I suppose it's a tribute to Andy Kaufman that even now, close to a quarter-century after his death, folks are still talking about whether this bit or that bit of his was staged or real. Yesterday, I pointed out how Time magazine didn't seem sure if the incident on David Letterman's show — the one in which pro wrestler Jerry Lawler slapped Kaufman — was legit. I brought this up because it amazed me that even after so many sources (including Lawler's autobiography) have said it was planned, Time is still hedging its certainty. This is one of the magazines we depend upon to tell us what's really happening in Washington and they aren't sure about this silly, obvious thing.
Here, if you want to see it again, I'll embed the clip. It runs a little over seven minutes and the slap seems about as obvious with its execution and timing (just as Dave was going to commercial) as…oh, I don't know. Maybe Soupy Sales getting hit with a pie at the end of a sketch. Still, people ask, "Was that planned? Did Kaufman know it was coming?" Here's the clip…
I mean, if you were going to stage such a thing, when do you do it? When they're going to commercial, right? That's so the home audience won't have to watch the immediate aftermath of people caring for the fallen Kaufman…but they sure will stay tuned for the next chapter. Andy was good at that kind of thing, so much so that he fooled a lot of people for a while. Here's an e-mail I received from Steve Viner, who was one of Dave's writers at the time…
Concerning the infamous Andy Kaufman segment: I was there, and I can tell you that, whatever it looks like, none of us on the show knew it was coming and there was quite a debate at the time as to whether it was faked or not. Granted, that was our first assumption, but the actual event was even more dramatic than it appears. We had to stop tape during that commercial break while Andy ran up and down the halls yelling for somebody to arrest Lawler for assault. After the show finally ended, Bob Morton, who produced the segment, went back to Andy's dressing room. Bob said that Andy's cheek was quite red, but that Andy was laughing and said to him, "Wasn't that great?" That's the closest to a definite answer we ever got.
I also remember a group of us gathering around a monitor after the show and watching the segment over and over again, looking for clues. My then writing partner, who had studied fake fighting, noted that Andy shifted his chair slightly just before he got hit, and that he was actually positioning himself to fall more easily.
History has decided that the segment was a put-on, and I wouldn't quarrel with that, but it is worth noting that in the heat of the moment, we ultimately didn't know what the hell was going on.
Then of course, there was the time Tony Clifton came up to rehearse in our offices — but that's another, even more frightening, story.
I understand how at the time, folks might have been unsure…though Dave sure didn't seem to react like one of his guests might have just assaulted another of his guests. A good magician can make you wonder, just for an instant, if maybe he didn't somehow figure out a way to levitate. But then, hours later in the cold light of day, you realize that at best, all he figured out was a better way to hide the wires. That's kind of what I respect about Andy Kaufman.But — again, with hindsight — I have to say that that may be about all I respect. I saw him live a few times on stage, plus I occasionally found him bussing my table in a restaurant. I rarely found him funny and there were times when the desired audience response — that is to say, what he wanted of us — was just to be annoyed. I suspect I would have liked the guy offstage. My pal Mel Sherer, who wrote for him, loved him like a brother. But the onstage Kaufman isn't remembered for a lot more than keeping us guessing.