Andy Kaufman

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Andy Kaufman challenged the definition of comedy by making his audience use all of their emotions. It looks at how he effectively utilized emotions, such as happiness, confusion, and anger during his act and how he demanded real reactions from the audience, rather than careless giggles from an audience expecting to be amused by a typical stand-up comic.

From the Paper:

"While working on the set of Taxi, Kaufman negotiated a separate contract for Tony Clifton to appear on an episode of the sitcom. Nobody knew that Kaufman's Tony Clifton character was played by both Kaufman and Zmuda when necessary. When Bob Zmuda showed up as Clifton to film, his rude behavior was so detested by the cast and crew that the episode was scrapped and Clifton was escorted off the premises by security guards. This was one of Andy's attempts to make what he considered a boring unfunny show into something more challenging to the audience as well as the cast members, and as usual, Andy got the last laugh."

More papers on Andy Kaufman:

• Analytical Essay # 6307 : "Personality Analysis: Andy Kaufman"
• Essay # 2958 : "George S. Kaufman: Master of Technique"
• Essay # 84528 : "Kaufman Assessment Battery"

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