Mister Andy Kaufman's gone wrestling

August 20, 2007 7:49 AM

Andy Kaufman { Mighty Mouse, Elvis impersonator, Bachelor #3, Latka Gravas/Vic Ferrari, the host of his own TV special, trouble-maker [?], Dostoevsky's Idiot, "born again" Christian, percussionist, inter-gender wrestling/bitch-slap champion, lounge singer Tony Clifton [?], bit player, Elayne Boosler's ex-boyfriend, and the Man On the Moon } RIP [YA RLY]
posted by Poolio (32 comments total)

I don't know whether my effort would best be spent thanking you for putting all of these in one place where I can enjoy them, or congratulating you for discovering the "search" function on YouTube.
posted by hermitosis at 7:54 AM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm probably a little biased, but I think you should thank me for putting them all in one place where you can enjoy them, hermitosis.
posted by Poolio at 7:57 AM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: discovering the "search" function on YouTube
posted by tommasz at 8:01 AM on August 20, 2007

SingleLinkYouTubeFilter > YouTubeSearchFilter
posted by Plutor at 8:05 AM on August 20, 2007

Did you get this half-hour doc on Kaufman's wrestling career in there somewhere?
posted by carsonb at 8:06 AM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Would you prefer XeniFilter? I hear they're doing exciting things in dildonics.
posted by Poolio at 8:08 AM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

No... I didn't carsonb... thanks for the link.
posted by Poolio at 8:09 AM on August 20, 2007

the beauty of youtube posts is that they don't have to have a pretense of a reason to be, they just have to be there on the front page -- it's MetaFilter as a doctor waiting room, and youtube is the old magazine you leaf through out of boredom
posted by matteo at 8:23 AM on August 20, 2007 [6 favorites]

...it's MetaFilter as a doctor waiting room, and youtube is the old magazine you leaf through out of boredom

I nominate that as the quote of the week. Month even.
posted by Webbster at 8:31 AM on August 20, 2007

I've always like the story Laurie Anderson tells about her friendship with Andy Kaufman on the song "The Rotowhirl." Here are the lyrics, but as always, it's better to listen to the original recording (it's on the album "The Ugly One with the Jewels")
posted by gwint at 8:32 AM on August 20, 2007

Those are congas, not bongos.
posted by wsg at 8:57 AM on August 20, 2007

I can't wait for the obits of Belushi, Elvis, Radner, Franco, Stalin, Gandhi... With so many famous dead people the possibilities are endless.*

* Given the finite number of famous dead people the possibilities are not endless, just really fraking huge.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:36 AM on August 20, 2007

Andy was the best. One of the original group of NY performance artists although most people thought of him as a comedian rather than an artist (even, it seems, Laurie Anderson?).
posted by janetplanet at 10:05 AM on August 20, 2007

The thing I like best about Kaufman is that you're never sure when the skit starts and ends. There's just no telling when he's putting you on and when he's not.

Brilliance.
posted by oddman at 10:06 AM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

it's MetaFilter as a doctor waiting room, and youtube is the old magazine you leaf through out of boredom

I suppose that's better than being the magazine you keep in the bathroom.
posted by Poolio at 10:16 AM on August 20, 2007

I like that you used roll-over titles to describe links.
posted by pracowity at 11:58 AM on August 20, 2007

I agree with pracowity... the use of the roll-overs improves the standard Metafilter posting style by leaps and bounds.
Good on ya, Poolio.
posted by dosterm at 12:40 PM on August 20, 2007

Maybe I'm being dense, but is there a Dostoevsky link with that sketch? The clip itself doesn't mention Dostoevsky at all and, although he did write an excellent novel called "The Idiot" I don't really see any other connection...
posted by Squid Voltaire at 2:19 PM on August 20, 2007

"it's MetaFilter as a doctor waiting room, and youtube is the old magazine you leaf through out of boredom"

Spelling errors aside, wow, what a gem! I used to think you were just a stuffed shirt pedant matteo, but I see now how really brilliant you are. Comment of the week? The month? More like comment of the century! I hope you can recover from such stinging wit poolio, I know it will be hard.

And now I see how it really is different putting Andy Kaufman's name in the youtube search, and say, Douglas Sirk's name in lexis-nexis. Now I see how when one gets an idea from reading Cahiers du cinema, and googles a little more information, it really is the only way to make a post. How could I have been so blind?

Game over matteo... you are just that good.
posted by vronsky at 3:21 PM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

I never believed that Andy Kaufman faked his death (although if anybody could fake their own death, it would have been him). But imagine Andy on his deathbed, talking to, say, Bob Zmuda: "I have one last gag, and I need your help. In X years, I want everyone to think that I faked my death and am going to reappear any minute!"

That sounds like an Andy Kaufman stunt to me.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:29 PM on August 20, 2007

In 1981, through an accident that I won't go into here (but was more unlikely than hitting the Powerball lottery), I met Andy Kaufman 45 minutes before I was going to do a live public-access TV show in Manhattan, NY.

I was a huge fan of Andy's and I talked him (along with his parents who were with him) into being on the show. I couldn't BELIEVE this was happening, but it did. That began a friendship between us that lasted for the next few years up to his death.

He was a fascinating character and always entertaining to be around. Anyway, I thought you all might enjoy seeing the show we did on the night we first met:

http://crankymediaguy.com/tv/index.html
posted by Cranky Media Guy at 5:15 PM on August 20, 2007 [6 favorites]

I have assumed, after seeing the movie, that Kaufman claimed all the fame and glory from his silent partner.
posted by Brian B. at 5:33 PM on August 20, 2007

Maybe I'm being dense, but is there a Dostoevsky link with that sketch?

That sketch is supposedly Andy's interpretation of Dostoevsky's "The Idiot".
posted by Poolio at 6:20 PM on August 20, 2007

One of the original group of NY performance artists although most people thought of him as a comedian rather than an artist (even, it seems, Laurie Anderson?).

I know that Andy didn't think of himself as a comedian, which is why I didn't use the "Comedy" or "Comedian" tags.
posted by Poolio at 6:27 PM on August 20, 2007

pracowity & dostern

I'm glad you guys appreciated the hover-over descriptions. I figured that with so many links, and without any real context, per se, they'd be useful.

I should also point out that all of the videos are in a playlist (in order) so that you don't need to keep coming back to this page to get to the next one.

Suffice it to say, putting this post together was not simply a matter of discovering YouTube's "search" function.
posted by Poolio at 6:36 PM on August 20, 2007

Wasn't this guy just a troll?
posted by ODiV at 6:48 PM on August 20, 2007

The thing I like best about Kaufman is that you're never sure when the skit starts and ends. There's just no telling when he's putting you on and when he's not.

I've always held that the proper response to anything Andy Kaufman ever does, is recorded doing, or is rumored to have done is to laugh very hard. If you try to do anything else, if you think about it or wait a second or—God forbid—riposte or anything other than chuckle, snicker, guffaw, or snort right at that very second, you lose completely.
posted by carsonb at 7:25 PM on August 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

ConspiracyTheoryFilter:

Watch --> this

Then watch --> this

And then watch --> this

Kaufman later acknowledged that the Friday's incident was staged. I hypothesize that Michael Richards' "igger-word" melt down was in fact a staged tribute to Andy Kaufman.

As further hearsay, I present --> this

This establishes a recurring David Letterman connection between Kaufman and Richards' antics.
posted by _aa_ at 8:35 PM on August 20, 2007

I think you're giving Michael Richards too much credit, _aa_
posted by Poolio at 8:52 PM on August 20, 2007

I wish that Bachelor #3 clip didn't have the "boring" bits cut out. Does anyone have a link to the uncut TV segment?
posted by nobody at 8:57 PM on August 20, 2007

nobody - I only found two videos of Andy's appearance on The Dating Game, and the other one only had the Santa question.
posted by Poolio at 9:01 PM on August 20, 2007

Oh, well. It would be nice to see how the rest of the show absorbs or ignores the intrusion. (It would also help in trying to figure out if everyone else on stage isn't reacting more strongly because they've more or less been warned or if it's only the show-must-go-on sensibility -- or maybe vanity -- that keeps the whole thing going forward in spite of A. Kauffman's presence).
posted by nobody at 8:26 AM on August 21, 2007