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Andy Kaufman Filmography
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Andy Kaufman: "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion"
Kaufman grew up admiring professional wrestlers and the fantasy world that they perform in. For a brief time, Kaufman began wrestling women during his act and was the self-proclaimed "Inter-gender Wrestling Champion of the World". He offered $1,000 reward to any woman that could pin him. Later, after a challenge from Professional wrestler Jerry Lawler, Kaufman would step into the ring (in the Memphis, Tennesee wrestling circuit) with a man — Lawler himself. Lawler's ongoing feud included an apparent broken neck for Kaufman, and a famous on-air fight on the Late Night with
David Letterman television Show. Kaufman and Lawler's famous feud and wrestling matches were all later confirmed as a gag and not real as many believed at the time. In reality, Kaufman was not injured while wrestling Lawler, and in fact, the two were friends.
Kaufman made ten appearances on
David Letterman's morning and late-night shows, including one where he claimed to be homeless and begged the audience for money, and one where he talked about his adopted children, who turned out to be three full grown African American men. Kaufman also made a number of legendary appearances on NBC's Saturday Night Live
, until he angered the audience with his female wrestling routine. The SNL audience allegedly voted to ban Kaufman from the show for good, though it was never made clear whether or not this was a gag.
In 1981, Kaufman made a couple of memorable appearances on Fridays, a variety show on ABC that was similar to
SNL. Kaufman's first appearance on the show proved to be the most memorable one. During a sketch set in a restaurant, Kaufman broke character and refused to say his lines. The other comedians were embarrassed by the position that Kaufman had put them in on a live television show. In response,
Michael Richards walked off camera and returned with a set of cue cards and dumped on the table in front of Kaufman. Andy responded by splashing
Michael Richards with water. A stagehand stormed onto the stage, leading to a brawl on camera before the show finally cut away to commercial. The entire incident was apparently a gag conceived by Andy Kaufman, but how many people were in on the gag (if any) was never made clear. Regardless, Kaufman appeared the following week in a videotaped apology to the home viewers. Later that year, Kaufman returned to host
Fridays. At one point in the show, he invited gospel singer Kathie Sullivan on stage to sing a few gospel songs with him and announced that the two were engaged to be married and talked to the audience about his newfound faith in Jesus. It was of course entirely a hoax.
Throughout his entire professional career, Kaufman kept his day job, waiting on tables at
Jerry's Famous Deli.
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