MovieChat Forums > Taxi (1978) Discussion > Andy Kaufman in this show

Andy Kaufman in this show


I have not seen any of Kaufman's other work. Only the work he did on this show. I find him to be possibly the most overrated actor ever to star in a TV show. I mean WTF is it with the hype. He stinks on Taxi. Period.

How on earth could Latka be considered a classic comedy/TV character. His mother tongue gibberish is irritating. Like I said at the start. This statement is based solely on Andy Kaufman's role as Latka. He's not worth the hype.

Thank goodness he's basically a background role for a lot of the show. Possibly the worst Latka related episode is Latka's Revolting. Season 2. It's the first Taxi episode I found myself fast forwarding through mundane scenes like dances and *beep* Screw that!.

Rab: "Take a man's faimly away and whit's he got?"
Jamesie: "Nothing but money and freedom!"

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I like Latka and think he's funny but I think Andy Kaufman was famed more for his bizarre publicity stunts ( on air Jerry Lawler spat, wrestling women, Tony Clifton etc) and then dying tragically (and those weird rumours that it was all a hoax) than his role on taxi

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I see what you mean. Him as a whole. Not just him on Taxi. I remember seeing the Jerry Lawler incident on YouTube a while back.

Rab: "Take a man's faimly away and whit's he got?"
Jamesie: "Nothing but money and freedom!"

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Taxi is really the thing of his that has endured, in reruns, DVD etc not the other stuff
I'd be curious to know where his career would have ended up if he hadn't had died though, he didn't want to do anymore sitcoms and his movie Heartbeeps totally bombed (and it is a truly awful movie).
I think Andy came along at a time when ' cringe humour ' wasn't commonplace and the public totally fell for his weird stunts and thought it was all real - but that sort of thing can't last forever, I'm sure the public would have got tired of his shtick, maybe he would have reinvented himself or maybe he would have just left showbiz altogether? He was an unpredictable kind of guy so it's hard to call

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I saw that quote three times about Ram and Jamesie but I don't recall either of those characters.

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I don't mind Latka.

It's Andy Kaufman who I can't stand.
He was such an unfunny A-hole and his first SNL bit where he lip syncs to a Mighty Mouse record, which anyone can do, was so overrated.

Kaufman was nothing but an unfunny and untalented hack.

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That's the sort of feeling I get when I see and think of him. Undeserving of the attention he got and his work and memory gets to this day as an entertainer. All that while some actors and actresses out there who have potential are overlooked.

"Some say when you float a witch
You set free their soul
I've always said BURN THE BITCH!"

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I'm more familiar with Kaufman's work outside of Taxi, but I thought he gave a skilled performance as Latka. The character would have been a dead duck in the hands of a lesser performer. His physical work was on par with anyone's on the show. As for the gibberish, I far preferred it when he couldn't string together an English sentence; it invited creativity. As far as I'm concerned, his hype had substance.

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Andy Kaufman was definitely weird, but denying that he has talent is a lie.

He was a very skilled bongo drummer, he was very good at acting (after all, that's how he fooled his live audiences, when they couldn't figure out if he's acting or not), and his Elvis-impersonation was the one Elvis himself liked the most, so his singing and dancing must've been pretty gosh darn talented as well.

He was a master of pissing off people, by seemingly mocking them (he wasn't serious, but people fell for it, which also tells of a great talent of acting and fooling people, not breaking character) and doing seemingly crazy things.

BTW, if gender is just a social construction, why wouldn't it be perfectly OK for a man to wrestle women?

In any case, what he did in the way of pissing off feminists and other lunatics, showing off the hypocrisy of their arguments and bringing the old delusion that women can do anything men can do (and better) to the light, was priceless.

No one could've done it better.

However, I think he allowed his weirdness to consume him, and his character(s) that he didn't allow himself to break, eventually sank him - together with the tragic illness.

I think Tony Clifton was a bad idea and a wrong move, but it may have been his only way of blowing off some steam without having to resort to breaking character.

I think that in the end, he was a bit confused, and wasn't sure what he wanted to do - he considered himself a 'song and dance man', but I think that wasn't enough for him, and he tried to get angry and weird reactions out of the audience by being awkward and just doing whatever he wanted.

He remains a bit of a mystery even to this day, but he basically started and cultivated a then 'new' style of humor, that wasn't always funny - I guess he could be said to have been the original troller.

He was extremely talented in many ways, but he didn't use his talent the conventional way, so he ended up not being always very entertaining.

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Thank you very much.

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Ibi da?

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The very first time I remember seeing Andy Kaufman was in the mid 70s doing his “Old MacDonald” routine on Dick Van Dyke’s variety show.

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People who don't appreciate Andy Kaufmann's brilliance on Taxi can just kiss my yaktabay! (as Latka called it) LOL

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