Thank You Very Much

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, the term Surrealism is “a 20th-century style and movement in art and literature in which images and events that are not connected are put together in a strange or impossible way, like a dream, to try to express what is happening deep in the mind…”

With this definition, one conjures the work of Andy Kaufman, and he is brought to life in a new lively documentary by Alex Braverman titled “Thank You Very Much.” The film is accessible, vivid and informing and lowers the mask — at least halfway— on a man who was discordant, confusing, eerie, strange and to some, even violently upsetting.

Andy Kaufman is known for his turn as Latka, (the quirky and sweet foreign man with a personality disorder) on the sitcom “Taxi” (1978-1983). Before then, Kaufman appeared in a few weird skits usually involving a shy man with a high-pitched voice or a silent man who gains his voice with a record player. 

Kaufman’s comedy was impossible to describe. When he tired of performance on television, he embodied the persona of “Tony Clifton” a fat sexist and sloppy man who was loud and offensive. He started a fight with actor Judd Hirsch who told him to “get the fuck off the set.”

Soon after, he made a public announcement declaring that he was now becoming a wrestler and that he would only compete against women to prove that as a man he was stronger, and to send them back to “the kitchen.” 

He actually participated in matches, but Kaufman would mainly hurl insulting and hurtful stereotypes, to loud jeering and boos. Kaufman smiled and flexed his arms. To the mainstream, at the beginning of modern Feminism, this was the ultimate offense. Kaufman’s popularity crashed. He was labeled as “disgusting” and his career all but vanished.

Dick Ebersol, an NBC executive who discovered Kaufman, grew personally offended by him, calling for a lifetime ban of him on SNL. The outcome was decided by Saturday Night Live viewers who voted in favor of the ban.

Curiously, Kaufman was all the more delighted by his severe downward spiral as he was an anti-comedian. 

Andy broke boundaries to make audiences uncomfortable and aware, so that they, in turn, could uncover something personal and unknown to themselves. 

At times, the man would just recite whole thirds of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to squirming crowds.

Andy Kaufman was a Surrealist. 

Even the Transcendental Meditation association barred his membership. 

Kaufman was persona non grata to the mainstream and he was finally free.

There are human revelations here. Kaufman was a happy imaginative child who lived for creativity. He loved and made art for his grandfather. When he was about eight, his grandfather strangely vanished. His parents fibbed to him not having the heart to tell Kaufman that his relative had died. From then forward, Andy retreated into his room, creating radio shows and stories and recording himself on Super8. 

From Andy’s very early days, mindful self-awareness as a springboard for creativity was vital to him. He read Kerouac and became drawn to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and TM, despite his later excommunication. 

In between occupations, he sought a job at a New York deli. Everything was performance to Kaufman. Most important to him was living, experiencing and participating in the moment, solely for its own sake. 

When he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1983, Kaufman saw this as a performative experience and partook in psychic surgery. Kaufman believed in it, but it did not work. 

The artist is laid to rest at Beth David Cemetery. A few say that Kaufman is alive and well, including collaborator and best friend Bob Zmuda who is known to still perform as Andy’s alter ego Tony Clifton.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com