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Andy Kaufman became one of the most influential comedians ever in a brief amount of time — really only a decade, from his first national television appearance to his death from lung cancer in 1984 at 35.
The first Kaufman character to break out was the tentative, thick-accented immigrant from the Caspian Sea known as Foreign Man, an antecedent to Borat but sweeter, more sensitive and deluded.
Kaufman was the first (and probably last) comedian to kill on an HBO special through the use of the bongos.
Kaufman’s comedy was preoccupied with failure — or as he put it, “the bombing and crying routine.”
Kaufman was happy to receive laughs based on not getting the joke.
In Kaufman’s most famous appearance on “Late Night With David Letterman,” he staged a fight with the wrestler Jerry Lawler.
Kaufman incorporated many forms into his comedy, like lip-syncing, that would later become much more popular in the age of the internet.
Kaufman got rises out of people through insult, surprise, and sometimes just a stubborn refusal to play along.
If there was one entertainer Kaufman took seriously, it was Elvis Presley.
One narrative you hear about Kaufman is that characters like Foreign Man were innocent and wholesome while his later ones, like the seedy Vegas singer Tony Clifton or his heel turn wrestling women, curdled into something darker.
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