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From: AndyOnLetterman
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  • lsd

  • @MockEmpire Nope.

  • that was brilliant.I really miss Andy...... 

  • the dude even dressed like the future.

  • MAYBE THE FUNNIEST MOMENT EVER

  • letterman was,is,and will allways be a horses cunt !!

  • what did the lady scream out???

  • Daxflame in 10 years.

  • Andy was the original troll! Awesome guy!

  • I'm watching this because I just got done watching Man On The Moon. I guess humour is really a personal thing because I didn't crack a smile. Actually this performance depressed me.

  • This appearance occurred October 15, 1980, not June 24. His first appearance, a cameo, occurred two days earlier (not one), October 13.

  • unsolved mysterys of the universe - people who watch videos they dislike.

  • Unsolved mystery of the universe - Andy Kaufman being on TV for any reason.

  • Unsolved mystery of the universe - People who think Andy Kaufman was talented.

  • @3:13 I hope you're not sick Andy

  • Imagine if he were still alive, we'd all have to pretend like he's still relevant and tolerate seeing him on Leno or Letterman every now and then, like Robin Williams.

  • @goharma now, now. Robin Williams may not be in good movies anymore, but every single interview he does is HILARIOUS.

  • While it is awkward, tense and slightly uncomfortable.... it still isn't funny to me. Perhaps slightly amusing but no laughs coming from me. no lolololololol

  • I'm pretty sure the first guy to give him money was his partner Bob Zemudo (or something). The guy Paul Giglimotti played in man on the moon.

  • He says NOTHING for two minutes, and it's flipping hilarious

  • since tony clifton and andy are the same person tony did smoke i strongly feel he is depressed and niggaz is just laffing at him

  • Letterman is pissed because this time the one that gets attention was the host and not him! I've never seen anyone like Kaufman. He is so strange in his own way. He doesn't want to show off for everyone and make stupid jokes, he doesn't even care if he is on letterman or not, he is himself and that means he plays each character of himself. Fascinating.

  • @gabitangerine You're nuts! this is the kind of stuff Letterman loves.

  • the talented die young

  • who decided this was funny?....

  • the way he looks reminds me of krist novoselic from nirvana

  • @dbows94- Exactly!

  • aww c'mon folks this was YEARS before his cancer diagnosis.

    it's a JOKE! how could anyone be familiar with andy's genius and not realize that this is an act, just like in his 77 routine improv, he started unsure and telling bad jokes, this is just that, but to another level. i wish we had more andy's in the world.

  • i just want to point out that kaufman was dying at this point and he knew it, but he kept it a secret, you can hear him coughing which is his lung cancer

  • WTF? Joaquin Pheonix totally ripped this off!

  • This was several years before his death. I wonder if the coughing was an act or a symptom of the lung cancer which would eventually take his life.

  • This guys nothing special. Hes trading his dignity for some laughs. I see guys like this on the street all the time.

  • Its simple and its called reverse psychology.

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  • Totally unfunny talentless cunt of a kike! liked by the pseudo's and stupid!

  • He is a genius!

  • This takes comedy right to the dangerous edge. He dares to do a boring monologue, asks the audience NOT to laugh, then goes out collecting money from audience members. Brilliant. Are we seeing reality (which would be horribly sad) or are we seeing someone extracting comedy from the audience's discomfort and uncertainty? As Mark Twain explained, true comedy always grows from tension and discomfort.

  • Pure Gold.

  • This the first thing I've seen from this guy. Predictable and not very funny. I see what he was trying to do, but maybe he had ran out of random material. No doubt the guy at the end taking him away was all part of a pretty piss sketch. I'll prob see what else he has thou :)

  • I don't get any of this. To me it's kinda embarassing to watch- I find this fellow very sad.

  • andy did these things on purpose

  • okay this is the first time i've ever seen anything of andy kaufman and already I see he's brilliant.

  • The fact that most of the people who dislike this video only do so because they have the IQ of a potato is.... amusing.

  • haha he almost broke character after letterman's "mint" question lol

  • I think appreciating Kaufman is a matter of being amused by the tensions created between 'ordinary' expectations and Andy's subversion of them. An audience member who feels uncomfortable, confronted, liberated, etc, while watching him, becomes another character in the scene for the amusement of everyone else. His canvas was the situation and everyone in it, not the comic monologue. He was willing for people to hate him in order for that situation to be funnier. IMO, a comedy genius.

  • @thetwentyfourth

    Exactly I especially like how you said: "being amused by the tensions created between 'ordinary' expectations and Andy's subversion of them."

    This is spot on

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  • @thetwentyfourth In many ways he wasn't a comedian or an actor,but the impersonation of what it means to be on a stage,to be perceived and to be representation on a stage. Brecht would be proud of the way he performed to destroy the very fabric that separates the audience and the artist and turning them both the subject and the object of the equation. What Andy was,you constructed what he did was so disparate you had to connect it yourself.In many ways,what is a joke but artificial laughter?

  • @thetwentyfourth Humour is subjective and distant;so often are sketches disposable and forgettable and comedians mere disposable ttols to achieve that often absurd laugh(in Monthy Python,the absurdity wasn't the sketch itself,but your laugh.You had to dismantle the word;in Andy,,you dismantle the image). But Andy made it personal and desired to insert you in the fictionality that is a laugh and analyze how much of it is ours and how much of it wasn't his.In the end he performed his life.

  • @thetwentyfourth Why? Because then he transcended the stage,the lines,the audience and translated reality into fiction. He destroyed the audience and the comedian as essences of the entertainment and made you face him as Andy Kauffman,the man, and not Andy Kauffman,the artist. Thus,you needed to be involved and he walked the thin line between performance and reality,just as you did with him as,in the end,andy Kauffman,the dangerous entertainer.

  • @thetwentyfourth A true Genius. And ahead of his time.

  • I know its part of the joke but when he says not to laugh I'm not trying to be funny right now is actually sad considering how people reacted to his cancer and death

  • kinda funny how benji from howard stern prefected this style. kaufman looks like a amateur compared to benji

  • he proofed , you can be funny your own way

  • You guys crack me up on these posts. He is still doing it to you from the grave. Don't try to figure it out, just enjoy it!

  • I JUST noticed, at the end, David Letterman sounds like Kermit the Frog.

  • TROLOLOLOLOL

  • It's a tribute to his genius that decades pass and people of the world get more and more cynical and jaded and "savvy"... and, judging by the comments, this guy's performances STILL confuse people, freak them out, and go right over their heads.

  • 131 dislikes people..you just deserve rest bullshitt videos on Youtube...not Andi kaufman !! he was a great artist

  • HAAHAHAH he doesnt say anything to letterman but he talks to the audience about his personal affairs hahaa

  • You guys...all the people interpreting this as comedy are sad, sad, sad people. This IS a bullshi-fest but if you think that people who exhibit this kind of behavior are "funny" then you have my pity as well.

    This comedian is satirizing people in dire need of help. Imagine if that guy or girl was your relative or friend and was acting like that. Pretty funny, ya?

  • @Prometheus1st You really don't understand the purpose of Andy Kaufman's act. Everything he did, was to gain a reaction out of people, whether that be love or hatred. He did not view himself as a comedian or his act as a comedy act. He was working the audience, keeping them on their feet.  You never knew what you were going to get with Andy, and that's the way he wanted it. The man did a whole live set in a British accent while reading the Great Gatsby. That's not comedy, it's genius.

  • @Prometheus1st it obiously would not be funny if someone i knew asked for that, but its funny because he's a celebrity asking for free handouts from an audience of total strangers. thats the real point of this satire, and andy kaufmans own brand of humor, is the breaking down of certain walls of where certain behavior would be accepable

  • @The96ify spot on

  • @Prometheus1st Don't over think it. Or the joke is on you.

  • He was kinda hot...

  • He had Cancer . these people and Letterman are F'k up.. how sad..

  • @selenarose23 they didnt know he had cancer and neither did he at the time, it was meant to be a joke.

  • I bet he snorted a rail before he walked on stage rofl.

  • no. andy kaufman was funny. especially the jerry lawler

  • This is just embarassing.

  • Andy lived to make people feel uncomfortable! Interesting that even while he was a big star on Taxi, he never quit his job as a dishwasher at a local restaurant.

  • Fuark Letterman looks young as

  • This was Daves 1st show in the morning . I stayed home and skipped my 1st class of school for every single show.

  • IDOTA

  • NOT FUNNY... NEVER HAS... NEVER WAS

    EPIC FAIL

  • he was a man, i mean, a real man

  • wow look at how young david letterman is

  • Whether madness, genius or gimmick..whether funny or unfunny, Andy got your attention. You can't ignore him. You think about him, debate about him, passionately hate him, or intensely love him.

    The point is that he is able to captivate you. No matter how you feel about his performance, shock, anger, confusion, entertainment, offense, love..you don't soon forget it. Everything he did was a performance.

  • Andy "Comedic Genius" Kaufman

  • Joaquin Phoenix tried to do the same thing and failed miserably. At least Dave Chappelle had the decency to walk away and jack up his cred.

  • @Prometheus1st is there a video any where of him doing that?

  • I still think he wasn't that funny.

  • Why is this making me sad? It almost feels like Andy's bidding farewell. It's like Bill Hick's last presentation on Letterman (the one they refused to air and we all saw years later), there's an element of impending tragedy in it...

  • Now i kinda wanna search for the Jet-Powered Bowling Bowl.

  • He was being serious. He would even say "I never tell jokes." I believe he was sick with lung cancer at this point.

  • @crystrol227 Actually, I don't think he was diagnosed until 1983.

  • he bites his cheek at 48 to hold his laugh in hahaha

  • Was the cough his lung cancer?

  • its not funny. hes autistic. people are basically laughing at his autism

  • @ningali He wasn't autistic. This was funny to him...this was similar to reading The Great Gatsby to the audience.

  • @ningali That's gotta be the stupidest description of Kaufman. He wasn't autistic.

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  • Was Kaufman putting on an act or was he serious?

  • @Imran500 serious.

  • @Imran500 He was never "off".

    You ever see The Prestige? Watch it. It'll give you an idea of how Andy lived his life.

    Lady Gaga is attempting to do this, but it's obvious and not genius.

  • Andy is a regular lame person with no showmanmship, and figures that'll be his show - this was his entire career. And people bought into this because he was the only one who did it, so people are buying into nothing really, since it is lame and meaningless in the first place. The only brilliant thing about Andy is he knew he could market his stuff since no one did it before - that is, since no one tried to be famous being a nobody. He's smarter than the people who like him though, heh heh

  • @PaulJuliusSokoloff

    I see him as a modern artist more than anything. I just like his kind, like Andy Warhol :)

  • what am i missing here? why is everbody laughing?

  • @3xWink

    a cerebral cortex.

  • @DSAK55 no need to get rude. this man simply ain't funny.

  • He's alright. The bit drags on a little too long.

  • the harry houdini of comedy.

  • This dude really paved the way for all the awkward comedy we see today. He was literally a genius in the true sense as louis ck described a genius "someone who had a thought nobody had ever had before"

  • I miss coke.

  • When he started coughing I goddamn started crying in hysterics...

  • Andy was believing in illusion - You believe what you see . But in fact the TRUTH is different . So OPEN YOUR EYES and listen your heart :+))

  • Ditch the hair, superimpose the face on John Belushi.....try it, see what you get.

  • Holy inspiration for Joaquin Phoenix batman. I know it's obvious. But...wow. So awesome. lol

  • @gdwhat ?

  • @esTebanLRD search Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman you'll find what I'm talking about eventually. Or watch the mockumentry "I'm Still Here".

  • @gdwhat I KNOW ALL ABOUT THE PHOENIX FILM WITH HIS BEARD AND ETC, BUT I DON´T THINK THAT ARE THE SAME THING.

  • @esTebanLRD I'm not saying they are direct comparisons, but the whole, pretending your a total cracked out wreck in order to get laughs comparison is definitely there.

  • @gdwhat

    Joaquin Phoenix was lame, dull and pretentious.  There will only ever be one Andy Kaufman.

  • @pokes101 Ok folks, stop over-reading into what I said, Jesus. I just said it's kinda obvious Joaquin was trying to do something similar. I didn't say he did it better, or that they are identical. I just said there are similarities. Let it die. Christ.

  • Genius

  • @idster: Andy wasn't a smoker, the cough was likely either part of the act or he actually had a cold and played off it. Ironically he died of a rare form of lung cancer, but according to family, he didn't start exhibiting symptoms until years after this appearance.

  • was that coughing at 3:00 real? was he a smoker or something?

  • the funniest people are often the saddest of people,this is proven time and time again,Andy Koffman was a comic genius,but i think inside he was a very very lonely and sensitive person.who held on to his relationships with everything he had,which can often strain a relationship.but he was the type to give it everything he had and then some.

  • @KeithWasHere1 this is very true, i know first hand the tears of a clown.

  • Ok, so I'm surfing YouTube while I'm eating dinner and I click on this clip because I had never seen this before and I'm an Andy fan. When he gets to the part where he says, "If you can spare some extra money..." I laugh so hard I spit food all over my computer. What a genius. As the years pass, his stuff only gets funnier.

  • He doesn't even have to say anything to be funny and have the audiences' complete 100% attention.

    That's brilliance.

    Silence is funny.

  • @Laurpalooza Silence is funny? Depends what you are thinking.

  • @Montrealien he's quoting a line from the movie "man on the moon" based on andy kaufman

  • @Xtremedeltateam I know, and what I said still stands.

  • @Montrealien the audience or the comedian?

  • @Xtremedeltateam both.

  • Andy K marched to the beat of a different drummer. You either love him or you cant stand him...nobody sits on the fence with Andy. He certainly had a unique way of getting laughs- but he got the laughs. So that made him a good comic.

  • Comic genius.

  • @SnapCraft316 Watch more of his stuff. He's great!

  • Wonder if his brain tumor had anything to do with he oddness?

  • Awesome! Love it. This TRUE comic genius

  • OMG GENIUS HOLY SHIT BRILLIANT. This is like Normal Activity of comedy.

  • Genius!

  • andy knows what he's doing. He doesn't give a fuck about what you think. He is completely conscious through this entire piece. And it saddens me that no on is able to see that.

  • @huisman23 dude, we all know his schtick by now, its not like were all in the dark. its just that it aint that funny.

  • @afatdutch well

  • then you are very much so in the dark.

  • @huisman23 'good little next generation douche' lol dude he was just awkward and people like to laugh at awkward people. omg a comedian who is pretending he doesnt want to be laughed at. fascinating character, made a good movie after he was dead, but SO NOT FUNNY!!!! honestly if i went to any of his shows, i highly doubt i would leave in a better mood. i mean fuck, he seems depressed as fuck here. this is funny to you? this makes you laugh. fucking weird.

  • @afatdutch its an act to make people laugh and feel bad about it on the inside, like when your a kid and fat people get stuck in small doorways or the elderly fall and you laugh when you know you shouldnt. its Schadenfreude... pleasure from other peoples misfortune. im sure this was the center of his comedy.

  • @oliverjon80 sounds about right to me.

  • @afatdutch what a good little next generation douche. what do you like anchorman and all that newschool shit?

  • @huisman23 holy shit dude, you think you are just soooo fucking right dont you? you can think its funny if you want to, just dont imply everyone else 'doesnt get it'. he acts clueless and unaware that he's on a talk show and has an awkward runny nose (almost as funny as poopie and farts, right!!!!), and thats not how he was expected to act based on the formula everyone is used to seeing on tv. i get it, its just not that funny. hes a performance artist, not a comedian.

  • @huisman23

    This guy s know shit, first he is not funny, second that was in 1980, people were, much more naive and you could fool them with a cheap shit joke laike that, and it is obvius that kaufmann cant act like he doesnt know a shit, very pathetic and unfunny guy, a prefer british humor.

  • @DiegosHideout What cheap joke? He didn't say a single joke the whole time...?

  • aw he's cute

  • act or coccccccccaine?

  • @uutooyu acting like on coke

  • ok, this is NOT funny. don't act like you understand some deep meaning of this, because this is just simply stupid and bad. people are laughing because they think they're supposed to.

  • Andy Kaufman could have been funny. To bad he let his artistic license run away with him. I had promise. I hope he comes back in 2014, and knocks us dead with really comedy. No pun intended. =P

  • he was dying from lung cancer

  • @sharted400 thats what the coughing was

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  • He is original. Maybe he was influenced by Lenny Bruce? I really don't know, but he's clever and his successfully entertained in a very understated way.

  • He was a professional pain int he ass.

  • Wow, effing brilliant! Kaufman was truly a genius.

  • I can't believe Joachim Phoenix had Dave fooled for a split second after Andy.

  • I dont think he is funny but i do think he was some kind of genious and i am amazed by him

  • he looks so coked out

  • Hey look - he did Joaqin Phoenix's Letterman bit decades earlier. Guy was amazing. :)

  • David Letterman is such a dick

  • @MegaFUNFUNFUNFUNFUNF very sharp observation but I´m afraid I have to disagree with you on that, Letterman supported Andy Kaufman throughout the 80s that is why he put him on the show so many times. This was a MORNING show in 1980, I think it takes some courage to feature an unusual act like that :-)

  • @MegaFUNFUNFUNFUNFUNF Oh c'mon, you seriously think Letterman wasn't in on it? Letterman just continues to put an unstable lunatic on his show time after time after time after time and doesn't know it's a joke?

  • Felipe Avello Father's

  • everytime i watch andy, afterward i go to wiki to see if what he said was true lol

  • ....never understood his schtick when I was young. Looking back now I realize that this guy was the master of the theatre of the absurd. Kaufman was a supremely confident performer who would carry a premise to the squirmy limits of uncomfortability. He relished playing the "heel" and satirized the the very vehicle that got him to the dance. Pure genious that was years ahead of his time.

  • This is funny????

  • @23Finndog

    Only if you have an IQ of over two digits.

  • @Wulfiebaby I actually agree with this. Kaufman, Monty Python, they all led to this mundane and unfunny culture we have today. Family Guy tries so hard to make utter shit funny, shows like Arrested Development rely on a narrator to point out what's funny, and the worst is they both got brought back to life.

  • so fucking genius

  • me at 0:40 why the hell are they laughing so much? 1:34 *laughs too*

  • I woke up the morning and my penis was missing again. It happens quite a lot. Its detachable.