Andy Kaufman

[Tigon Man]

[QUOTE=helo99;1417826]Parinello, who met Kaufman when they were undergrads at Grahm Junior College in Boston, says he is convinced of the story's veracity, even though he attended Kaufman's funeral and saw his body with his own eyes.
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"It was a closed casket," he recalls. "Only the family [and myself] actually saw the body." How then does he reconcile Monday's events? "Andy was an aficionado of meditation," he explains. "One of the things Andy was taught at the highest level was a process where one could slow down his breath to a point where you can literally fool anyone that you may be dead when in fact you are alive. So that's the one thing that Michael checked for."
Adds Parinello: "It was a very formal affair -- it wasn't as though they could prod or anything else. They were simply in the room and saw Andy laying in a coffin."
Contacted by THR, Michael Kaufman said that the woman claiming to be Kaufman's daughter was impossible to reach, for reasons he would explain later. He then excused himself, saying he had a dinner date with his wife.


Hummmmm, this is DEFINITELY juicy. The brother clearly knows something and is excusing himself from the press. How come this girl cannot be reached in internet times? [/QUOTE

Almost certainly a hoax. If this guy saw Kaufman in his box meditation or no meditation then he was dead. Surely he would have been embalmed? I don't think even Kaufman could survive being filled with acid...

[Gladiolus]

Tony Danza talked to Howard Stern in 2004 about seeing Andy in the hospital; says it was no joke, "He was obviously very, very sick."

General talk about Andy's attitude on the set of Taxi at 5:20. Talk about Andy in the hospital at 8:25:

[Saddletramp]

He was a strange, but funny person. Don't think there will be another in my lifetime.

[bella]

It's clearly a hoax. I was not really a fan, but it was sad for him to die so young of such a tragic illness.

[john*thomas]

Andy was great. I remember watching his Mighty Mouse skit on SNL and thinking that this guy was funny. It wasn't about being funny though, it was as noted earlier about getting a reaction. Andy was more of a performance artist than a comedian but even then he could run rings around someone like Will Ferrell without even trying.

[neilmpenny]

Andy was great. I remember watching his Mighty Mouse skit on SNL and thinking that this guy was funny. It wasn't about being funny though, it was as noted earlier about getting a reaction. Andy was more of a performance artist than a comedian but even then he could run rings around someone like Will Ferrell without even trying.

That's probably the best description of him I have read. He was all about getting a reaction, not necessarily being funny. These ongoing 'hoaxes' feed right into that, now that I think about it.

[Dan33185]

Anyone else listen to his "new" album? Really funny, true Andy humor.

[MysticCho]

I was never a fan.......don't know much about him. I may well be the only person I know that didn't watch Taxi......

I Never Watched Taxi Either ....

[choff]

I Never Watched Taxi Either ....

Dittos here.....however I do remember when back in the fall of 1982 Taxi had moved from ABC to NBC only because of the NBC/Taxi promos saying "better time..better station" and if Taxi on the NBC channel had aired at the same time and day as it did on ABC "...same time..BETTER station". Funny that I don't remember seeing Kaufman doing those promos but I do remember everyone else. Hard to believe now but those promos actually had caused a "little" stink at the time because some viewers had felt they were in bad taste because of the way the cast of Taxi were "bashing" their former ABC station. Today who would care. Guess some viewers saw things a little bit differently back in 82.

[Roadrunner]

Yesterday's New York Post had a great article about Andy Kaufman:

http://nypost.com/2014/09/28/why-and...till-be-alive/

I never believed he faked his own death. However, his girlfriend did drop this interesting tidbit:

"Zmuda and Margulies reveal here for the first time that Kaufman was bisexual, and she floats the possibility that he died not of cancer but AIDS. The pair writes that Kaufman made them promise to keep his bisexuality a secret until both his parents were dead. Kaufman’s mother died soon after he did, and his father passed away last year."

I've always found it strange that a healthy 35 year old non-smoker would just suddenly die of lung cancer. Anyway, there's no proof to the AIDS rumor, but it certainly seems plausible.

[Benion]

Yesterday's New York Post had a great article about Andy Kaufman:

http://nypost.com/2014/09/28/why-and...till-be-alive/

I never believed he faked his own death. However, his girlfriend did drop this interesting tidbit:

"Zmuda and Margulies reveal here for the first time that Kaufman was bisexual, and she floats the possibility that he died not of cancer but AIDS. The pair writes that Kaufman made them promise to keep his bisexuality a secret until both his parents were dead. Kaufman’s mother died soon after he did, and his father passed away last year."

I've always found it strange that a healthy 35 year old non-smoker would just suddenly die of lung cancer. Anyway, there's no proof to the AIDS rumor, but it certainly seems plausible.

I think Andy realized he was terminally ill and so started telling people he would fake his own death as one final hoax. I believe he is dead, but the rumors he spread was his final joke, and a very clever one at that. He has managed to still get people guessing and expecting him to reappear years after his death.

I guess you would call it a double hoax. He faked faking his own death!

[Rosebud666]

There are few things funnier than seeing Andy transition from the Foreign Man to Elvis and back again. That alone makes him one of my personal heroes.

This my imitation of Jimmy Carter, President of the United States: "Hello, I am Jimmy Carter, President of the United States". Even my grandmother thought THAT was funny! That and Garrett Morris as a black cleaning woman stuck at THree Mile Island with Jimmy Carter.

[Desert Ghost]

I got in trouble with my dad when my family and visiting relatives were watching Andy on SNL. My dad talked over the punchline of a joke Andy told and then he asked what the punchline was. All I said was, "Maybe if you didn't talk when he was talking you would have heard it." Oh oh!

Still miss Andy and he is still dead.

[Upset]

I think Andy realized he was terminally ill and so started telling people he would fake his own death as one final hoax. I believe he is dead, but the rumors he spread was his final joke, and a very clever one at that. He has managed to still get people guessing and expecting him to reappear years after his death.

I guess you would call it a double hoax. He faked faking his own death!

Zmuda says he was talking about faking his death before he realized he was ill.

Most of what is in the New York Post article was in the book Zmuda came out with several years ago. The only really new stuff is the thing about his bisexuality and Zmuda saying that he thinks Andy will reappear. Previously, he had said he was on the fence about it, and in the dedication to his book he said "Kaufman, if you're still alive, I'll kill you."

[SomeChick]

If you're an Andy Kaufman fan and have Netflix, check out the documentary Andy & Jim (2017). It's the behind the scenes footage from Man in the Moon, combined with interviews of people who knew or were related to Andy, and shows new sides of Kaufman as well as the man who played him in the film. The final word on Tony Clifton is also in there.