Man, am I old. I remember seeing this Fridays skit when it first aired live.

[valerief]

They said it was planned, but that was just damage control.

Does anyone else remember seeing this live?

[CanSocDem]

1. I loved that show.

Michael Richards as a pharmacist made me weep with laughter.

I love how he tired of Andy Kaufmans' ego in this skit, went and got the cuecards and dumped them on his lap. Kaufman is/was an ass.



.

[valerief]

2. I agree. Kaufman's dead, so 'was' is the correct tense. Well, until his long-awaited resurrection

occurs.

BTW, Richards wasn't the pharmacist. It was Blankfield.

Here's a young Larry David with him.

[CanSocDem]

5. I hate it when that happens. (eom)

[valerief]

8. Hey, I didn't remember. I looked it up to view a clip and found it out. nt

[Yavin4]

3. I saw it live as well.

Freaked me out.

[valerief]

9. I loved it. Now, THAT looked like Real TV! nt

[TreasonousBastard]

4. I don't remember seeing that one, but I do remember...

Kaufman at the NYC comedy clubs back then before he got big.

Brilliant isn't even close. When he clicked, we were on the floor and didn't really know why. He would start a stupid bit and then go off on some insane rant about quitting the business and we thought it was hilarious. And the more we laughed the more "upset" he got, and it went on until we were exhausted. Other times it didn't work as well, but he was experimenting, which is kinda the point of comedy clubs.

I don't know if this bit was real or staged, but it is pure Kaufman-- yeah, he did have a rep as being an asshole at times. Came with the territory.

[valerief]

10. I saw Kinison at Rodney Dangerfield's in NYC back, well, I can't even remember

Last edited Sat Jan 2, 2016, 08:33 PM - Edit history (1)

which decade, and I didn't get it. I probably wouldn't have gotten Kaufman, although I loved his Mighty Mouse bit. As a girl, I had a crush on Mighty Mouse and later on Jerry Lewis. I was rather odd.

edited to change Mickey to Mighty

[TreasonousBastard]

14. Mickey mouse was a classic, but...

it was weird, at least the versions I saw.

Sam Kinison? I don't remember much of him from back then, but it's tough to make the "loud" work. Very few can pull it off, and I don't really know how Kinison lasted so long.

Can't remember his name now, but a couple of nights ago I saw a guy on "Comics Unleashed" who had brilliant rants. He was hilarious and had everyone rolling on the floor.

"My nutritionist told me I can have all the salad I want. Salad? That's not a food. That's a message saying food is coming..."

[TreasonousBastard]

16. Oops! I see below that it was Mighty Mouse.

[valerief]

21. Ha! He doesn't really make much more sense to have a crush on. Just another animated mouse.

[kwassa]

6. this is pretty typical of Andy Kaufmann.

Is it comedy, or a bizarre form of performance art?

[ret5hd]

7. I think he is alive and posts on DU under several user names.

Sometimes he even replies to himself!

[kwassa]

15. I agree. At least a dozen aliases, too ..

[CTyankee]

11. Was the other guy Kramer from Seinfeld?

[valerief]

12. Yep, that was Michael Richards. Larry David was also on that show. nt

[CTyankee]

17. god, I loved Kramer! Sometimes I binge watch old Seinfeld episodes...everyone is so

perfect I bet Jerry looks back and says "that was it, the high point." It sure was for me. They were all great...Elaine, Costanza and his dad, and the whole ensemble in the shops and food places (No soup for you, six months!) and everywhere...

[valerief]

18. Yep, that was a great series. Lately, I've been binge-watching Curb Your Enthusiasm

on amazon prime. I hadn't seen most of the episodes before. It's just as crazy as Seinfeld. I'm on Season 8 (the last one) and will be lost when that's over.

[CTyankee]

19. Ok, I'll binge on that...I didn't catch Curb for some reason...we all have a life...

so I'm up for something new so I'll try it.

I know how you feel about when you are finished with all the programs. I remember the end of MASH and everyone was in mourning. I was one of them. I too was saying "How can you do this to me? I depend on you to help me get through this republican administration!" (I don't know which one it was).

[valerief]

20. Yes, I never had time for Seinfeld and Curb when I was younger (although I caught a lot

of Seinfeld in syndication). I had a life then, too. Being old/no-life now, I have lots of time to catch up!

Funny about MASH. Well, with technology now, our shows never really end. From streaming to DVD, they're always there for us!

[MuseRider]

13. I remember it.

I did not always watch it but to me this is what you would expect from Kaufman. You never really knew if he was being funny or just pushing limits. Often I did not get it but when I did it was really something. Humor has certainly changed!

Did you mean the Mighty Mouse routine or was there a Mickey Mouse routine that I did not know about. The Mighty Mouse was when he sang, Here I come to save the day, and then just moved in time to the rest of it. Those sketches that he was doing around that time were amazing. Cookies for the audience after the show!

[valerief]

23. I just fixed the Mickey to Mighty. Thanks!

[csziggy]

22. The "Fridays" I remember seeing live was the Ronny Horror Picture Show

[Gidney N Cloyd]

24. Michael Richards was, oddly, a perfectionist about staging skits.

On Seinfeld he'd get his nose out of joint if the other actors goofed up or broke out of character. He didn't like to re-do scenes or especially his famous entrances because he thought the audience wouldn't react as well a second time.
I can imagine him having had quite enough of Andy Kaufman by the end of a week of rehearsals. That still doesn't solve whether this bit was staged or not. It may even layer on some possibility that the writers and director thought something like this might happen if they threw Kaufman and Richards together.