Final Judgement -- Andy Kaufman -- Funny, or Not?

[fncceo]

 

[fncceo]

This above is from the fourth show of the first season of Saturday Night Live (1975)I liter, Kaufman's first appearance on SNL. I literally fell out of my chair when I saw this ... drugs may have been to blame.

 

[strollingbones]

never found him funny

 

[JoeMoma]

I did't find the video funny. He mostly just stood there and I kept looking and listening for something funny to happen.

Edit: I had some trouble making out the words in the song, but I could tell that his "big move" was made with the line "Here I am to save the day".

 

[Thoth001]

I remember SNL being funny in the 80's when I was a kid. It went pretty much down hill in the 90's and never returned, I haven't watched it since the late 90's.

 

[westwall]

I never found him funny. Weird yes, but not particularly funny.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

This above is from the fourth show of the first season of Saturday Night Live (1975)I liter, Kaufman's first appearance on SNL. I literally fell out of my chair when I saw this ... drugs may have been to blame.

I saw it too when if first aired, it was brilliant and hysterical

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I did't find the video funny. He mostly just stood there and I kept looking and listening for something funny to happen.

Edit: I had some trouble making out the words in the song, but I could tell that his "big move" was made with the line "Here I am to save the day".

It's probably a generational joke. I watched Mighty Mouse, so I got the joke. Without that, yeah, its just weird

 

[DudleySmith]

I thought he was funny, but then he went over the top with the wrestling thing and didn't have the sense to drop it. I go for choices one and two. I liked him on Taxi, too.

Of course, his wrestling schtick kind of predicts and spoofs the current idiocy of letting trannies compete in womens sports. doesn't it? Of course he never won those matches, as far as I know. I think a lot of people thought he was serious and misunderstood the joke there, but a lot of PC Nazis are too stupid to understand comedy anyway.

 

[fncceo]

He mostly just stood there and I kept looking and listening for something funny to happen.

That's the gag. Andy Kaufman was a master at doing what no one expected him to do.

After a live stage show at Carnegie Hall, Kaufman invited everyone in the audience to go out for milk and cookies. He actually did it ... there were buses waiting outside the theater and took several hundred people to a venue where they were served milk and cookies.

 

[fncceo]

Of course, his wrestling schtick kind of predicts and spoofs the current idiocy of letting trannies compete in womens sports. doesn't it?

Pro Wrestling is one of the oldest entertainments extent in America. Dating back to the 1840's, It outlasted minstrel shows and vaudeville. Pro Wrestling, complete with both good and bad guy wrestlers, was aired on all three TV networks as early as 1948.

 

[DudleySmith]

Of course, his wrestling schtick kind of predicts and spoofs the current idiocy of letting trannies compete in womens sports. doesn't it?

Pro Wrestling is one of the oldest entertainments extent in America. Dating back to the 1840's, It outlasted minstrel shows and vaudeville. Pro Wrestling, complete with both good and bad guy wrestlers, was aired on all three TV networks as early as 1948.

View attachment 471190

That's nice, but has little to do with what I said, outside of Kaufman spoofing it. I never watched that stuff much, even when it was all that was on late nights, just too corny and fake.

I was surprised at the hate Andy got from the spoof, though. That also was a harbinger of the current PC Nazi mentality that was to come as well, intentional or not.

 

[fncceo]

That's nice, but has little to do with what I said, outside of Kaufman spoofing it.

That's the thing ... Kaufman wasn't spoofing Pro-Wrestling, he as participating in it. It wasn't widely known except to Pro-Wrestling insiders until well after Kaufman died, but his live-TV fist fight with Jerry Lawler was staged. The women he wrestled were plants and he was playing a part -- he played it so well that everyone HATED him.

Pro Wrestling was in on the gag and it managed to bring a million NEW viewers to Pro-Wrestling.

 

[DudleySmith]

That's nice, but has little to do with what I said, outside of Kaufman spoofing it.

That's the thing ... Kaufman wasn't spoofing Pro-Wrestling, he as participating in it. It wasn't widely known except to Pro-Wrestling insiders until well after Kaufman died, but his live-TV fist fight with Jerry Lawler was staged. The women he wrestled were plants and he was playing a part -- he played it so well that everyone HATED him.

Pro Wrestling was in on the gag and it managed to bring a million NEW views to Pro-Wrestling.

I know all that; 'pro wrestling' is a spoof, not a real sport. Kaufman was spoofing a spoof. Why do you think nobody knows that? lol

 

[JoeMoma]

I did't find the video funny. He mostly just stood there and I kept looking and listening for something funny to happen.

Edit: I had some trouble making out the words in the song, but I could tell that his "big move" was made with the line "Here I am to save the day".

It's probably a generational joke. I watched Mighty Mouse, so I got the joke. Without that, yeah, its just weird

I grew up with MM, still didn't get the joke.

 

[JoeMoma]

He mostly just stood there and I kept looking and listening for something funny to happen.

That's the gag. Andy Kaufman was a master at doing what no one expected him to do.

After a live stage show at Carnegie Hall, Kaufman invited everyone in the audience to go out for milk and cookies. He actually did it ... there were buses waiting outside the theater and took several hundred people to a venue where they were served milk and cookies.

So his funny gag was to not be funny. Hhhmmmmm!

 

[JoeMoma]

I did like AK in Taxi.

 

[Jets]

Liked him on Taxi....

 

[JLW]

That's nice, but has little to do with what I said, outside of Kaufman spoofing it.

That's the thing ... Kaufman wasn't spoofing Pro-Wrestling, he as participating in it. It wasn't widely known except to Pro-Wrestling insiders until well after Kaufman died, but his live-TV fist fight with Jerry Lawler was staged. The women he wrestled were plants and he was playing a part -- he played it so well that everyone HATED him.

Pro Wrestling was in on the gag and it managed to bring a million NEW viewers to Pro-Wrestling.

Kaufman’s wrestling schtick was absolutely brilliant. Some of his humor was out there. I also liked him on Taxi at least in the early years.

 

[Disir]

He was not funny. I remember him from Taxi and he was just a misplaced character.