Nobody ever really knew what to make of Andy Kaufman. That was the whole point. Even in his closest approach to mainstream palatability, playing Latka Gravas on Taxi for five years, he was an enigma. His character was an immigrant with no discernable country of origin, and his performance was a broadly caricatured stereotype of no recognizable ethnicity. Things only got weirder outside the banal oasis of prime-time sitcom television, too: Kaufman occasionally performed incognito as his own opening act, posing as a Las Vegas lounge singer by the name of Tony Clifton, in which guise he would attempt to pick fights with both the audience and his headlining alter-ego. He and underground director Johnny Legend staged a bizarre breakfast interview between Kaufman and retired professional wrestler Fred Blassie, filmed the encounter, and cut an hour’s worth of the footage into "My Breakfast with Blassie", which Legend released as a parody of My Dinner with Andre. It’s never been entirely clear to what extent Blassie was in on the gag. Kaufman launched a pro-wrestling career of his own lasting some three years, but insisted upon grappling only with women for most of that time - and generally women with no formal training, at that! His stage shows and appearances on television programs like Fridays and Saturday Night Live rarely featured anything that we Earthlings would recognize as jokes, although they were generally billed as either sketch or stand-up comedy. And through it all, Andy Kaufman was never, ever funny. That, so far as it’s possible to determine now, was also the whole point. Kaufman lived his entire public life as one big absurdist performance art project. The world was his straight man, and to all appearances, he was out to baffle, not to entertain. If you were entertained, it would not be directly by anything Kaufman did or said, but rather by the bafflement of those among your fellow spectators who hadn’t yet given up trying to get the joke.
— Scott "El Santo" Ashlin, 1000 Misspent Hours, in his review
of Heartbeeps.
of Heartbeeps.For those of you who are still puzzling about Andy Kaufman, I offer this simple thought: The microscopic organisms that feed off of decaying cell tissue make it possible for the Creator to regenerate new skin.
Are you insulted, angry, or even more bewildered than before? Good! That was always your purpose! You're still playing your parts brilliantly. After all, you were the stars of the show all along. Andy was the director and the audience.
Enjoy your meal.
— Jim Carrey (who played Kaufman in Man on the Moon), in the "backword" of Bob Zmuda's memoir Andy Kaufman Revealed! Best Friend Tells All.
