There’s been no comedian on “Saturday Night Live” quite like Andy Kaufman. Kaufman was never an official cast member, but he was there in the first-ever “SNL” episode and he appeared frequently throughout the next seven years; in that time, much of the audience never quite understood what he was doing. Kaufman loved anti-humor, with the joke often being that the audience couldn’t tell if he was bombing on purpose or bombing for real.
Kaufman was a divisive figure on “SNL,” and became even more so in 1979 when he started wrestling women (seemingly for real) on the show. In his call for female wrestlers to fight, he said his goal was to prove that “women should stay home … they should be kept barefoot and pregnant,” a line that did not amuse some of the women who took up his challenge. “I suppose he was only kidding, or says he was kidding,” one challenger told the Morning Union. “But you don’t say something like that unless, deep down, you really feel that way.”
Kaufman’s divisive antics continued until “SNL” appeared to have had enough of him. At the end of the episode on November 13, 1982, “SNL” producer Dick Ebersol told the audience on-air that he had cut a Kaufman sketch at the last moment. Why? Because, as Ebersol put it, “The problem is Andy Kaufman just isn’t funny anymore.” Ebersol’s statement wasn’t quite the end of Kaufman’s “SNL” tenure, however; his true firing came one week later.
Saturday Night Live let viewers decide if they wanted to ban Kaufman permanently
The week after Dick Ebersol trashed Andy Kaufman on air, the show aired a live segment telling viewers to vote on the comedian’s future. “I happen to think that Andy Kaufman is a comedic genius. If you agree with me, call 1-900-720-4101,” explained cast member Gary Kroeger. “However, if you think Andy is not funny anymore, if you’ve seen enough of his wrestling women, the Mighty Mouse bits, the phony injuries, the stupid unfunny hoaxes, if you’ve had enough of this loudmouth, call 1-900-720-4202.”
Although the feud between Kaufman and Ebersol was staged, the show actually did count the votes and Kaufman did agree to abide by what America decided. 195,544 callers voted to ban him from the show, while only 169,186 voters called to keep him on. Because Kaufman always committed to the bit, he really did stay off “SNL” for the rest of his life.
Well, Kaufman did appear one more time, but not as a live performer. In the weeks after his bizarre firing, Kaufman had started buying ad space on TV begging America to let him back on “SNL.” The then-“Weekend Update” anchor Brad Hall played one of his real ads on air. “That’s pretty sad,” he remarked, but reminded viewers Kaufman was still banned forever. While Kaufman’s ads were indeed performance art, the line between fiction and reality was uncomfortably blurred here. “SNL” would never pull a stunt this strange again.
Will Saturday Night Live ever top Andy Kaufman’s schtick?
Audiences were amused but confused by Andy Kaufman’s firing, especially since both Kaufman and Dick Ebersol publicly kept up the animosity act. “I don’t mind that all those viewers don’t want me on the show,” Kaufman told the Philadelphia Daily News after his firing, “but I want everyone to know I had nothing to do with it. It’s not an Andy Kaufman bit. I can do my own bits.”
Even Kaufman’s later death became a source of confusion. He died of lung cancer at 35 years old, less than two years after “SNL” fired him. Kaufman had often joked about faking his own death for a gag, which of course led to rumors that even this was one of his publicity stunts. Sadly, those rumors have not turned out true, but at least Kaufman will always be remembered as one of the best celebrity wrestlers ever.
In the decades since Kaufman was banned from “SNL,” no cast member has come close to his brand of deliberately unpleasant comedy. Perhaps the closest in spirit was Kyle Mooney, a cast member from 2013 to 2022 who played painfully awkward characters who divided audiences. (Some of his characters would even end up on TVLine’s lists of worst sketches of the season.) But with Mooney it was always easy to tell that his anti-comedy shtick was intentional; the brilliance of Kaufman was that fans often had no idea what to make of him.