"We're just listening for his call"
March 16, 2025 8:09 PM Subscribe
Andy Kaufman's: 'Mighty Mouse'. "This performance raises a host of questions concerning performance and identity. What exactly are we seeing? Is it Andy Kaufman simply being (or presenting) himself executing an action?"
'Missed Connections: Performance, Art, and Popular Culture'
"The main question I want to pose, however, is why the possible connections between Kaufman’s Mighty Mouse piece and Gilbert and George’s Singing Sculpture have not been made, given the interesting similarities and differences between the two works and the fact that Kaufman’s work had much in common with some strains of the art world performance of his time."
incidentally, "In the 1999 movie "The Man on the Moon."Jim Carey recreated the record player and Mighty Mouse skit in playing Andy Kaufman singing the Mighty Mouse theme song using the same 1960 RCA Victor portable record player from the original SNL 1975 skit."
Kaufman previously's
'Missed Connections: Performance, Art, and Popular Culture'
"The main question I want to pose, however, is why the possible connections between Kaufman’s Mighty Mouse piece and Gilbert and George’s Singing Sculpture have not been made, given the interesting similarities and differences between the two works and the fact that Kaufman’s work had much in common with some strains of the art world performance of his time."
incidentally, "In the 1999 movie "The Man on the Moon."Jim Carey recreated the record player and Mighty Mouse skit in playing Andy Kaufman singing the Mighty Mouse theme song using the same 1960 RCA Victor portable record player from the original SNL 1975 skit."
Kaufman previously's
There's no question that Kaufman belongs in discussions of high concept art, not despite the fact but especially because he insisted on engaging exclusively through mass media (although I am certain that is why he is often left out of such discussions).
I don't know how you include it in the conversation but I also don't know how you can leave it out that performing Andy Kaufman created something of a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" event for Jim Carrey's brain. This is especially true considering that Andy Kaufman's performance of himself eventually killed him.
posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 4:14 AM on March 17 [3 favorites]
I don't know how you include it in the conversation but I also don't know how you can leave it out that performing Andy Kaufman created something of a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" event for Jim Carrey's brain. This is especially true considering that Andy Kaufman's performance of himself eventually killed him.
posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 4:14 AM on March 17 [3 favorites]
I’m just a bit too young to have had opportunities to see Kaufman do his thing, although I do remember him on Taxi, which is itself a very vague memory. As a viewer, I’m guessing that a lot of people just didn’t understand what he was doing but that the ones that did get it must have been dying from laughter. Kind of like with Norm McDonald - you either really get it or you don’t.
I think that Kaufman was a lucky person to have been able to live his life and get paid for it at the same time. I wonder if he knew, if anybody knew where the bit ended and the person began, though.
posted by ashbury at 6:53 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
I think that Kaufman was a lucky person to have been able to live his life and get paid for it at the same time. I wonder if he knew, if anybody knew where the bit ended and the person began, though.
posted by ashbury at 6:53 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
Honestly--and with the full acknowledgement that I have no particular knowledge of the state of Jim Carrey's mental health, save for what he's presented publicly--part of Carrey's general shtick and stock in trade is that he generally comes off as just a little unhinged (and sometimes more than just a little), that he generally overdoes any given bit at least just a smidge. He did dial that back for his portrayal of Kaufman, though,
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:04 AM on March 17 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:04 AM on March 17 [1 favorite]
I'm a big Andy fan but I wasn't alive when he was on TV. You got me thinking about how would I explain Mighty Mouse to a teenager of today, and the best I can say is that Andy was a specialist at finding fertile media that can be reinterpreted or parodied. That is a talent by itself! Just look at his SNL audition tape, he demonstrates this talent perfectly and it's genius!
One modern way to explain the Mighty Mouse performance would be like a shred performance, in fact likely the first shred performance ever that was actually a pleasant experience to the eye and ear. Here's a recent one that is not as pleasant but gave me many giggles in the past, and there's many other songs done this way.
He imagined how a live performance of the Mighty mouse theme would look like, and he's playing the part of one of the singers, with the anxiety and mistakes included. It'd be something like a bodybuilder taking a stick, and pretending to have trouble lifting it, as if it's 100 tons heavy, but then when he finally does it, he beams with happiness as if a mountain was moved. That's just hilarious, since Andy was a master performer but chose to perform the easiest part of the song and as a lip sync on top of all. He's performing a performer, that's a thing that he does a lot, especially when he performs as a foreign man, who in turn performs an Elvis impersonation, and then goes back to foreign man, it's layers upon layers of this stuff that not many people are able to think up or do. He performed as Tony Clifton who was supposed to perform another character on Taxi. This is a story that Danny Devitto tells, which was in the movie, but somehow makes more sense when it's told this way.
It's like when Mel Blanc was using one character to imitate the other one. It's a thing that only master performers can do.
Going back to Mighty Mouse, his wardrobe was funny by default, and the fact that he just stands there in silence, every small deliberate movement ends up telling a bigger story, while the silence builds up suspense which is what you want in comedy, or any other art really, so when something finally happens, you get a bigger reaction by the audience.
I actually learned about him through the movie, but then started disliking it because he was presented as some tragic figure in the movie, and I don't get that sense at all from what I've seen and I've seen a lot. The only thing that was tragic is that he didn't live long enough to give us more of his genius.
posted by roomcoloredcharlatan at 9:23 AM on March 17 [3 favorites]
One modern way to explain the Mighty Mouse performance would be like a shred performance, in fact likely the first shred performance ever that was actually a pleasant experience to the eye and ear. Here's a recent one that is not as pleasant but gave me many giggles in the past, and there's many other songs done this way.
He imagined how a live performance of the Mighty mouse theme would look like, and he's playing the part of one of the singers, with the anxiety and mistakes included. It'd be something like a bodybuilder taking a stick, and pretending to have trouble lifting it, as if it's 100 tons heavy, but then when he finally does it, he beams with happiness as if a mountain was moved. That's just hilarious, since Andy was a master performer but chose to perform the easiest part of the song and as a lip sync on top of all. He's performing a performer, that's a thing that he does a lot, especially when he performs as a foreign man, who in turn performs an Elvis impersonation, and then goes back to foreign man, it's layers upon layers of this stuff that not many people are able to think up or do. He performed as Tony Clifton who was supposed to perform another character on Taxi. This is a story that Danny Devitto tells, which was in the movie, but somehow makes more sense when it's told this way.
It's like when Mel Blanc was using one character to imitate the other one. It's a thing that only master performers can do.
Going back to Mighty Mouse, his wardrobe was funny by default, and the fact that he just stands there in silence, every small deliberate movement ends up telling a bigger story, while the silence builds up suspense which is what you want in comedy, or any other art really, so when something finally happens, you get a bigger reaction by the audience.
I actually learned about him through the movie, but then started disliking it because he was presented as some tragic figure in the movie, and I don't get that sense at all from what I've seen and I've seen a lot. The only thing that was tragic is that he didn't live long enough to give us more of his genius.
posted by roomcoloredcharlatan at 9:23 AM on March 17 [3 favorites]
I loved the Mighty Mouse sketch when I first saw it because it was exactly like what we used to do as younger kids just a few years earlier -- play 45s and pretend we were singers. I guess I never thought of the high concept aspects before.
posted by JanetLand at 10:04 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
posted by JanetLand at 10:04 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
I never thought Kaufman was funny. Maybe he's not supposed to be. I was young when he was popular so most what I know I saw when I was an adult, in the 1990s I guess. There's probably something to his act that I don't get, or can't be bothered to get, but everything I've seen falls into that category of 1970s comedy that just looks out of date.
posted by Liquidwolf at 11:00 AM on March 17 [1 favorite]
posted by Liquidwolf at 11:00 AM on March 17 [1 favorite]
I forgot to say, I don't think there's a link between Andy's and the Singing Sculpture performance, though I just learned about those fellers today. What Andy does is much MUCH deeper and richer in artistry, even when he seems to barely do anything like in Mighty Mouse. You really can spend a lot of time thinking, writing, and talking about it and it's still enjoyable, and the more imagination you employ to reverse engineer his thought process, the more entertaining it all becomes. You just end up appreciating how efficient is the performance because the whole ends up being greater than the sum of its parts. The singing sculpture seems like a small step above those street performers that pose as sculptures, except in this case they're moving automatons singing songs, it's not that stimulating.
Oh and I agree with @JanetLand, he really did the lip syncing thing like so many kids and young adults do to this day. There's millions of Tiktok and instagram clips of people doing just that these days, but Andy was first to do it in a clever way in front of a national audience, or one of the first? It turns out even lip syncing must be done with some artistry if you want to be entertaining.
posted by roomcoloredcharlatan at 12:21 PM on March 17 [2 favorites]
Oh and I agree with @JanetLand, he really did the lip syncing thing like so many kids and young adults do to this day. There's millions of Tiktok and instagram clips of people doing just that these days, but Andy was first to do it in a clever way in front of a national audience, or one of the first? It turns out even lip syncing must be done with some artistry if you want to be entertaining.
posted by roomcoloredcharlatan at 12:21 PM on March 17 [2 favorites]
And then there's Jerry Lewis and his version! (Carmen Miranda, not Mighty Mouse . . .)
posted by pt68 at 12:23 PM on March 17 [2 favorites]
posted by pt68 at 12:23 PM on March 17 [2 favorites]
Very much within the same ballpark, I think, or perhaps an adjacent ballpark, there’s also Tiny Tim.
posted by ashbury at 1:35 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
posted by ashbury at 1:35 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
I always felt like Andy Kaufman's schtick was stripping away as much humor as possible from his performance to find out what the homeopathic dose was that some people—maybe only one person—would still find funny. I don't know if this was a conscious process or something intuitive.
posted by adamrice at 8:14 AM on March 18
posted by adamrice at 8:14 AM on March 18
You got me thinking about how would I explain Mighty Mouse to a teenager of today"It's kind of like Skibidi Toilet for the 1970s."
posted by gelfin at 9:54 AM on March 18 [1 favorite]
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posted by Pedantzilla at 2:30 AM on March 17 [7 favorites]