Why do people like Andy Kaufman? Would someone explain this shit to me?

[Child..]

He wasnt "rated" while he was active...just seen as a try-hard attention seeker. His popularity is astroturfed and posthumous because of that Jim Carrey movie.

 

[Legal Eagle Nelsonn]

just seen as a try-hard attention seeker.

No that's you, Liban

 

[FezzieAlwaysWins]

Kaufman is another one who's act has been copied so many times by hack comics that his act now seems dated and hacky itself.

Kaufman was great on Taxi (the whole cast of Taxi was phenomenal)

And Kaufman's brand of anti-comedy, along with the Tony Clifton stuff was kind of groundbreaking.
One simply did not get on national TV in the 70s and then fuck with the audience. (Similarly how shocking Carlin's "7 words" seemed shocking at the time- you actually *couldn't* say that shit)

And without him partially paving the way with his brand of intentionally making the audience uncomfortable there wouldn't have been the wave Howard/O&A style shock jock humor.

 

[WhereWeAt]

He wasnt "rated" while he was active...just seen as a try-hard attention seeker. His popularity is astroturfed and posthumous because of that Jim Carrey movie.

"The only reason people know about that famous comedian is because of that biographical movie that failed"

 

[HeyItsVos]

Belzer was on Law and Order or one of those shitty crime shows where they make tons of money because there’s 80 episodes per year. He sucked on Stern but I liked when Gilbert would rip on him when he wasn’t there. I’m not sure if they were ever in studio together.

Gilbert was in the hospital and Stern made Belzer go visit him. Belzer showed up, didn’t say a thing, and read the paper in Gilbert’s room for a while before leaving. Probably the funniest thing he’s ever done.

 

[nasty twp]

WWAWD Murmur? That’s their best in my humble opinion but I’m not even close to getting through every REM album.

Good catch, I'd forgotten about it. Hipsters will insist the best track is 'Talk About The Passion', but it's actually 'Perfect Circle' and/or 'Pilgrimage'.

The lead single 'Radio Free Europe' is pfg as well, it has really interesting, busy and deep percussion and more of those choral harmonies I mentioned. Though certainly not their most catchy hit, and rather similar to some of their others.

 

[IGotATreeOnMyHouse85]

I liked him, he liked confusing to all out pissing off his audience and thought it was the funniest thing. He also did some great bits on Letterman (he would tell David to forward all the hate Mail his appearances would get) and the stuff with Jerry Lawler was great. It’s hard to explain but he loved to keep people guessing. The whole “foreign man” character people thought was real and he wasn’t some Jew from New York. People really thought he faked his death because nobody could tell if he was being serious about anything.

 

[IGotATreeOnMyHouse85]

Gilbert was in the hospital and Stern made Belzer go visit him. Belzer showed up, didn’t say a thing, and read the paper in Gilbert’s room for a while before leaving. Probably the funniest thing he’s ever done.

Gilbert also did a good Belzer impression. The whole Gilbert in the hospital saga on stern was great, he made stern and anyone that would visit buy him shit and run errands for him.

 

[IGotATreeOnMyHouse85]

Kaufman is another one who's act has been copied so many times by hack comics that his act now seems dated and hacky itself.

Kaufman was great on Taxi (the whole cast of Taxi was phenomenal)

And Kaufman's brand of anti-comedy, along with the Tony Clifton stuff was kind of groundbreaking.
One simply did not get on national TV in the 70s and then fuck with the audience. (Similarly how shocking Carlin's "7 words" seemed shocking at the time- you actually *couldn't* say that shit)

And without him partially paving the way with his brand of intentionally making the audience uncomfortable there wouldn't have been the wave Howard/O&A style shock jock humor.

Plus him dying young was in hindsight the perfect move for his career and legacy. Too many have tried to be like him and in hacky ways. It’s cliche to say but you never could tell what he was doing and it made him laugh. He would piss off tons of people and thought it was the funniest thing.

 

[Smeckler's Powder]

Kaufman's life and the Jim Carrey biopic about it at least inspired Michael Stipe to sing and write some top-notch lyrics.

At a dark moment of my young life, I once had a full-on (but private) sobbing fit to 'The Great Beyond', in particular the lines 'I'm keeping/flowers in full bloom', 'me and you with wings on our feet', and the background vocal of 'here's a little ghost for the offering' (a line in the other Kaufman song by R.E.M., 'Man on the Moon'). Something about those words and how they were recorded just moved me to another dimension and emotional state in that moment. Idk I was a hypersensitive teen.

The airy and cosmic swell of strings & choral synths as the song progresses combined with the eerie and dissonant yet iconic way Stipe's voice is layered to harmonise with himself is also very beautiful, as is the choice to hold the chorus proper back til the mid-endpoint to create drama and suspense (yes, I'm gay). In my country, 'The Great Beyond' is the best-charting single the band ever put out.

The video is objectively awful, though, especially knowing that R.E.M. can and have done so much better in that regard ('Losing My Religion'? Hello?) It's just a clip-show of the Carrey film interspersed with a poor twee lite-brite take on the Korn 'Freak on a Leash' concept. There was a wasted opportunity here to create a really interesting and lovely visual to go with the song, and they just spunked it or cheaped out. Or checked out and didn't care, which is fair enough, they’re only musicians who don’t care about cinema or MTV.

And I know none of you care about a power ranking so I'm just sperging to myself, but ftr 'The Great Beyond' isn't even my favourite R.E.M. song, either, though imo it's definitely in contention for the top twenty of their catalogue. I prefer 'Country Feedback' (another one that makes me cry), 'You're In The Air', 'Fall on Me', 'Hyena', 'Voice of Harold', 'Hairshirt', 'The One I Love' and 'E-Bow The Letter' (waaaaaah dead River Phoenix), 'Electron Blue', 'Orange Crush' (waaaaaah Vietnam), 'Bad Day', 'Star Me Kitten' and 'Drive'.

You seen the SNL performance of Great Beyond? That's my favorite performance of theirs on SNL or anywhere.

As far at the video goes, Jim was supposed to show up and sing as Andy and blew it off at the last second so that's why it's a bunch of them standing around like assholes.

 

[Smeckler's Powder]

I, like many others, started loving the idea of Andy after watching Man on The Moon. Going back and watching the real life bits doesn't land as much for me but I appreciate the fucking with everyone aspect for sure. Bob Zmudas stories about him are great, I don't even care that they aren't true. He was on WTF and you can't find it anymore but he tells a story about going into a donut shop and then offering to buy the whole shop.

 

[NotHomeRunCumia]

If you can appreciate old wrestling then the Kaufman/Lawler feud is pretty good. It's on YouTube.

 

[Leeeavings]

He’s the first guy I knew of to do Tom green/jackass type stuff and it was great. He’s how we first discovered Kramer is a psychopath.

 

[Leeeavings]

This is probably why I genuinely like Opie. He likes to fuck with people.

 

[AwfulManTitTankTop]

Is that Richard Belzer introducing him? I fucking hate him. He was such a progressive faggot on Stern in the 80’s and 90’s. It’s impressive to be able to be that much of a faggot way before anyone else.

He's a Norton-tier fake junky faggot too. Stern grilled him about his addiction history and he was talking out of his ass about drugs. Attention seeking pole smoker.

 

[satanssockpuppet]

 

[ElectricLightKazooII]

One of the things I like from him…I TRUSTED YOU.

 

[nasty twp]

"The only reason people know about that famous comedian is because of that biographical movie that failed"

Carrey claimed he lost his mind and personality while playing--he'd probably say 'channelling'--Kaufman. There's a meta docufilm about it, showing a lot of found backstage and rehearsal footage of Jim acting a fool and an arse around the set, and not being able to calm down or click out of character between takes. I've only seen a few scenes, but it's rather eerie.

As talented as Carrey is, he strikes me as a bit scary or like he could easily be a danger to himself or others.

 

[ScrotesMcgoats]

Kaufman had a charm about him, he’s one of if not the only comedian who can regularly lose me and get me back with a drawn out bit.

 

[Smeckler's Powder]

Carrey claimed he lost his mind and personality while playing--he'd probably say 'channelling'--Kaufman. There's a meta docufilm about it, showing a lot of found backstage and rehearsal footage of Jim acting a fool and an arse around the set, and not being able to calm down or click out of character between takes. I've only seen a few scenes, but it's rather eerie.

As talented as Carrey is, he strikes me as a bit scary or like he could easily be a danger to himself or others.

Yeah, Jim and Andy. Fun shit. Driving Hugh Hefner crazy.