosForman. 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.
29	** ''Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond'': A 2017 retrospective documentary about this film's production and the intense more-than-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.
30	* "The Rotowhirl" is a spoken-word piece by Music/LaurieAnderson from her 1995 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.
31	* ''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.
32	* The main character in ''Film/ToniErdmann'' (2016) is partially inspired by Kaufman and his Tony Clifton persona in particular (down to the name).
33	* ''Is This Guy for Real?: The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman'' is a 2018 GraphicNovel biography by Box Brown.
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35	-----
36	!!"I'd like to trope you all out for milk and cookies now."
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38	* AbortedArc: Kaufman's faux-conversion to born-again Christianity and engagement to gospel singer Kathie Sullivan, announced in the 1981 ''Fridays'' season premiere, was intended as an ongoing public persona, but Sullivan's family objected to the dishonesty involved and she had to back out of it.
39	* AffectionateParody: Some of his spoofs of 1950s-'60s style children's entertainment. In his ''Soundstage'' special, there's an extended homage to ''Winky Dink and You'' (complete with FakeInteractivity) that he ends up using to escape a ChromaKey island he's been banished to for "going too far".
40	* AllPartOfTheShow: The eternal question he asked of his audiences was whether what he was doing at any given moment was this.
41	* AlterEgoActing: Virtually every public appearance he made had this to varying extents.
42	* AntiHumor: A significant portion of his work, to the point that he's usually considered a pioneer of it.
43	* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Foreign Man's language.
44	* AudienceParticipationSong: Many, ranging from the self-penned "Oh, the Cow Goes Moo" to the Fabian song "This Friendly World".
45	* AuthorAppeal: Elvis Presley, 1950s-'60s children's shows, professional wrestling, and so forth.
46	* BadImpressionists: Foreign Man specialized in this, ''most'' of the time.
47	* BecomingTheMask: According to Bob Zmuda, Kaufman (who was in real life a shy, sensitive vegetarian who never smoked, 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.
48	* BrokenRecord: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSYV-nEE300 "I trusted you, I trusted you, I trusted you, I trusted you..."]]
49	* CharacterAsHimself:
50	** Tony Clifton -- to this very day, no matter who is playing him -- is always treated this way.
51	** When Kaufman appeared on ''Series/TheDatingGame'' in November 1978, he was in character as Foreign Man and only referred to/credited as "Baji Kimran". Kaufman came up with this proper name for the persona some time prior to the show, but rarely used it in practice. In the ''Taxi'' episode "Louie Sees the Light", Latka mentions that he has a cousin named Baji, which may or may not be a shout out to this.
52	* ConsummateProfessional: Despite his chaotic reputation, Kaufman gave his all for TV and stage appearances, even if he didn't get along with his castmates or if the audiences were rude.
53	** His colleagues on ''Taxi'' have said that he often wouldn't show up for rehearsals (having prearranged that in his contract), 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.
54	** 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.
55	* CreatorBacklash:
56	** 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).
57	** He felt awful about how ''Film/{{Heartbeeps}}'' turned out and told David Letterman he'd refund anyone who paid to see it in a theater. Letterman replied "Well, you'd better have change for a twenty."
58	* CryingWolf: According to Bob Zmuda, there were fans who saw Kaufman as he was wasting away from cancer who outright told him what a great gag he was playing...
59	* DeadAir: Kaufman's first appearance on ''Series/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 Creator/LorneMichaels 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."
60	* 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 polarizing: [[Series/TheTomGreenShow Tom Green,]] ''Series/TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob'', etc.
61	* {{Documentary}}: Besides being covered on shows like ''Biography'' and ''E! True Hollywood Story'' (in the latter he was played in silent recreations by Creator/WallyWingert, who also narrated), there are two notable standalone documentaries about him.
62	** 1989's ''Andy Kaufman: I'm From Hollywood'' is about his wrestling career -- albeit with the catch that it doesn't break {{Kayfabe}}, and the post-''Letterman'' matches/TV appearances are presented out of order. He was actually working on this prior to his death, and his colleagues completed it later.
63	** 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 in the early going because Kaufman brought his other family members on stage to sincerely show off their modest talents and the crowd became bored), and aside from a few in-character bits at Schultz's request, was 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.
64	* 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.
65	* DontExplainTheJoke: He strongly adhered to this trope onstage, and even in interviews he might ''half''-explain what he was really up to at most.
66	* DressedInLayers: As described above, Foreign Man's suit often concealed most of the trappings of an Music/ElvisPresley costume, facilitating the surprise transformation of the character from [[BadImpressionists a hopeless celebrity impressionist]] to a consummate impersonator. On top of that, in some appearances he would later take off the top layer of the Elvis outfit to reveal a light blue turtleneck with the phrase [[GlurgeAddict "I Love Grandma"]] on its front. As a bonus, he would often throw removed pieces of clothing into the audience...and at the end of the act, ask for them back (this turns up in the [=ABC=] special).
67	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Tony Clifton's original look, as seen in 1977's ''The 2nd Annual HBO Young Comedians Show'', was simply Kaufman in a tuxedo with his hair slicked back and a small fake mustache, a far cry from the salmon pink jacket, perpetual sunglasses, and (eventually) full prosthetic makeup that would so convincingly disguise Kaufman and others as the persona.
68	* EccentricArtist: He rarely appeared as his true self onstage or in interviews, but his offstage behavior was at least as unusual as what he did on, as the other tropes listed here go to show, approaching {{Cloudcuckoolander}} status. 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 a bit and only gave it up when it started to smell bad!
69	* 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]" and perhaps mangling their catchphrase in the same Foreign Man voice, then blowing the audience away by how good an impressionist he could really be.
70	* ExcitedKidsShowHost: One of his personas was Type 1 -- by 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 (most famously the lip-syncing routines like "Mighty Mouse") were developed then. At one point in the late '70s he produced a pilot short for a variety series that would have featured this persona (''Uncle Andy's Funhouse'') that wasn't picked up.
71	* FakingTheDead: It's long been 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 Kaufman 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. In the dedication to his tell-all biography of Kaufman, Zmuda wrote: "Andy, if you're alive, I'll kill you."
72	* FatSuit: Downplayed with Tony Clifton; as the role evolved beyond the EarlyInstallmentWeirdness of just sunglasses, a fake mustache, and a wig Kaufman started wearing stomach padding, and eventually prosthetic makeup was designed for his face. The result was a suit convincing enough that other people could wear it and look just like Kaufman did, which made it even easier for him to insist that Clifton was a separate person because they could appear together for stage shows and photo shoots -- and eventually he secretly handed the whole business of being Clifton off to Bob Zmuda and people didn't catch on!
73	* FunnyForeigner: Foreign Man/Latka Gravas of course, but also British Man, who was responsible for those lengthy ''Great Gatsby'' readings.
74	* GlurgeAddict: He had a sentimental streak 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 song 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" onstage, though the African drum troupe backing him would be completely poker-faced, his singing was only a touch exaggerated in its cheerfulness.
75	* [[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 overcome shyness 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.
76	* HatesTheJobLovesTheLimelight: His ExcitedKidsShowHost persona turned out to be bossy and contemptuous of his audience "off screen" -- but 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.
77	* HighHopesZeroTalent:
78	** Foreign Man often subverted this trope, ''seeming'' to be an absolutely dreadful would-be entertainer until a turning point — he might suddenly burst into sobs ("I don't know if you're laughing at me, or weeth me!") that slowly became more rhythmic and led into a startlingly good performance on conga drums, or his last impression would be what's often been described as the best Elvis Presley impersonation ever performed. Elayne Boosler, in her ''Esquire'' magazine tribute to Kaufman, recalled a performance he did at a seedy disco in TheSeventies that saw the jaded audience love Foreign Man from the get-go because he was so determined to entertain them, making the subversion all the sweeter when it took place.
79	** Played with in the case of Tony Clifton. He was often introduced as a long-established Las Vegas lounge performer, which would mean he was already enjoying career success despite his dubious act.
80	* 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).
81	* IdentityImpersonator: He had friends and even his brother Michael 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 (successfully fooling, among others, David Letterman). Since Andy's death, Bob and other performers have reprised the role on occasion.
82	* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Real-life example: He had been afflicted with a chronic cough since the mid-1970s -- it turns up in many of his talk show interviews. When it got so bad that he finally saw a doctor about it at the end of 1983, it turned out to be a symptom of his lung cancer.
83	* InsistentTerminology: He never referred to himself as a comedian and disliked being called one, usually claiming he was a "song-and-dance man". He wasn't being snooty -- he knew that (as the above quote indicates) were he introduced as a comic the audience would expect him to make them ''laugh'', and that wasn't his specific goal.
84	* {{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, maintaining a given character or bit for as long as possible, even when the cameras weren't rolling, because the people on the street were as much of an audience to him as the people sitting in front of the stage.
85	* LoungeLizard: Tony Clifton, who was ostensibly a Las Vegas lounge singer Kaufman did parodies of until Clifton caught on to what he was doing and, by way of reconciliation, Kaufman hired him as an opening act.
86	* {{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 adult intelligence and libido. Perhaps the most famous sequence of his 1977 TV special has him conducting a ''sincere'' interview with Howdy Doody (performed by Buffalo Bob Smith himself), treating the puppet as seriously as he would any human subject.
87	* 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 (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 he wouldn't make another appearance on the show. This left everyone satisfied, as Andy never knew that the others caught on and was happy that he'd pulled off the prank.
88	* NoodleIncident: Many assumed that Andy's eidetic (photographic) 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!"
89	* NonSpecificallyForeign: "Foreign Man". Ostensibly he was from the island of Caspiar in the Caspian Sea -- which is bordered by five different countries, and has no such island belonging to any of them. But then again, Foreign Man came to the United States after it abruptly ''sank!''
90	* NoSenseOfHumor: Part of his schtick was to play dumb whenever someone told him a joke, claiming that he had no idea what the other person was talking about.
91	* OldShame: Kaufman pretended to face a bout of CreatorBacklash towards his two appearances on ''Series/{{Fridays}}'' following his WorkedShoot gig. First, his appearance on the following week's show to explain what actually happened saw him break down in tears and claim his entire life was going downhill in its wake. Later in 1981, when he hosted the show's third season premiere, he was on '''more''' than his best behavior -- verging on StepfordSmiler -- doing only inoffensive routines like "Mighty Mouse" and revealing he'd turned his life around thanks to becoming a born-again Christian -- whereupon he performed with an ''actual'' gospel performer, Kathie Sullivan, whom he claimed was his fiancé. The "worst" thing that happened was after the first "Drugs R Us" skit of the season, he delivered a DrugsAreBad lecture to the audience that "delayed" Music/ThePretenders' first musical number to the next stretch of the show.
92	* OverlyLongGag:
93	** He was renowned for holding a beat until his audiences were squirming in their seats waiting for him to do something to break the tension. In fact, some of his gags could last ''months'' and there are people who sincerely believe that his death is the longest gag of them all.
94	** When transforming into Elvis, he would comb his hair with three different combs as ''Music/AlsoSprachZarathustra'' swelled to its climax.
95	** One of his most famous "routines" involved him simply reading from ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'' at length, until the audience couldn't even tell if it was supposed to ''be'' a gag or not.
96	* 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 his agent George Shapiro claimed that the plan was to subvert this by having him turn up again after a little time had passed as a surprise, then-producer Dick Ebersol claims it was always going to be played straight. Thus, Kaufman never performed on SNL again (though a few weeks later one of several commercials 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 -- 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.
97	* PlayingTheVictimCard: Once he took the wrestling act to Memphis, his heel persona became a deluded SmugSnake would-be wrestler who as a fabulously wealthy Hollywood performer looked down his nose at the "hicks" of the South. He would [[BullyingADragon bait better wrestlers]] into kayfabe injuring him, and then play the victim and try underhanded ways to get revenge on them -- when he wasn't threatening to sue them into oblivion.
98	* ProfessionalWrestling: Had a famous feud with Wrestling/JerryLawler in Memphis, as a member of manager Wrestling/JimmyHart's [[PowerStable The First Family]]. (Kaufman 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.
99	* RefugeInAudacity: According to Andy[[note]]so take it with a grain of salt[[/note]], 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.
100	* SelfDeprecation: A key theme of his 1983 [=PBS=] ''Soundstage'' special is 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.
101	* SmallNameBigEgo:
102	** This was key to Tony Clifton's persona; he claimed Andy was using him to get places. This was also 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 but how much of this was ego and how much was just his eccentric nature is hard to fathom.
103	** 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, 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.
104	* SoUnfunnyItsFunny: The ''patron saint'' of this trope. Kaufman didn't consider himself a comedian, so part of the humor of his "stand-up" involved the audience, expecting to hear or see something funny, waiting impatiently for a joke that would never come or a punchline that [[AntiHumor made no sense]]. A particularly memorable example involved him coming out onstage at The Comedy Store with a camping stove, a pot of water, three small potatoes, and a sleeping bag. Without saying a word, he boiled the potatoes, ate them, rolled out the sleeping bag, and "slept" for 20 minutes before leaving the stage.
105	* [[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 ''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, "Oh, the Cow Goes Moo", and the conga drums.
106	* 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. This was all kayfabe, of course. In real life, Andy Kaufman proudly called himself a feminist.
107	* StealthParody: Tony Clifton, but played to create a genuine target of hate more than a misaimed fandom.
108	* 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, and this is more likely, that Andy happily used the photo double for rehearsals because he did not want to spoil working with the actual puppet before the cameras rolled).
109	* 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.
110	* TakeThat: ''My Breakfast With [[Wrestling/FreddieBlassie Blassie]]'', his indie film lampooning ''another'' indie film, ''Film/MyDinnerWithAndre'', which Andy viewed as achingly pretentious.
111	* TakeThatAudience: Tony Clifton would berate and even outright verbally abuse his audience at the slightest provocation.
112	* {{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''.
113	* TrollingCreator: Practically his entire shtick; it's easy to invoke this trope when you don't care how people react to your work as long as they react.
114	* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Tony Clifton; not only is he a {{Jerkass}}, but he was created on the premise that (as expressed in ''Man on the Moon'') "everybody loves a villain".
115	* TheUnwittingComedian: Kaufman occasionally ''subverted'' this trope. In a 1980 appearance on Creator/DavidLetterman's original morning show 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. He would pretend to have a similar breakdown the week after the ''Fridays'' "fight" when he was brought on to explain and apologize for what had happened, again claiming that his wife had left him.
116	* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: {{Invoked\|Trope}} with the Foreign Man's voice; in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrGlWAFy1LU a 1982 interview]] he did with Creator/OrsonWelles, notable for being the only one he ever did in earnest (rather than continuing a preexisting bit), Kaufman revealed that the voice was an amalgamation of two former classmates, one from South America and another from Iran.
117	* WorkedShoot: They're not just for wrestling! In fact, he's effectively the pioneer of the trope, thanks to the confrontation with Jerry Lawler on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' in particular.
118	* WoundedGazelleGambit: In a 1982 set he performed for the Catch a Rising Star comedy club's 10th anniversary show, he did his Foreign Man/Elvis act...but with one of the "audience members" (actually Bob Zmuda) reciting the act along with him until Kaufman got distracted and they got into an argument. The audience member accused Kaufman of resorting to his old material because nobody liked his newer stuff and his career was circling the drain, even pointing out that Kaufman (due to a receding hairline) now had to use a wig for the Elvis act, and finally revealing that Kaufman planted him in the audience to heckle him, and thus make everyone else feel sorry for him. In the TV edit of this segment, there is an abrupt cut as the "argument" reaches a fever pitch before skipping ahead to the Elvis number, deliberately leaving it unclear how it was resolved.
119	-----
120	->''[[TheStinger Tank you veddy much]].''

Context Creator / AndyKaufman