History YMMV / ManOnTheMoon

* HumorDissonance: Owing to the aforementioned FridgeBrilliance, the film ''inverts'' the trope in that the viewer understands the anti-jokes of Andy's act better than the in-universe audiences do. This inversion was actually a problem during filming, as Milos Forman frequently had to tell the extras "not to love [Jim Carrey] so much."

* FridgeBrilliance:
** At one point Shapiro comments that Andy is doing all these jokes for his own amusement. This gives the movie a new meaning in that the audience finally gets to appreciate Andy's act from the best perspective. (This ties into the CreditsGag: Andy trusts that anyone who stays through it is ready and willing to see things from his point of view.)
** The use of ArtisticLicense arguably has more justification here than in most {{Biopic}}s since it's ostensibly Andy's own presentation of events -- and he ''was'' a TrollingCreator.

* FridgeBrilliance: At one point Shapiro comments that Andy is doing all these jokes for his own amusement. This gives the movie a new meaning in that the audience finally gets to appreciate Andy's act from the best perspective. (This ties into the CreditsGag: Andy trusts that anyone who stays through it is ready and willing to see things from his point of view.)

* FridgeBrilliance: At one point Shapiro comments that Andy is doing all these jokes for his own amusement. This gives the movie a new meaning in that the audience finally gets to appreciate Andy's act from the best perspective.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: For time reasons, large and interesting parts of Andy's life are skipped over, such as being declared 4-F[[note]]Medically unfit for military service under the pre-1970 draft system[[/note]] by the Army for psychiatric reasons [[note]]His doctor wrote him a note that he had a weak grasp on reality and the Vietnam conflict and military service would cause him to lose his mind completely[[/note]], hitchhiking to Las Vegas to meet Music/ElvisPresley (during which he claimed to have seen an actual lounge performer who inspired the Tony Clifton character), his second ''Dinah!'' show appearance as Tony Clifton (the footage of which was supposedly burned[[note]]It's actually simply lost and Creator/DinahShore was in on the act[[/note]]), and his short-lived movie career.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Large parts of Andy's life are skipped over, such as being declared 4-F[[note]]Medically unfit for military service under the pre-1970 draft system[[/note]] by the Army for psychiatric reasons [[note]]His doctor wrote him a note that he had a weak grasp on reality and the Vietnam conflict and military service would cause him to lose his mind completely[[/note]], hitchhiking to Las Vegas to meet Music/ElvisPresley (during which he created the Tony Clifton character), his second ''Dinah!'' show appearance (the footage of which was infamously burned[[note]]It's actually simply lost and Creator/DinahShore was in on the act[[/note]]), his short-lived movie career.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: As mentioned, this was the third installment of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski's "anti-great man" trilogy after ''Film/EdWood'' and ''Film/ThePeopleVsLarryFlynt.'' As such, the film bombed due to the advertising campaign's frankness about it being a biopic of Creator/AndyKaufman, who was and still is a very divisive performer.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Large parts of Andy's life are skipped over, such as being declared 4-F[[note]]Medically unfit for military service under the pre-1970 draft system[[/note]] by the Army for psychiatric reasons [[note]]His doctor wrote him a note that he had a weak grasp on reality and the Vietnam conflict and military service would cause him to lose his mind completely[[/note]], hitchhiking to Las Vegas to meet Music/ElvisPresley (during which he created the Tony Clifton character), his second ''Dinah!'' show appearance (the footage of which was infamously burned[[note]]It's actually simply [[LostEpisode lost]] and Dinah Shore was in on the act[[/note]]), his short-lived movie career.

* VindicatedByHistory: Inverted -- the film was critically-acclaimed at the time of its release and Carrey won plaudits for what was seen as an eerie channeling of Kaufman, to the point that many were shocked he didn't receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. However, over time (and unlike Carrey's ''other'' early dramatic film, ''Film/TheTrumanShow''), opinions on the film and Carrey's performance in particular have declined considerably. With much more of Kaufman's filmography available on demand to the general public than it was in 1999 - including a very popular [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tckH01TAlC0 side-by-side scene comparison of the scenes Carrey is re-creating to Kaufman's original performances]] - it's obvious that Carrey is overacting, depicting Kaufman throughout with an anxious, nervous energy (and seeming lack of confidence and self-assurance) the real man never really had in any of his personas. This might not be so terrible in and of itself if not for the making-of documentary in which Carrey applied extreme MethodActing techniques to the point of claiming to be ''possessed'' by the spirit of Kaufman (which he has never renounced ''post facto'' and even reasserts in the documentary). Whether or not Kaufman would have approved of such antics is an open question (those who had interacted with both men were divided, and Wrestling/JerryLawler was particularly vocal in claiming that Carrey wasn't acting anything like the ''real'' Kaufman at all off-camera) what we ''do'' know is that he created a hostile work environment to underwhelming results, especially as the general backlash against MethodActing mounted starting in TheNewTens. His audition tapes - made, of course, ''before'' he claims to have been "possessed" by Kaufman - show him giving a very similar performance to what was seen in the finished film, so his MethodActing didn't even improve his performance beyond what he would have given had he ''not'' done it at all.

* VindicatedByHistory: Inverted -- the film was critically-acclaimed at the time of its release and Carrey won plaudits for what was seen as an eerie channeling of Kaufman, to the point that many were shocked he didn't receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. However, over time (and unlike Carrey's ''other'' early dramatic film, ''Film/TheTrumanShow''), opinions on the film and Carrey's performance in particular have declined considerably. With much more of Kaufman's filmography available on demand to the general public than it was in 1999 - including a very popular [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tckH01TAlC0 side-by-side scene comparison of the scenes Carrey is re-creating to Kaufman's original performances]] - it's obvious that Carrey is overacting, depicting Kaufman throughout with an anxious, nervous energy (and lack of confidence and self-assurance) the real man never really had. This might not be so terrible in and of itself if not for the making-of documentary in which Carrey applied extreme MethodActing techniques to the point of claiming to be ''possessed'' by the spirit of Kaufman (which he has never renounced ''post facto'' and even reasserts in the documentary). Whether or not Kaufman would have approved of such antics is an open question (those who had interacted with both men were divided, and Wrestling/JerryLawler was particularly vocal in claiming that Carrey wasn't acting anything like the ''real'' Kaufman at all off-camera) what we ''do'' know is that he created a hostile work environment to underwhelming results. His audition tapes - made, of course, ''before'' he claims to have been "possessed" by Kaufman - show him giving a very similar performance to what was seen in the finished film, so his MethodActing didn't even improve his performance beyond what he would have given had he ''not'' done it at all.

* AwardSnub: Creator/JimCarrey won a second straight Golden Globe Best Actor award (albeit in a different genre) and still didn't receive an Oscar nomination, the same treatment he got for ''Film/TheTrumanShow''.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Large parts of Andy's life are skipped over, such as being declared 4-F[[note]]Medically unfit for military service under the pre-1970 draft system[[/note]] by the Army for psychiatric reasons [[note]]His doctor wrote him a note that he had a weak grasp on reality and the Vietnam conflict and military service would cause him to lose his mind completely[[/note]], hitchhiking to Las Vegas to meet Music/ElvisPresley (in which he created the Tony Clifton character), his second ''Dinah!'' show appearance (the footage of which was infamously burned[[note]]It's actually simply [[LostEpisode lost]] and Dinah Shore was in on the act[[/note]]), his short-lived movie career.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Large parts of Andy's life are skipped over, such as being declared 4-F[[note]]Medically unfit for military service under the pre-1970 draft system[[/note]] by the Army for psychiatric reasons [[note]]His doctor wrote him a note that he had a weak grasp on reality and the Vietnam conflict and military service would cause him to lose his mind completely[[/note]], hitchhiking to Las Vegas to meet Music/ElvisPresley, his second ''Dinah!'' show appearance (the footage of which was famously burned).

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[Music/{{REM}} "The Great Beyond"]]

* AwesomeMusic: [[Music/{{REM}} "The Great Beyond"]]

* AwardSnub: Jim Carrey won a second straight Golden Globe Best Actor award (albeit in a different genre) and still didn't receive an Oscar nomination, the same treatment he got for ''Film/TheTrumanShow''.

** After Jim Carrey failed to score an Oscar nom despite two Golden Globe wins, Carrey himself seems to fall squarely into it in the eyes of the Academy no matter how well he does.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: The film was a surprise box office flop, possibly because the advertising campaign was too honest -- Creator/AndyKaufman was and still is a notoriously divisive figure. If you don't want an audience alienating premise, don't make a movie about an audience alienating performer!
** This was the ''third'' film written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski about, in their words, an "Anti-Great Man," after ''Film/EdWood'' and ''Film/ThePeopleVsLarryFlynt.''

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: The film was a surprise box office flop, possibly because the advertising campaign was too honest -- AndyKaufman was and still is a notoriously divisive figure. If you don't want an audience alienating premise, don't make a movie about an audience alienating performer!

* AwardSnub: Jim Carrey won a second straight Golden Globe Best Actor award (albeit in a different genre) and still didn't receive an Oscar nomination, the same treatment he got for ''TheTrumanShow''.

** After jim Carrey failed to score an Oscar nom despite two Golden Globe wins, Carrey himself seems to fall squarely into it in the eyes of the Academy no matter how well he does.

* TearJerker: The film's third act, roughly starting with Andy being told to leave his Transcendental Meditation temple because -- despite being a staunch, serious believer -- he's seen by higher-ups as making the religion look bad with his public antics (and yes, this scene has a direct basis in RealLife).