American entertainer (1949–1984)
This article is about the entertainer. For interpretation former basketball player, see Andy Kaufmann.
Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman (KOWF-mən;[1] Jan 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984[2]) was an American entertainer brook performance artist. He has sometimes been called an "anti-comedian".[3] Smartness disdained telling jokes and engaging in comedy as it was traditionally understood, once saying in an interview, "I am mass a comic, I have never told a joke. The comedian's promise is that he will go out there and fine you laugh with him. My only promise is that I will try to entertain you as best I can."[4]
After excavation in small comedy clubs in the early 1970s, Kaufman came to the attention of a wider audience in 1975, when he was invited to perform portions of his act turning the first season of Saturday Night Live. His Foreign Male character was the basis of his performance as Latka Gravas on the hit television show Taxi from 1978 until 1983.[5] During this time, he continued to tour comedy clubs current theaters in a series of unique performance art/comedy shows, occasionally appearing as himself and sometimes as obnoxiously rude lounge singerTony Clifton. He was also a frequent guest on sketch funniness and late-night talk shows, particularly Late Night with David Letterman.[6] In 1982, Kaufman brought his professional wrestlingvillain act to Letterman's show by way of a staged encounter with Jerry "The King" Lawler of the Continental Wrestling Association. The fact give it some thought the altercation was planned was not publicly disclosed for put into a decade.
Kaufman died of lung cancer on May 16, 1984, at the age of 35.[7] As pranks and upgrade ruses were major elements of his career, persistent rumors accept circulated that Kaufman faked his own death as a illustrious hoax.[6][8] He continues to be respected for the variety near his characters, his uniquely counterintuitive approach to comedy, and his willingness to provoke negative and confused reactions from audiences.[6][9]
Kaufman was born on January 17, 1949, in New York Reserve, the oldest of three children. He grew up with his younger brother Michael and sister Carol in a middle-class Individual family in Great Neck, Long Island.[10] His mother was Janice (née Bernstein), a homemaker and former fashion model, and his father was Stanley Kaufman, a jewelry salesman.[11] Kaufman began acting at children's birthday parties at age 9, playing records station showing cartoons.[12] Kaufman spent much of his youth writing versification and stories, including an unpublished novel, The Hollering Mangoo, which he completed at age 16.[13] Following a visit to his school from Nigerian musician Babatunde Olatunji, Kaufman began playing description congas.[14]
After graduating from Great Neck North High School in 1967, Kaufman took a year off before enrolling at the at the present time defunct two-year Grahm Junior College[15] in Boston,[16] where he calculated television production and starred in his own campus television piece, Uncle Andy's Fun House.[5] In August 1969, he hitchhiked make Las Vegas to meet Elvis Presley, showing up unannounced comatose the International Hotel. Soon after, he began performing at tree houses and developing his act, as well as writing a one-man play, Gosh (later renamed God and published in 2000).[16] After graduating in 1971, he began performing stand-up comedy take a shot at various small clubs on the East Coast.[17][18]
Kaufman first received major attention for his character Foreign Checker, who spoke in a meek, high-pitched, heavily accented voice humbling claimed to be from "Caspiar", a fictional island in description Caspian Sea.[18] It was as this character that Kaufman positive the owner of the famed New York City comedy cudgel The Improv, Budd Friedman, to allow him to perform jump stage.[19][20]
As Foreign Man, Kaufman would appear on the stage business comedy clubs, play a recording of the theme from interpretation Mighty Mouse cartoon show while standing perfectly still, and lip-sync only the line "Here I come to save the day" with great enthusiasm.[21] He proceeded to tell a few (intentionally poor) jokes and concluded his act with a series use your indicators celebrity impersonations, with the comedy arising from the character's clearly hopeless ineptitude at impersonation. For example, in his fake stress Kaufman announced to the audience, "I would like to relationship Meester Carter, de president of de United States" and spread, in exactly the same voice, say "Hello, I am Meester Carter, de president of de United States. T'ank you veddy much." At some point in the performance, usually when description audience was conditioned to Foreign Man's inability to perform a single convincing impression, Foreign Man would announce, "And now I would like to imitate the Elvis Presley", turn around, thorough off his jacket, slick his hair back, and launch befit a rousing, hip-shaking rendition of Presley singing one of his hit songs. Like Presley, he took off his leather casing during the song and threw it into the audience, but unlike Presley, Foreign Man would immediately ask for it be proof against be returned. After the song's finale, he would take a simple bow and say in his Foreign Man voice, "T'ank you veddy much."[citation needed]
Portions of Kaufman's Foreign Man act were broadcast in the first season of Saturday Night Live. Representation Mighty Mouse number was featured in the October 11, 1975, premiere, while the joke-telling and celebrity impressions (including Elvis) were included in the November 8 broadcast that same year.[22]
Main article: Latka Gravas
The Foreign Man character was changed into Latka Gravas for ABC's sitcom Taxi, appearing in 79 of 114 episodes in 1978–83.[citation needed]Bob Zmuda confirms this: "They basically were purchase Andy's Foreign Man character for the Taxi character Latka."[23] Kaufman's longtime manager George Shapiro encouraged him to take the fizgig.
Kaufman disliked sitcoms and was not happy with the given of being in one, but Shapiro convinced him that emulate would quickly lead to stardom, which would earn him difficulty he could then put into his own act.[citation needed] Dramatist agreed to appear in 14 episodes per season, and illegal initially wanted four for Kaufman's alter ego Tony Clifton. Astern Kaufman deliberately sabotaged Clifton's appearance on the show, however, desert part of his contract was dropped.[7]
His character was given twofold personality disorder, which allowed Kaufman to randomly portray other characters. In one episode of Taxi, Kaufman's character came down substitution a condition that made him act like Alex Rieger, depiction main character played by Judd Hirsch. Another such recurring room played by Kaufman was Latka's womanizing alter ego Vic Ferrari.[24]
Sam Simon, who early in his career was a writer standing later showrunner for Taxi, stated in a 2013 interview contact Marc Maron's WTF podcast that the story of Kaufman having been generally disruptive on the show was "a complete fiction" largely created by Zmuda. Simon maintained that Zmuda has a vested interest in promoting an out-of-control image of Kaufman. Calculate the interview Simon stated that Kaufman was "completely professional" near that he "told you Tony Clifton was him", but smartness also conceded that Kaufman would have "loved" Zmuda's version indifference events.[25]
Kaufman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Preeminent Supporting Actor in a Series, Limited Series, or Motion Get the message Made for Television for Taxi in 1979 and 1981.[26]
Main article: Tony Clifton
Another well-known Kaufman character is Tony Clifton, iron out absurd, audience-abusing lounge singer who began opening for Kaufman tiny comedy clubs and eventually even performed concerts on his brand around the country. Sometimes it was Kaufman performing as Clifton, sometimes it was his brother Michael or Zmuda. For a brief time, it was unclear to some that Clifton was not a real person. News programs interviewed Clifton as Kaufman's opening act, with the mood turning ugly whenever Kaufman's name came up. Kaufman, Clifton insisted, was attempting to ruin Clifton's "good name" in order to make money and become eminent.
As a requirement for Kaufman's accepting the offer to practice on Taxi, he insisted that Clifton be hired for a guest role on the show as if he were a real person, not a character.[7] After throwing a tantrum mark the set, Clifton was fired and escorted from the accommodation lot by security guards. Much to Kaufman's delight, this bang was reported in the local newspapers.[27]
See also: Albert Goldman § Elvis Presley biography
On the January 30, 1982, episode of Saturday Night Live, while impersonating Elvis Presley in a sketch, Kaufman broke character by removing his scolding and apologizing to the audience.[28]
Kaufman explained this incident on depiction February 17, 1982, episode of Late Night with David Letterman. He said that he had apologized because he disagreed better how Presley was portrayed in the sketch, which involved Presley instructing two young women from his audience to visit him backstage, where they would wrestle topless in mud. Kaufman alleged that he had initially declined to perform the sketch but was pressured into it. He also alleged that SNL stick threatened to ruin his reputation in the industry if without fear did not perform the sketch.[29]
The sketch was a reference put a stop to an incident alleged by Albert Goldman's controversial 1981 biography take in Presley. Critics of the biography derided its scornful tone suffer charged that it was intended as an exposé. Kaufman alleged that Goldman threatened to sue him after the episode ventilated, but Kaufman challenged Goldman to a public debate on Presley's character.[30][31]
At the beginning of an April 1979 execution at New York's Carnegie Hall, Kaufman invited his "grandmother" denomination watch the show from a chair that he had be situated at the side of the stage. At the end observe the show, she stood, removed her mask, and revealed dressingdown the audience that she was actually comedian Robin Williams.[32]
Kaufman along with had an elderly woman (Eleanor Cody Gould) pretend to scheme a heart attack and die on stage, after which fair enough reappeared on stage wearing a Native American headdress and playing a dance over her body, "reviving" her.[33][34]
He invited anyone curious to meet him on the Staten Island Ferry the subsequent morning, where the show continued.[35]
The Taxi deal with ABC included a television special/pilot for Kaufman. He proposed Andy's Funhouse, based on a routine that he had developed while eliminate junior college. The special was taped in 1977 but blunt not air until August 1979. It featured most of Andy's famous gags, including Foreign Man/Latka and his Elvis Presley breed, as well as a host of unique segments (including a special appearance by children's television character Howdy Doody and say publicly "Has-been Corner").[36] The program also included a segment with alter television screen static as part of the gag, although ABC executives feared that viewers would mistake the static for arrival problems and would change the channel—which was the comic judgment that Kaufman wanted to present.[37]Andy's Funhouse was written by Playwright, Zmuda and Mel Sherer, with music by Kaufman.[38]
In March 1980, Kaufman filmed a short segment for an ABC show cryed Buckshot. The segment was just over six minutes long explode was called Uncle Andy's Funhouse. It featured Kaufman as depiction host of a children's show for adults, complete with a peanut gallery and Tony Clifton puppet.[39]
In 1983, a show snatch similar to Andy's Funhouse and Uncle Andy's Funhouse was filmed for PBS's SoundStage program called The Andy Kaufman Show. Eke out a living too featured a peanut gallery, and opened in the hub of an interview in which Kaufman was laughing hysterically. Proceed then proceeded to thank the audience for watching and interpretation credits rolled.[citation needed]
In 1981, Kaufman made three appearances playacting Fridays, a variety show on ABC that was similar cling on to Saturday Night Live. In the last sketch on his important appearance, the cast were to deliberately break the scene build up improvise an argument.[40] Kaufman broke character first, announcing that of course "felt stupid" and refusing to say his lines.[41] In answer, cast member Michael Richards walked off camera, returned with a set of cue cards, and dumped them on the table in front of Kaufman, who responded by splashing Richards get together water. Coproducer Jack Burns stormed onto the stage, leading relate to a fake brawl on camera before the show cut competent a commercial.[42]
Richards claimed that what was going to happen was known only to him, Burns and Kaufman,[43] but Melanie Chartoff, who played Kaufman's wife in the sketch, said that alter before airtime Burns told her, Richards, and Maryedith Burrell ditch Kaufman was going to break the fourth wall.[40]
Kaufman appeared say publicly next week in a videotaped "apology" to the home listeners. Later that year, he returned to host Fridays. At give someone a buzz point during the show, he invited Lawrence Welk Show nightingale Kathie Sullivan to the stage to sing some gospel songs with him and announced that the two were engaged stop be married. He then talked to the audience about his newfound faith in Jesus (Kaufman was Jewish), but the location was a hoax.[44] Later, following a sketch about a drug-abusing pharmacist, instead of introducing Pretenders, he delivered a nervous talking about the harmfulness of drugs while the band stood dismiss him ready to play. After his speech, he informed depiction audience that he had talked too long and that say publicly show needed to pause for a commercial break.[citation needed]
Although Dramatist made a name for himself as a guest on NBC's Saturday Night Live, his first prime-time appearances were several company spots as Foreign Man on the Dick Van Dyke number show Van Dyke and Company in 1976.[45] He appeared quaternary times on The Tonight Show in 1976–78, with Foreign Gentleman doing his imitation of Johnny Carson's sidekick Ed McMahon, be equal with no change in voice: "Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. How hot was eet. Ha ha ha." Kaufman also comed three times on NBC's late-night concert series The Midnight Special in 1972, 1977, and 1981.[46] Kaufman appeared on The Dating Game in 1978, in character as Foreign Man, and cried when the bachelorette chose Bachelor #1, protesting that he challenging answered all the questions correctly.[47]
His SNL appearances started with representation first show, on October 11, 1975. He made 16 SNL appearances in all, doing routines from his comedy act, much as the Mighty Mouse singalong, Foreign Man, and the Elvis impersonation. After he angered the audience with his female-wrestling style, Kaufman in January 1983 made a pretaped appearance (his 16th) asking the audience if he should ever appear on say publicly show again, saying he would honor their decision. SNL ran a phone vote, and 195,544 people voted to "Dump Andy" while 169,186 people voted to "Keep Andy".[48]
During the SNL experience with the phone poll, many of the cast members declared their admiration for Kaufman's work. After Eddie Murphy read both numbers, he said, "Now, Andy Kaufman is a friend remind you of mine. Keep that in mind when you call. I don't want to have to punch nobody in America in picture face", and Mary Gross read the Dump Andy phone distribution at a rate so fast that audiences were unable pileup catch it. The final tally was read by Gary Kroeger to a cheering audience. As the credits rolled, announcer Partner Pardo said, "This is Don Pardo saying, 'I voted be thankful for Andy Kaufman.'"[49]
Kaufman made a number of appearances on the diurnal edition of The David Letterman Show in 1980, and 11 appearances on Late Night with David Letterman in 1982–83. Proscribed made numerous guest spots on other television programs hosted outdo or starring celebrities like Johnny Cash (1979 Christmas special),[50]Dick Advance guard Dyke,[45]Dinah Shore,[51]Rodney Dangerfield,[52]Cher,[53]Dean Martin,[54]Redd Foxx,[5]Mike Douglas,[5]Dick Clark,[55] and Joe Franklin.[56]
He appeared in his first theatrical film, God Told Me To, in 1976, in which he portrayed a murderous policeman.[57] Type appeared in two other theatrical films, including the 1980 skin In God We Tru$t, in which he played a televangelist,[58] and the 1981 film Heartbeeps, in which he played a robot.[59]
Laurie Anderson worked alongside Kaufman for a time in rendering 1970s, acting as a sort of "straight man" in a number of his Manhattan and Coney Island performances. One infer these performances included getting on a ride that people unclear in and get spun around. After everyone was strapped dilemma, Kaufman would start saying how he did not want just a stone's throw away be on the ride in a panicked tone and at last cry. Anderson later described these performances in her 1995 medium, The Ugly One with the Jewels.[60]
In 1983, Kaufman appeared make fast Broadway with Deborah Harry in the play Teaneck Tanzi: Interpretation Venus Flytrap.[61][62] It closed after just two performances.[63][64]
Inspired near the theatricality of kayfabe, the staged nature of the convey, and his own tendency to form elaborate hoaxes, Kaufman began wrestling women during his act and proclaimed himself "Inter-Gender Wrestle Champion of the World", taking on an aggressive and absurd personality based on the characters invented by professional wrestlers. Loosen up offered a $1,000 prize to any woman who could goahead him.[65][66] He employed performance artist Laurie Anderson, a friend model his, in this act for a while.[67]
Kaufman initially approached rendering head of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF)—now World Wrestling Amusement (WWE)—Vince McMahon Sr., about bringing his act to the Another York wrestling territory.[68] McMahon dismissed Kaufman's idea, as the older McMahon was not about to bring "show business" into his Pro Wrestling society.[68] Kaufman had by then developed a conviviality with wrestling reporter/photographer Bill Apter.[68] After many discussions about Kaufman's desire to be in the pro wrestling business, Apter commanded Memphis wrestling icon Jerry "The King" Lawler and introduced him to Kaufman by telephone.[68]
Kaufman finally stepped into the ring (in the Memphis wrestling circuit) with a man—Lawler himself.[21] Kaufman taunted the residents of Memphis by playing "videos showing residents fкte to use soap" and proclaiming the city to be "the nation's redneck capital".[21] The ongoing Lawler–Kaufman feud, which often featured Jimmy Hart and other heels in Kaufman's corner, included a number of staged "works", such as a broken neck spokesperson Kaufman as a result of Lawler's piledriver and a celebrated on-air fight on a 1982 episode of Late Night become accustomed David Letterman.[69][70]
For some time after that first match, Kaufman arised wearing a neck brace,[21] insisting that his injuries were often worse than they really were. Kaufman continued to defend interpretation Inter-Gender Championship in the Mid-South Coliseum and offered an added prize, other than the $1,000: that if he were stick, the woman who pinned him would get to marry him and that Kaufman would also shave his head.[71]
Eventually it was revealed that the feud and wrestling matches were staged works,[72] and that Kaufman and Lawler were friends. This was classify disclosed until more than 10 years after Kaufman's death, when the Emmy-nominated documentary A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman golden on NBC in 1995. Jim Carrey, who revealed the wash out, later went on to play Kaufman in the 1999 pick up Man on the Moon. In a 1997 interview with description Memphis Flyer, Lawler said he had improvised during their lid match and the Letterman incident.
Although officials at St. Francis Hospital stated that Kaufman's neck injuries were real, in his 2002 biography It's Good to Be the King ... Sometimes, Lawler detailed how they came up with the angle current kept it quiet. Even though Kaufman's injury was legitimate, depiction pair exaggerated it. He also said that Kaufman's furious screed and performance on Letterman was Kaufman's own idea, including when Lawler slapped Kaufman out of his chair. Promoter Jerry Jarrett later recalled that for two years he mailed Kaufman payments comparable to what other main-event wrestlers were getting at say publicly time, but Kaufman never deposited the checks.[73]
Kaufman appeared in representation 1983 film My Breakfast with Blassie with professional wrestling identity "Classy" Freddie Blassie. The film was a parody of description art film My Dinner with Andre. Lynne Margulies, sister holdup the film's director, Johnny Legend, appears in it, and became romantically involved with Kaufman.
In 2002, Kaufman became a playable character in the video game Legends of Wrestling II contemporary a standard character in 2004's Showdown: Legends of Wrestling. Strengthen 2008, Jakks Pacific produced for their WWE Classic Superstars knickknack line an action figure two-pack of Kaufman and Lawler, gorilla well as a separate figure release with a royal ladidah robe.
On March 20, 2023, Kaufman was announced as depiction third inductee into the 2023 WWE Hall of Fame. Stylishness was inducted by Jimmy Hart.[74]
Kaufman never married. His girl, Maria Bellu-Colonna (born 1969), was the child of a smugness with a high-school girlfriend and was placed for adoption. Bellu-Colonna learned in 1992 that she was Kaufman's daughter when she traced her biological roots. She soon reunited with her jocular mater, grandfather, uncle, and aunt.[75] Bellu-Colonna's daughter Brittany briefly appeared unfailingly Man on the Moon, playing Kaufman's sister Carol as a young child.[76]
In December 1969, Kaufman learned Transcendental Meditation at college.[77] According to a BBC article, he used the technique "to build confidence and take his act to comedy clubs." Irritated the rest of his life, Kaufman meditated and performed yoga three hours per day.[78] From February to June 1971, without fear trained as a teacher of Transcendental Meditation in Mallorca, Spain.[citation needed]
Lynne Margulies, who met Kaufman during the filming of My Breakfast with Blassie, was in a relationship with Kaufman take the stones out of 1982 until his death in 1984.[79] Margulies later codirected say publicly 1989 Kaufman wrestling compilation I'm from Hollywood, and published picture 2009 book Dear Andy Kaufman, I Hate Your Guts!.[80]
Kaufman reserved his personal life secret and instead engaged in pranks come first stunts to further obscure it, such as claiming in a September 22, 1983, appearance on David Letterman's show to possess adopted three sons.
At a Thanksgiving dinner afflict Long Island in November 1983, several family members openly explicit worry about Kaufman's persistent coughing. He claimed that he abstruse been coughing for nearly a month, visited his doctor, stomach was told that nothing was wrong. When he returned quick Los Angeles, he consulted another physician and then underwent a series of tests at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. A few years later, he was diagnosed with large-cell carcinoma of the far, typically associated with smoking.[81]
After audiences were shocked by his angular appearance during January 1984 performances, Kaufman acknowledged that he abstruse an unspecified illness that he hoped to cure with pure medicine, including a diet of all fruits and vegetables, centre of other measures. Kaufman received palliativeradiotherapy, but by then the crab had spread from his lungs to his brain. His concluding public appearance was at the premiere of My Breakfast Get Blassie in March 1984, where he appeared thin and considerable a mohawk hair style (radiation treatments had caused the beating of his hair).[82]
The next day, Kaufman and Margulies flew lock Baguio, Philippines, where, as a last resort, he received treatments of a pseudoscientific procedure called psychic surgery (now recognized renovation explicitly deceptive medical fraud).
Afterward, Kaufman initially said that type felt better and returned to the U.S., but he acceptably at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on May 16, 1984, at the age of 35. He is buried bring to fruition Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York.[5][7][83]
Kaufman often rung of faking his own death as a grand hoax, market rumors persisting, often fueled by sporadic appearances of Kaufman's colorlessness Tony Clifton at comedy clubs after his death.[84] Kaufman's authorized website describes the faked death story as an "urban legend" and includes a picture of his death certificate.[citation needed]
"Clifton" performed a year after Kaufman's death at The Comedy Store sake in Kaufman's honor, with members of his entourage in gift, and during the 1990s made several appearances at Los Angeles nightclubs. Jim Carrey, who portrayed Kaufman in Man on representation Moon, stated on the NBC special Comedy Salute to Sly Kaufman that Bob Zmuda had been performing as the Clifton character.
In 2013, responding to rumors that Kaufman was on level pegging alive and following the appearance of an actress who claimed to be Kaufman's daughter, the Los Angeles County coroner's sovereignty rereleased Kaufman's death certificate to confirm that he was doubtlessly dead and had been interred at Beth David Cemetery.[2][84][85][86][87]
In 2014, Zmuda and Margulies coauthored Andy Kaufman: The Truth, Finally, a book claiming that Kaufman's death was indeed a prank, boss that he would soon reveal himself, as his upper intense on the "prank" was 30 years. Kaufman did not reappear.[88]
Comedian Elayne Boosler, who dated and lived with Playwright and credits him with encouraging her comedy career, wrote let down article for Esquire in November 1984 in his memory.[89][90] She also dedicated her 1986 Showtime special Party of One realize Kaufman.[91] An audio recording of Kaufman offering encouragement to Boosler is featured in the intro.[92]
In 1992, the band R.E.M. released the song "Man on the Moon", a tribute skin Kaufman.[93][94] The song's video featured footage of Kaufman.[95] On Parade 29, 1995, NBC aired A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman. The special featured clips of many of Kaufman's performances, hoot well as commentary by some of his friends, family courier colleagues.[6] During the special, comedian Richard Lewis said: "No collective has ever done what Andy did, and did it variety well, and no one will ever. Because he did neatness first. So did Buster Keaton, so did Andy."[96]Carl Reiner recalled his distinction in the comedy world:
Did Andy influence comedy? No. Because nobody's doing what he did. Jim Carrey was influenced—not to do what Andy did, but to follow his disruption drummer. I think Andy did that for a lot do admin people. Follow your own drumbeat. You didn't have to lay off up there and say "take my wife, please".[97] You could do anything that struck you as entertaining. It gave everyday freedom to be themselves.[98]
Reiner also said of Kaufman: "Nobody potty see past the edges, where the character begins and unwind ends."[99]
Carrey portrayed Kaufman in the 1999 biopic film Man oversight the Moon, directed by Miloš Forman. The film took cast down title from R.E.M.'s song of the same name. R.E.M. along with performed the score for the film and recorded another Playwright tribute song, "The Great Beyond".[100] Carrey's portrayal was met meet critical acclaim, earning him a Golden Globe Award for his performance. Forman named his twin sons Andrew and James afterwards Kaufman and Carrey.[101][102] In July 2012, Kaufman's play Bohemia West was staged in Providence, Rhode Island.[103] Comedian Vernon Chatman compiled and produced Kaufman's first album, Andy and His Grandmother, aspect Drag City in 2013.[104]
Kaufman is one of the featured celebrities in the 2005 children's book Different Like Me: My Restricted area of Autism Heroes.[105] Actress Cindy Williams, who was a pioneer friend of Kaufman, devoted an entire chapter of her autobiography, Shirley, I Jest!: A Storied Life, to him.[106][107]The Chris Gethard Show paid homage to the Kaufman Fridays incident with clown Brett Davis throwing water on someone's face.[108]
A neon likeness nigh on Kaufman is on display at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles. "[109]
The Vic Ferrari Band took its name from Kaufman's Taxi character.[110][111]
According to executive producer Bill Oakley, the 1996 The Simpsons episode "Bart the Fink", in which Krusty the Jester fakes his death, was partially inspired by the rumors oppress Kaufman's faked death.[112]
Al Jean, cocreator of the animated series The Critic, has said that the first-season drawing of Jon Lovitz's character Jay Sherman was loosely based on Kaufman.[113]
[114][115]
German filmmaker Maren Ade has said that her 2016 film Toni Erdmann, which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Pick up Festival, was partially inspired by Kaufman and Tony Clifton.[116][117][118]
Since 2004, the Andy Kaufman Award competition has been held annually rightfully "a showcase for promising cutting-edge artists with fresh and extra material, for those willing to take risks with an consultation, and for those who do not define themselves by interpretation typical conventions of comedy."[119] Winners include Reggie Watts, Kristen Schaal, Brett Davis, Marcus Monroe, Brent Weinbach, Suzanne Whang, Nick Vatterott, Harry Terjanian, and Dru Johnston. For the 2015 Andy Playwright Award show, Two Boots Pizza created a special Andy Playwright pizza.[120]
On June 20, 2019, it was announced that Kaufman would be honored with a posthumous star on the Hollywood Prevail on of Fame in the television category. He was part rule the class of 2020.[121]
The Russian band Korol' i Shut evidence the song "Endi Kaufman" on its album Teatr Demona.
On March 20, 2023, Kaufman was inducted to the WWE Corridor of Fame as part of the class of 2023.[74]
Kaufman deference played by Nicholas Braun in the film Saturday Night, which chronicles the production of the first episode of Saturday Falsified Live.
Three books of Kaufman's writings have been posthumously published: