Thank You Very Much

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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Andy Kaufman must have been a weird kid. He was certainly strange as an adult – all the multiple versions of him. 

I first saw the comedian on TV doing his “Mighty Mouse” bit. This sing-along-with-no-purpose was so odd that it was funny. 

Also, I was impressed by his transformations into Elvis Presley. 

I was puzzled by his straight-faced reading from “The Great Gatsby” – an endurance test. 

I was offended by his brash lounge lizard, Tony Clifton. 

I wish I’d been there when he took his entire audience out for milk and cookies after a show at Carnegie Hall. 

I smiled when I watched his “foreign man” character Latka Gravas politely and innocently say, “Thank You Very Much” to people on the TV sitcom “Taxi.”

Andy Kaufman was a comedian who tested his audiences’ endurance when it came to comedy. How far could he push them before they got up and walked out? The goal was to make them uncomfortable – and he did that with great skill.

His claim to be the World Inter-gender Wrestling Champion (he only grappled with women in the ring) was equally confusing. And what about his feud with wrestler Jerry Lawler? We assume this was merely a contrived act. After all, we know professional wrestling is fake, scripted entertainment to amuse the masses. But when Lawler injured Kaufman in a bout – a broken neck, for goodness sake – we began to wonder.

“The magic of what Kaufman did was in creating a contrast between reality and performance art,” observed Gary M. Kramer, a chronicler of Kaufman. As he put it, “Kaufman’s life was one long, complicated, beautiful performance. Everything the comedian did was an act. You never knew what was real and what wasn’t.”

That’s why when he died from lung cancer back in 1984, fans were waiting for him to pop up from the dead with a grinning “Gotcha!”

This “fake death” rumor was fueled by sporadic appearances of his character Tony Clifton at comedy clubs. Turns out, his friend and co-hoaxer Bob Zmuda had been performing as Clifton, the makeup hiding the underlying identity.

Kaufman’s Saturday Night Live appearances started with the very first show on October 11, 1975. Those of you who have seen the movie “Saturday Night” know how his wonky comedy act helped convince NBC execs to air the live show. Kaufman made 16 appearances on SNL, doing such routines as the Mighty Mouse singalong, Foreign Man, and the Elvis impersonation. 

On The Johnny Carson Show, he would do an impersonation of announcer Ed McMahon, using his Foreign Man voice: “Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. How hot was eet. Ha ha ha.”

He even appeared on TV’s “The Dating Game,” presenting himself as a contestant named “Baji Kimran.” In character as Foreign Man, he cried when the bachelorette chose Bachelor #1, protesting that he had answered all the questions correctly. 

Foreign Man was based on his college roommate, Bijan Kimiachi.

Director Alex Braverman’s new documentary “Thank You Very Much” examines the mystery surrounding Andy Kaufman’s shifting personas.

The doc features rare and never-before-seen footage of Kaufman’s comedy acts. And it’s packed with interviews with his friends – including Bob Zmuda, Danny DeVito, Lynne Margolis, Steve Martin, Melanie Chartoff, Marilu Henner, and James L. Brooks. You’ll even meet Bijan Kimiachi.

Braverman (TV’s “Life Below Zero,” “Diagnosis”) decided to make the documentary after he got possession of some unreleased archival material about Kaufman and felt “there was still a bigger story to tell.”

“We went through boxes at Bob Zmuda’s house and found interviews from folks we didn’t expect to hear from because they had already died,” says Braverman. “The greatest example of that, for me, was Andy’s father. I heard stories, and sometimes, when you hear a story from Bob Zmuda, you don’t really know if you should believe it or not. He is such a keeper of the legend of this stuff; he never lets the truth get in the way of a good story.”

The film emphasizes that everything Andy did was real, but everything he did was also an act. 

Comedian Jim Carrey portrayed Kaufman in the 1999 biopic “Man on the Moon.”

Carrey stayed in character both on and off the set for the duration of production. Carrey often referred to “knowing” Kaufman, despite never having met him. 

A lot of the time, Kaufman could be funny – or less funny – but his goal is to have you asking, “What is going on?” Or “Is that for real?” Or “What are these guys doing?”

As comedian Carl Reiner put it: “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 own drummer. I think Andy did that for a lot of people. Follow your own drumbeat. You didn’t have to go up there and say, ‘Take my wife, please.’ You could do anything that struck you as entertaining. It gave people freedom to be themselves.” 

When he finally met Elvis, Andy Kaufman presented him with a play that he had written about the singer. Elvis turned to Andy and said, “You’ve got a weird mind, kid.”

The Comedy Store in Los Angeles features the perfect tribute. On its menu is the Andy Kaufman Special – two cookies and a glass of ice-cold milk.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com