Thank You Very Much: The Andy Kaufman Doc

When you think about, a lot of people now owe Andy Kaufman an apology. They demonized him for staging wrestling matches against women. He did it precisely because it was an unfair spectacle. Even though Kaufman was no Schwarzenegger, he was still a man. Apparently, society has become as absurd as an Andy Kaufman gag, allowing biological men to pummel women boxers in the Olympics, but everyone is too chicken to observe the irony during Alex Braverman’s documentary, Thank You Very Much, which opens today in New York.

As most fans know by now, Kaufman’s style of comedy was more like performance art than traditional stand-up. Bob Zmuda (a major voice in Braverman’s doc) got it, becoming Kaufman’s longtime writer and collaborator. Yet, Kaufman could project the sad clown persona that came out in characters like Latka Gravas, his beloved character on the Taxi sitcom.

Kaufman also created his abrasive alter-ego, Tony Clifton, who was sadistically annoying to everyone around him. Braverman incorporates chaotic audio of Clifton’s ill-fated guest-starring appearance on Taxi, which compares to Orson Welles’ “Frozen Peas” radio commercial.

Arguably, Kaufman’s “inter-sex” wrestling displays get as much time as Clifton or Taxi, if not more. Understandably so, considering how Kaufman was vilified for what critics considered his loutish manhandling of women. Yet, nobody compares his provocations, which were intended to be outrageous, to a biological male beating a field of women swimmers by entire pool lengths, but seriously, what’s the difference?

So, everyone in Thank You Very Much is too much of a scaredy-cat to make the blindingly obvious comparison. Who knows, maybe Kaufman will. Several of Braverman’s interview subjects readily admit Kaufman often discussed the possibility of faking his death as part of an elaborate gag-hoax. According to Danny Devito, it took him a long time to finally accept the reality of Kaufman’s death.

In addition to Zmuda and Devito, Marilu Henner also talks about their Taxi days, but Judd Hirsch is only heard unloading on Kaufman in his troublemaking Clifton persona. Braverman does not enlist a huge platoon of talking heads, but Steve Martin and fellow merry prankster Bob Pagani offer a fair amount of insight into the subject.

Kaufman’s film, Heartbeeps, is mentioned briefly, mostly to set-up a clip in which Kaufman and Zmuda mock it during a stage routine. Yet, Dick Ebersol of Saturday Night Live arguably emerges as the film’s only real villain.

Kaufman’s final screen credit came in 1983. The Milos Foreman biopic, Man in the Moon released nearly 25 years ago. Nevertheless, here we are, still talking about Kaufman. Maybe it is time for him to finally resurrect himself. However, you have to wonder if his deliberately awkward and off-putting approach would still work with vapid Gen-Z audiences who expect everything to have “relevancy” and “meaning.” Please come back, Mr. Kaufman. We need your defiant weirdness. In the meantime, we can appreciate the lunacy documented in Thank You Very Much. Recommended for its sensitive portrait of the uniquely eccentric performer, it opens today (3/28) in New York, at the Quad.