I have always thought there were two kinds of comedians, the ones that said laugh at me (Jerry Lewis) and the ones that said laugh with me (Lenny Bruce, George Carlin.) Then Kaufman came along and was totally different. The main thrust of his act was "I am laughing at you."

Roger Ebert said that Kaufman's whole career was not so much dedicated to entertaining people as to studying the concept of the relationship between entertainer and audience; and understood and appreciated that a performance is never more fascinating than when it is going terribly, terribly wrong. To that end, he kind of made audiences EARN entertainment from him, for better or worse (often worse).

Much like art that is a single silver dot on a red field, you either get it as art or think of it as a silver dot on a red field. Kaufman was an artist like that. You either "got" his message (or pretended to get his message so you wouldn’t look like an idiot to your friends) or you didn't. At that time I "got" him about half the time.

Looking back I realize that half of time was when I was stoned.

:m: Peace.

A wack job that became a comic.
He did good..I think he wanted to be "famous, larger than life" more than funny.
Hollywood Squares seem to be where he would have ended up if he hadnt died early.

Can't he be both?

brillant genius he was and is. the guy was well ahead of his time. today we see such comedy attempts that appear as jackass or tom green. in no way can they even come close to the genius comic ability of mr. kaufman. he took it to the next level and i really doubt that anyone will come along in our lifetime that will be able to match his humor.

i agree with you and how he entertained in a different sense that almost made you ask, "what is he doing?" to me that is the hardest humor to expell. nontheless, get someone to respond to it. it takes a special type of personality and inner self to do such. he is the only one who i have seen that can do so.

mr. carrey did a very good job of playing the role. he does entertain close to the ability of mr. kaufman. however he is lacking the ability to convince. that is the most important asset of such an entertainer as mr. kaufman.

good thread goof!

I think some of his bits were brilliant, Like the one where his friend would be in the audience telling the punchlines during the jokes, and the great gatsby one.