Andy Kaufman Returns!!!

[Beatrix Kiddo]

I'm not fucking kidding!

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... 726q1.html

Andy Kaufman Returns After 20 Years

Wed May 19, 9:00 AM ET

New York City, NY (PRWEB) May 19, 2004 -- Twenty years ago, on May 16, 1984, most of the world believed that we had lost a comedic legend forever. This has turned out to be what will inevitably be known as the greatest comic prank ever conceived. Andy Kaufman, by all accounts, is alive and well at age 55 and is now living in New York City on the upper west side. To his loyal supporters and fans, Andy says "sorry about faking my death," in a recent interview with ABC News at his apartment. In order to reach legendary comic status and seal his place in the history of performance art, he said it was "necessary to go away for twenty years."

Andy Kaufman's official site has been launched at:
http://andykaufmanreturns.blogspot.com/

Even though he has technically returned, Andy says that he plans to maintain his low key lifestyle that he has led for the past twenty years. He has resumed contact with friends and family. Fearing the possibility of this scenario and the potential for another hoax, Kaufman's family has contracted with independent auditors Ernst & Young to determine if this in fact the real Andy Kaufman. He has subjected himself to medical examination and submitted DNA, hair, blood and fingerprint samples to the auditors. Ernst & Young and the Kaufman family report that with a 99% probability, this is indeed the real Andy Kaufman. His mother says, "It's good to have Andy back."

In 1999, a new crop of Kaufman fans were born after Jim Carrey starred in the hit film Man on the Moon. "Andy's bizarre mix of comedy and performance art will inspire fans and comedians alike for generations, especially after this stunt," says Jim Carrey.

Andy says he will make only occasional public appearances, sometimes in disguise so that you won?t know if it?s really him or someone else. Kaufman was famous for pulling this stunt with the Tony Clifton character, sometimes played by good friend Bob Zmuda.

Andy says fans should tune into his website for ongoing updates to his adventures in life. As always, Andy's stage has been the world, testing the boundaries of our beliefs, our sources of information, and our perception of reality. "It's good to be back," Andy writes on his website.

# # #

[X]

ah...so he did actually come back....i was told about this a few weeks ago from "the King"...this was after he told me i looked like him in 1982.....The king that is...not kaufman.........

tremendous

[junkie christ]

thats the most fucking insane shit ive ever heard
this cant be true
hes the reason i got into comedy as a full-court assult style of thinking. i always thought his demented tricks were the best way to get points across or just show people the most fucked humor and how fucked the things we do and say really are....... damn.
and he faked his own death to boot?
genious.
:clap:

[X]

its real deal.....he said ..oh can't come up with the date...but the basics i got from lawler were...."andy said if he really was gonna fake his own death, he would come back 20 years after he died" and apparently like last weekend was the 20th anniversery, and there was a big gathering in nyc for it. Zmuda was there. i know Lawler was there....all those important people....so it is a legit story......

[junkie christ]

its real deal.....he said ..oh can't come up with the date...but the basics i got from lawler were...."andy said if he really was gonna fake his own death, he would come back 20 years after he died" and apparently like last weekend was the 20th anniversery, and there was a big gathering in nyc for it. Zmuda was there. i know Lawler was there....all those important people....so it is a legit story......

if thats the case, he should live in the happiness that his plan for immortality worked, and then sue the people who did man on the moon for more retirement money.

[Onibubba]

That is just fucking insane. I was a huge Andy fan. Like many, I held the hope that after the movie Man on the Moon came out, Andy would triumpahntly and miraculously "rise from the dead", as a punchline to one of the greatest practiacal jokes / ruses of all time.

When that did not happen, I resigned myself to the inevitable conclusion that it was all fantasy and hopeful thinking by family and friends. People do not fake their deaths, Elvis and Morrison will not be found living in a trailer park in vegas.

I cannot tell you how much this has made my day this morning...Thankyouverymuch

[snarfcat]

Well, while it'd be nifty if he was still alive, I'm thinking he probably really isn't.... read below, or visit link... I guess only time will tell for sure.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/kaufman.asp

Origins: One
would be hard-pressed to think of any other entertainer who sowed as much doubt about his true character than comedian Andy Kaufman did in the 1970s and 1980s. He adopted multiple personas and stayed in character even when he was off-stage. He performed as other people. Or he had other people perform as him. Or maybe he was performing as other people pretending to be him. He staged tantrums and altercations so convincingly that audiences were left wondering whether his flare-ups were rehearsed routines or genuinely spontaneous outbursts of anger. In the end, he blurred the division between Andy Kaufman and Andy Kaufman's comic creations so thoroughly that much of the public was no longer sure which was which.

But the end did come — on 16 May 1984, a 35-year-old Andy Kaufman died of lung cancer at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. His remains were returned to New York for interment at Beth David Cemetery. His death certificate and his gravesite are viewable on-line.

The 20th anniversary of Kaufman's death has provided the occasion for some "Andy Kaufman is alive!" rumors, fueled primarily by a blog and a press release (widely distributed via Yahoo!) proclaiming that he has emerged from hiding two decades after faking his death — accounts supposedly confirmed by his having given an interview to ABC and submitted to (and passed) DNA testing. And all of this screams of being a very un-Kaufman-like publicity stunt.

The "celebrity-died-young actually faked his own death to drop out of the public eye" rumor has long since been milked for all its worth. Every decade sees it applied to at least one prominent entertainer — James Dean, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Tupac Shakur. They're all dead, and they're not coming back. Ever. That someone issued a press release proclaiming Andy Kaufman to be alive signifies nothing other than an attempt to capitalize on the confusion his bizarre performance style sowed during his lifetime. (Heck, if anybody was capable of faking his own death, it was that crazy old Andy Kaufman, right?) The releasing agency, PRWeb, is a free wire service that will distribute anyone's press release, about anything, free of charge. (Another recent PRWeb release — "Ambassador From Mars Receives 181,634 Spam Emails; Says 'Earthlings Are Not Ready' and Takes First Available Saucer Back Home" — demonstrates that nothing is considered too silly to be distributed on their wire service.)

(Also note that the putative Andy Kaufman blog now disclaims that, contrary to details provided in the press release, he was not interviewed by ABC, and the alleged DNA testing was not conducted by the auditing firm of Ernst & Young. This seems rather transparently indicative of someone's having to backpedal after receiving complaints from companies disgruntled at having their names associated with a hoax, or at the very least of having to explain away why no one else has been able to confirm the same information.)

If the real Andy Kaufman were back, his story would be picked up by every major news service in the U.S. and a good many abroad, not merely a single "anybody can submit a story" free publicity service. And if the real Andy Kaufman genuinely wanted to demonstrate he was still alive, just one public appearance would serve that purpose far more convincingly than an unverifiable DNA test. Most important, if the Andy Kaufman I remember — the brilliant, unpredictable, erratic, and unique comic genius — had finally emerged from hiding twenty years after faking his own death, I have no doubts that he'd find a much more imaginative way of revealing his return than a free press release and a rather ordinary blog.

Last updated: 20 May 2004

[Seriousin]

more stuff..

http://www.hob.com/tickets/eventdetail. ... ntid=25970

[junkie christ]

ive found a ton of shit about it online, it all checks out. even his wifes timeline checks to what they are claiming. and a few major networks made the statement they wont cover it in fear of it being a hoax

didnt stop us from watching the bush hoaxes... i say fuck it air it either way.

if its a hoax, its really fucking eloborate

[Celestial Dung]

Put me down for hoax. So he comes back on a blog which just happens to be a anomynous means of communication. Smells fishy.

As for the House of blues Show...I take it for a excellent sales pitch to a Andy tribute show.

Or who knows...and this is my own uneducated conjecture...mabye the blog hoax is part of the sales pitch itself. Get some attention about Haufman and wham bam instant saleout.

If I was of more conniving stock I would take this as inspiration to pull off a Mr Mojo Risin' hoax. All I would need is a blog and PRWeb.

[Lost Traveler]

I'll believe it if I see it....but

If its not a Hoax.....Congratz to the man on a great one (hopefullly he'll have other stuff for us)


If it is a hoax (and this is my belief) Then congratz to the people pullling it off it exactly something he would have loved.

[Coor]

I agree with Traveler on this one.

[junkie christ]

i think this is another prime example of how skeptical people have became.
if it was the truth, noone would believe it
if it was a hoax, everyone would race to show how they said it first.

as a society, we are getting pretty fucked up.

[X]

eh show me something rather than opinions to it being a hoax and i'll go along with it.

i think that was the underlined point at the end of MOTM anyway.

just cus he has a blog, means shit......


i may be a fool, but i'm still waiting for the bobs to cue up on raw, and watch Andy take the intergender title away from any challenger.......cus he's the king...he's the king...he's the king-of-mem-phis tenn-essee