.

May 19, 2004 2:01 PM

Andy Kaufman back from the dead? With a blogspot sequel, no less -- Heartbeeps II: Back in the Habit
posted by jimmy (34 comments total)

If this is true - HOLY SHIT!
posted by zeoslap at 2:05 PM on May 19, 2004

Hmmm......

This release has been placed on dispute hold...
posted by zeoslap at 2:08 PM on May 19, 2004

"My mother, it was rumored, in fact, never had intercourse until several years after my birth. I know, it sounds crazy. All I can tell you is what I heard. You'll have to decide for yourself what to believe."

Sounds true to me.

Um
posted by Outlawyr at 2:09 PM on May 19, 2004

Yeah.. this is so excellent if it ends up being true!

Mister Andy Kaufman's gone wrestling
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
posted by Latitude11 at 2:10 PM on May 19, 2004

How can it not be true? Press releases are always true. That's why they call them press releases.
posted by jjg at 2:13 PM on May 19, 2004

The Instapundit mention is a little fishy. I'd hoped Kaufman would make a more exciting return than one on a blog featuring an Instapundit link.
posted by inksyndicate at 2:18 PM on May 19, 2004

I don’t plan on returning to the media limelight. I might make an impromptu appearance here or there. I’ve grown accustomed to my new life and will likely maintain it instead of plunging back into the twisted world of Hollywood. It sounds boring and cliché by now, but the world is my stage. My biggest fans always knew this. They were in on the charade all along.

This reads like first person Andy Kaufman fanfic and can't possibly be real.


Which is just what Andy would do to throw us off...
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 2:19 PM on May 19, 2004

I've contacted the only real agency in the press release, Ernst and Young, to ask whether this is true.
posted by inksyndicate at 2:29 PM on May 19, 2004

So, what happened at the big party Sunday night?
posted by hoboynow at 2:34 PM on May 19, 2004

A curious thing about the source, Feature XPress, is that it includes stories like this about a Martian freely interspersed with genuine financial news
posted by inksyndicate at 2:36 PM on May 19, 2004

(but I call bullshit) PROVE ME WRONG!
posted by hoboynow at 2:38 PM on May 19, 2004

inksyndicate - FeatureXpress distributes press releases. The "martian ambassador" one was a press release for dotworlds.net, and it's just as true as anything else stated by dotworlds.net.
posted by swell at 2:48 PM on May 19, 2004

Oh, ok. Cheeky press release.
posted by inksyndicate at 3:04 PM on May 19, 2004

I BELIEVE!!!!! Bless you all, Andy would absolutely love this.
posted by monkeyboy_socal at 3:15 PM on May 19, 2004

So you really think a guy would go to all that trouble to fake his own death, keep up the gag for 20 solid years, and then make his big return to the living via a freakin' weblog? Puhleeze.... This guy is probably just some clone that the Raelians cooked up in their lab.
posted by spilon at 3:25 PM on May 19, 2004

It'd help the illusion if the humor on the website wasn't so thuddingly lame.
posted by RavinDave at 4:15 PM on May 19, 2004

I wonder why the guy in the photos grew a moustache and is wearing pilot glasses? To hide his face maybe?
posted by whoshotwho at 4:25 PM on May 19, 2004

what a load of CRAP
posted by bob sarabia at 4:25 PM on May 19, 2004

I wonder why the guy in the photos grew a moustache and is wearing pilot glasses? To hide his face maybe?

uhhh dude. that's tony clifton
posted by bob sarabia at 4:26 PM on May 19, 2004

I've contacted the only real agency in the press release, Ernst and Young, to ask whether this is true.

The blog admits it wasn't Ernst and Young, and wasn't ABC News, either. It does not tell us what the real companies were.
posted by Edge100x at 4:46 PM on May 19, 2004

Well, is there a grave to dig up?
posted by konolia at 4:46 PM on May 19, 2004

Ernest/Young denies being associated with this, after being mentioned in the press release.
posted by inksyndicate at 4:58 PM on May 19, 2004

Well, is there a grave to dig up?

Here's your grave. Have a shovel and pick handy? Is a MeFi meetup and grave robbery in order for the New Yorkers?
posted by substrate at 5:27 PM on May 19, 2004

One real thought on this. It might be sort of Andy Kaufman from beyond the grave. He'd be the only person with a twisted enough sense of humour to make this a last request from a group of friends. "OK guys, on the twentieth anniversary of my death I want you all to commemorate it by pulling off a hoax that my death was actually a hoax."
posted by substrate at 5:31 PM on May 19, 2004

I seem to recall that it was revealed a couple of years back that Andy left behind a daughter who was just a baby when he died, or perhaps not yet born. If this is a hoax, the cruelty of it, in respect to said daughter, is immense. If it's not a hoax, one would hope that Andy has been in contact with the girl and she can verify at some point that it is on the up and up. Either way, she seems stuck in the middle of a circus not of her own making, and that hardly seems right, all things considered.
posted by Dreama at 6:21 PM on May 19, 2004

If both of us weren't so blatant about using Blogger templates, I'd challenge him to a duel. BitchHitMyTruck.com AndyStoleMyDesign.com.
posted by emelenjr at 7:16 PM on May 19, 2004

Cause of death: Lung Cancer

Got that from the grave link. That's a pretty hard death to fake, if you ask me. I had a friend die of lung cancer (back in my bunnyfire days) and trust me, ain't no way to fake THAT hell.
posted by konolia at 9:00 PM on May 19, 2004

yeah, this was a very disappointing hoax. Even when you know something is almost certainly not true to start with, it's nice to have a moment where you think, "well, maybe..." But this was so poorly, flatly executed, with all old pics/ tony clifton, and no interesting stories at all - it just didn't hold together for a second.

Which, like PinkStainlessTail said, could be the one reason it could end up being true :)
posted by mdn at 9:19 PM on May 19, 2004

andy my ass. the blog is extremely shit.
posted by Marquis at 9:53 PM on May 19, 2004

Hey, Raed got a movie.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:54 PM on May 19, 2004

Heh, I live about five minutes away from Beth Israel cemetary. Time to dust off my pickaxe.
posted by dr_dank at 7:21 AM on May 20, 2004

"It'd help the illusion if the humor on the website wasn't so thuddingly lame"

Actually that's the only part of it that is consistent with the real Kaufman. (Sorry fans, not looking to troll.)
posted by Outlawyr at 7:30 AM on May 20, 2004

Snopes sez it's a fake.
posted by aine42 at 11:23 AM on May 20, 2004

Somebody ask David Lander (aka Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley) again.

I found this article pretty interesting- it's about Squiggy's job as a Mariner's scout. It also mentions that he was in the hospital room next to Kaufman when he died.
posted by titanshiny at 1:09 PM on May 20, 2004