Thank You Very Much Movie Review: Andy Kaufman, Shaggy Dog

Thank You Very Much is a 2023 documentary film directed by Alex Braverman. It covers the childhood and short life of performance artist/”comedian” Andy Kaufman. He died at the age of 35 from lung cancer and was active on the comedy circuit from his late teens, though he began performing at children’s parties while he was still a child himself. The documentary is significant for being made up mostly of recently shared footage that, in many cases, has not been seen by the general population since Kaufman’s time.

Kaufman is famous for being an anti-comic, or, more aptly, a provocateur. He deliberately provoked strong reactions. He didn’t seem to care if those reactions were in his favor or not. He would play his Foreign Man character who would tell “jokes” with a made-up accent sometimes verging on total gibberish. Foreign Man made him famous as it landed him the part of Latka on the ’70s sitcom Taxi. Another of his early gags was to do a series of terrible impressions followed by an astonishingly strong impression of Elvis Presley. After one of his concerts, he led the audience outside where buses were waiting to take everyone across town for milk and cookies. It is fair to say that Kaufman was doing something new, or off-center, that hadn’t quite been seen before.

Milos Forman’s fictionalized biography Man on the Moon comes to mind while watching Thank You Very Much. They both cover the same territory. The biggest thrills added to the documentary are several extended sequences having to do with Kaufman’s time as a wrestling villain, and an informative interview with Kaufman’s late father (some of the interviews were conducted in the ’90s by Kaufman’s friend and writing partner, Bob Zmuda, and his girlfriend, Lynne Margolies). Zmuda, possibly gives some insight into what Kaufman was trying to achieve, but it is hard to tell because Zmuda is still trying to play the game Kaufman invented. And what is that game? The game of the non-laugh, the uncomfortable silence, confusion, and even, on occasion, anger. Kaufman would sit on the stage and read The Great Gatsby to the audience. Page after page, he never let up and didn’t feel his act had been completely successful until every last audience member had left in mystified frustration.

There are interesting ideas about what made Kaufman tick bandied about here and there. One is that Kaufman’s act was deeply influenced, in part, by his connection to meditation which was deeply important to him. The theory is that Kaufman wanted both himself and the audience to only spend time in the moment, the “now”, much like being in a meditative state. If that makes the audience uncomfortable, that is not just okay, that is wonderful. For Kaufman, being in the present, the space in which a joke is set up, was more important than the future – the place where the joke is supposed to conventionally land.

Steve Martin is interviewed, but all we learn from Martin is that he really liked Kaufman and thought he was one of a kind. Danny DeVito and Marilu Henner retell stories of their days together on the set of Taxi that have been told by them several times before. Laurie Anderson adds some fresh insight though she and Kaufman were only friends for a few years before he became famous. She saw him in a small nightclub and was instantly drawn to him. Once they were friends, Anderson began to perform alongside him as a plant in the audience who became upset with Kaufman’s material and would yell at him and sometimes rush the stage and slap him, which she claims is where Kaufman began to form the idea to wrestle women.

The heart of Thank You Very Much is the collection of interviews surrounding Kaufman’s time as the baddie in the wrestling ring who only fought women. There is much to learn from the likes of the wrestler Jerry Lawler and especially Kaufman’s manager, George Shapiro, who appears to have been extremely close to the late comedian, and also was one of his biggest fans.

It is frustrating that Thank You Very Much, like Man in the Moon before it, does not avoid perpetuating the myth that Andy Kaufman could still be alive, waiting to make a reappearance that, let’s face it, at this point would probably just be heartbreaking. If Kaufman did suddenly show up, there would be few under the age of 50 who remember him. It would certainly make the news, but as a performance, would it really have any more depth and resonance than a knock-knock joke? No, Andy is dead, and he left behind a crazy legacy of smart and dumb bits that continue to entrance, amaze, and confound.

Thank You Very Much is set to be released in limited theaters and On Demand on March 28, 2025.