11/28/2023 0 Comments Andy kaufman elvis![]() Kaufman did cook up the whole idea with Ebersol, even though he relished his recurring spotlight on the show. “That’s pretty sad,” Hall noted sadly as the ad ends, earning a chuckle from the confused audience, before going on to note that not only is Kaufman still banned, “but he now owes the NBC network $80,000 and some change.” Andy Kaufman’s comedy was a one-of-a-kind blend of showmanship and provocation, and this final bit on the show that helped elevate his career (Kaufman was on the very first SNL episode in 1975) was a perfect encapsulation of Kaufman’s inimitable style. Kaufman plays it utterly straight, thanking Saturday Night Live for “all the great years” and thanking the “169,000 people” who voted to keep him on the show (the total was 169,186), explaining that it made him feel good that so many people appreciated his work. In it, Kaufman stands uncomfortably posed in front of a backdrop of blue-screened pine trees and explains that he’s using his own money to purchase airtime at individual stations in an attempt to get Ebersol and SNL to rescind his ban. ![]() Hall then aired Kaufman's actual ad, which the anchor explained had run only in the more affordable markets of Macon, Ga., Des Moines, Iowa, and Omaha, Neb. Watch When Andy Kaufman Was Voted Off 'SNL' ![]() Hall, accurately reporting that Kaufman had been buying ad space on TV stations around the country, explained that the “semiretired comedian” was desperately begging America for another chance to come back to Saturday Night Live. With cast member Brad Hall acting as the anchor for Ebersol’s "Weekend Update" news segment (temporarily retitled "Saturday Night News"), Kaufman was given one more kick while he was down. 22, 1983, episode of the show, hosted by Lily Tomlin, that SNL viewers were treated to what appeared to be another gratuitous cheap shot at the now-exiled comedian. Or rather, Kaufman never appeared live on Saturday Night Live again. Kaufman never would appear on Saturday Night Live again, before the comedian died from a rare lung cancer just over a year later at the age of 35. And that’s just what happened, with 195,544 callers voting (at 50 cents per call) to ban Kaufman from SNL forever. Kaufman, according to Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad’s account of the early days of SNL, Saturday Night, spent the week leading up to the vote worrying that the vote - cooked up as it had been between he and Ebersol - would go against him. The vote was played straight by the cast - because almost all of them were, like the audience, in the dark. The next week, SNL announced an unprecedented call-in vote in which viewers could dial one of two 900 numbers to determine whether Andy Kaufman would ever be invited back to Saturday Night Live. So the idea that the notoriously controlling Ebersol would take to SNL to trash Kaufman was at least plausible - which is how he and Kaufman wanted it. Kaufman, whose recent stint as the self-created “intergender wrestling champion” saw the comic grappling with women during his act and at pro wrestling venues, had succeeded in generating a lot of negative publicity, as was Kaufman’s intention. It was a strange and uneasy thing to watch, which, naturally, was all part of the plan.
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