h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How I first found out about Andy Kaufman, is rather convuluted, so bear with me .

I remember my Dad going on about this TV show called Taxi, and how he used to love it when he was younger. He said it was strange that they hadn't repeated it in years (this is over here in the UK, I guess it must have been repeated endlessly in the states). Well when he was telling me about this, at the time I was obsessed about Back to the Future - whom one of the main characters was Christopher Lloyd.

I remember my Dad telling me that Christopher Lloyd was a character in Taxi when he was younger, and also Danny DeVito was in it. So I thought "great!", I can't wait to see this great show. But when they finally did start repeating it a few years ago they started at the very beginning, before Christopher Lloyd was in it. Which annoyed me greatly, but I watched it anyway, because it was on during my Lunch hour of my summer job (I came home for lunch ).

When I was watching I saw this character who annoyed me greatly. This was Latka, the foreigner. Aka - Andy Kaufman! Although I didn't know who that was him at first.

I wanted to see Christopher Lloyd be this great character, and instead I was watching this foreign repair man with an annoyingly high pitched voice.

Anyway, eventually they caught up to the bit where Christopher Lloyd was in the series and so I was happy. But by that time my Summer job was over, and I lost interest.

Time went on, I saw this advert for a film called "Man on the Moon", that vaguely caught my interest, with Jim Carey in it, with songs sung by REM ("Man on the Moon" is one of my favourite songs). But I didn't end up going to see the film.

Well anyway, last year sitting down watching one of the movie channels, when the next film on (it had been a while since it had been the premier) was called "Man on the Moon". I read the review, and it was about some guy called Andy Kaufman, who was in Taxi, and was played by Jim Carey. So I thought "This sounds interesting, I'll watch it".

I actually didn't have a clue which character he was in Taxi, and actually thought he was the lead Taxi driver (I can't remember his name), the one who would always square up to Danny DeVito, and the one who went out with some overweight woman, who later lost alot of weight, or something like that.

But anyway, as I found out as the film went on, it wasn't him at all. It was the annoying little foreigner I'd watched on Taxi a few years earlier. So I thought "well this is interesting".

As I watched the film, I couldn't believe the character I saw. This guy wasn't real surely. Wrestling women? Coming up with all this odd humour.

I found myself having a lot of respect for this character. I wouldn't recommed doing any of the things he did, but the way he challenged the media like that, and society was incredible. And he was doing it all for his own entertainment!

And it was so sad the way that he died (even with the suggestion of the come back!), kind of "The boy who cried wolf". And I thought the moment where he went to look for help, but found out that the help was just an act, like he would have done!

Anyway, you've written a great article there Jodan (I didn't have a clue it was you when I clicked from the front page, I was just browsing). And I'm amazed that not many people on my side of the atlantic know him.

Well done

Verc

Thanks Verc, that's an interesting story

I personally think that Kaufman was a comedic genius. I saw the movie before I researched any of this, and I didn't know he existed. When I saw the movie, I thought Kaufman was a made up character, but I researched it a lot and found out that it was true

And after I read so much, I had to write something for h2g2!

The thing that is annoying me most about Andy Kauffman these days is that I can't find the DVD for Man on the Moon anywhere! *Grumbles about unfairness*

so you liked that movie?

You kidding? It's up there in my top 100. Near "The Sting" and "Monsters Inc"

Is this an actual list

I liked the movie

I suppose it could be a real list, but it's in my head just now I have a lot of dvds, so it's hard to keep track of the full list

You have 100 dvds? I think I have less than a dozen

Not quite 100 yet. Man on the Moon is missing
But I do have about 70 now. Thanks to a quick shopping spree. Does the Superman and Superman 2 box set count as 2?

70 is quite a lot. I think two discs count as two, but only because my dozen is made up mostly of Lord of the Rings

Kick arse film. Roll on Christmas is all I can say