“I could have sued you,” Kaufman insisted. Watch Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler on 'The Late Show With David Letterman' Things escalated from there, with Kaufman even suggesting legal action over his injuries. That’s why he’s still wearing, I don’t know if it’s a neck brace or a flea collar.” Lawler scoffed in response, accusing Kaufman of being desperate for attention: “He did it all for publicity. At one point, Kaufman asked Lawler for an apology. “I think when Andy was born, his father wanted a boy and his mother wanted a girl, and they were both satisfied,” Lawler quipped, one of several barbs thrown Kaufman’s way.įor his part, Kaufman remained soft-spoken in the early parts of the interview, suggesting he was simply “playing bad-guy wrestler” before their infamous match. He was still wearing a neck brace when the two appeared on Letterman. The comedian was taken out in an ambulance, but it was all for show. Their famous Apmatch remains legendary – a wildly entertaining bout that saw Lawler pile-drive Kaufman to the mat twice. Behind the scenes, the two were friends and collaborators but to the public, they were rivals, with Kaufman regularly taunting the brawny wrestler and his Memphis hometown. Sure enough, Lawler was up for the challenge. Apter suggested Kaufman get in contact with Lawler, explaining that he and the Mid-Southern Wrestling promotion team would " do anything for shock value."Īpter later argued that this was the "start of what we know as sports entertainment today." Kaufman then sought the advice of Bill Apter, a wrestling journalist whom he’d befriended while performing the inter-gender wrestling routine. Kaufman approached Vince McMahon of the former World Wrestling Federation but was turned down. He wanted to bring the act to a mainstream wrestling circuit. However, these claims are disputed by Kaufman's brother, Michael, who said to Entertainment Weekly, "Are they trying to defame who made the diagnosis?. Margulies claims that Kaufman was bisexual (he allegedly asked her to keep it secret until after his parents died), and even today, according to Avert, homophobia is a major obstacle to solving the global AIDS crisis. Back then, amid rampant homophobia, AIDS was smeared as so-called "gay cancer," leading to horrific shows of prejudice against the LGBTQ+ community. In recent years, Kaufman's girlfriend Lynne Margulies has raised another possibility, as explained by the Advocate, which is that Kaufman may have died from a misdiagnosis (or cover-up) of AIDS complications. Nonetheless, Kaufman combined conventional treatments like chemo and radiation with unorthodox solutions like a macrobiotic diet and "psychic surgery." Sadly, nothing worked. With only three months to live, the doctor's only recommendations were the care-and-comfort variety. until suddenly, out of nowhere, he would conclude with a stunning, spot-on Elvis impersonation, according to The New Yorker, thereby amazing crowd-goers with the realization that the entire "lackluster" show had been a brilliant subterfuge act. Employing an imaginary accent, Kaufman carefully crafted the role so as not to exacerbate any existing stereotypes, as explained by Doyle Green's Politics and the American Television Comedy: Depending on the platform, the background of the "Foreign Man" could sometimes seem Slavic, Mediterranean, or just about anything else. The point wasn't to mock immigrants, either, but to present the character as a kindhearted, well-meaning neophyte who wants to make people laugh with his lackluster impressions of American stars but possesses zero talent at it. In an average skit, the Foreign Man would perpetually bomb, growing frustrated to the point of having tears in his eyes, or even asking for the camera to be turned off. Andy Kaufman's ride to fame was his "Foreign Man" character, a personality he first developed as a little boy, according to.