# Andy, did you hear about this one? \[new Andy Kaufman rumor\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 14, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914 "2013-11-14T15:48:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/1 "2013-11-14T15:48:07Z")
Ok, I’ll bite. [Andy Kaufman’s brother claims he really did fake his own death. And whips out a 24 year old gal claiming to be Andy’s (post-fakeout) daughter.](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24939133) Part of me has always hoped for it to be true. Perfect end to an amazing career. The rest of me says it’s just as awesome if his family is keeping the gag going. That really seems in keeping with the walking performance art that he was in life. I tend to feel that Andy is not alive…but that Andy will never die. But…I still want to believe he pulled it off. Thoughts? -a- ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/2 "2013-11-14T15:57:57Z")
I know he is dead…but I hope I am wrong. Alan Abel couldn’t have done it better. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/3 "2013-11-14T16:03:26Z")
That would be the greatest prank ever! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/4 "2013-11-14T16:08:25Z")
And the DNA testing will be refused because of … I dunno, respect or something. The problem with all these faking your death stories is that it presumes that people who are crazed narcissists can turn around on a dime and be content to be invisible forever. Who can believe that? Someone who could do that isn’t the type of person to become that kind of famous in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/5 "2013-11-14T16:09:13Z")
It would be exactly the sort of thing you’d expect from him, but it’s a pretty sure thing that [he’s dead](http://andykaufman.jvlnet.com/death.htm). People faking their own deaths don’t usually do it in the cancer ward at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. For him to be alive the hospital staff, funeral home, county coroner, his parents, and everybody who went to the funeral (in part to make sure he was actually dead and that it wasn’t just another prank) would have to be in on it. It’s kind of a testament to him that you actually have to think about it, though. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/6 "2013-11-14T16:10:11Z")
Alive or dead; funny stunt. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/7 "2013-11-14T16:39:23Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > funeral home, county coroner, his parents, and everybody who went to the funeral (in part to make sure he was actually dead and that it wasn’t just another prank) Did anyone walk up to the body and jab it with a big needle, just to be sure? :dubious: 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/8 "2013-11-14T16:41:09Z")
Andy was a master musician, and the audience was his instrument. Best Coda ever! ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/9 "2013-11-14T16:47:31Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Did anyone walk up to the body and jab it with a big needle, just to be sure? :dubious: > > 😛 I don’t know about a needle, but supposedly quite a few people poked him when nobody was looking. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/10 "2013-11-14T16:57:31Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > It would be exactly the sort of thing you’d expect from him, but it’s a pretty sure thing that [he’s dead](http://andykaufman.jvlnet.com/death.htm). People faking their own deaths don’t usually do it in the cancer ward at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. For him to be alive the hospital staff, funeral home, county coroner, his parents, and everybody who went to the funeral (in part to make sure he was actually dead and that it wasn’t just another prank) would have to be in on it. It’s kind of a testament to him that you actually have to think about it, though. Lots of people think Jim Morrison and Elvis Presley faked their deaths too. I disagree. All of them were way too well known to get away with it. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/11 "2013-11-14T17:22:45Z")
I don’t think that Andy Kaufman faked his own death. However, I would not be surprised to learn that he faked his own fake death. Andy: Listen, bro, there’s something I want you to do for me after I’m gone. Wait about twenty years, and then… ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/12 "2013-11-14T17:26:39Z")
The article says that Andy is best known for playing Latka on “Taxi”. At one point, I’m sure that was true. But today, wouldn’t he be best known for being Andy Kaufman? ETA: Welcome back, andros. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/13 "2013-11-14T18:50:42Z")
I know he’s dead …because I killed him! :eek::eek::eek: ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/14 "2013-11-14T18:54:37Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I don’t think that Andy Kaufman faked his own death. > > However, I would not be surprised to learn that he faked his own fake death. > > Andy: Listen, bro, there’s something I want you to do for me after I’m gone. Wait about twenty years, and then… This was my thought as well, that it was Andy who set up a huge prank “from beyond the grave.” Something that would be excellent to plan when one is in one’s dying days. If you’re Andy Kaufman, I mean. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/15 "2013-11-14T19:04:18Z")
I love that idea, but am only surprised Zmuda’s not in on it. Maybe he’s blown all his capital. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/16 "2013-11-14T19:17:42Z")
Rumors of Andy’s faked death have been circulated since his funeral. Even when he was emaciated and bald people claimed it was a hoax. Andy was the ultimate performance artist. I haven’t paid much attention to the rumors. Andy has been dead for over thirty years. No hoax. He’s dead. But now his brother believes he may be alive? :dubious: If the smoking gun is correct that the woman posing as Andy’s daughter is an actress. Then who would pull such a horrific lie on Andy’s surviving family? I’m not sure what to think. Is Michael Kaufman a comic or performance artist too? > **[Andy Kaufman’s brother says he is victim of hoax | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2013/11/14/showbiz/andy-kaufman-alive-or-not/index.html?hpt=hp_c3)** > > It seemed too good to be true. Andy Kaufman still alive. > [@](#): > > In a tale almost as outlandish as his brother’s skits, Michael Kaufman told an audience at a New York comedy club Monday night that he received a letter from his brother 15 years after his death. He then introduced a woman he said was his brother’s daughter born in 1989. > > Michael Kaufman explained he was going through Andy’s writings many years ago and found a reference to him “talking about faking his death,” including the line, “I will reappear.” It said Andy’s reappearance would take place at a restaurant on Christmas Eve in 1999. > > When Michael Kaufman went to the restaurant, he said, a parking attendant gave him a letter purportedly from his brother. Michael Kaufman read the letter to the audience at Monday’s annual Andy Kaufman Awards show. Video of the reading was obtained by CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.” > > “It was too much pressure to be Andy Kaufman. I just wanted to be Andy,” Michael Kaufman read. “I think that’s why I got sick. I had to change completely and quickly. I’m extremely very happily married with the most wonderful wife in the whole wide world and with the two greatest kids: a 10-year-old daughter and a son who is 8.” > > Michael Kaufman said he was “obviously moved by this, but I’m also real skeptical.” > > He then introduced a 24-year-old woman as Andy’s now-grown daughter. > > Michael Kaufman told the audience the woman approached him about a month after his father, Stanley Kaufman, died this summer: “She told me a lot of secrets that Andy and I had together, like our secret handshake, the way Andy made fun of me for being too nice of a guy.” ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/17 "2013-11-14T19:19:53Z")
There’s already a thread: [Andy, did you hear about this one?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=707807) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/18 "2013-11-14T19:32:49Z")
Threads merged. Speaking for myself… _Come on._ He’s dead, and on a certain level it’s kind of great that his family is now in on the game, they are fucking with people. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/19 "2013-11-14T19:49:52Z")
> [@andros](#): > > I love that idea, but am only surprised Zmuda’s not in on it. Maybe he’s blown all his capital. Wasn’t Zmuda the “other Tony Clifton” - who had the misfortune of appearing somewhere (with Taxi cast members in attendance, IIRC) as Clifton after Kaufman’s death, which was universally branded as tasteless (mainly because nobody knew at the time that it was Zmuda, and thought it was just somebody trying to cash in on the death)? If Zmuda is involved now, that probably made him think better than to be out in the open this time. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914/20 "2013-11-14T20:05:29Z")
My wife was working at Cedar Sinai in 1984. She attended to Kaufman. She confirms that he was intubated. She also couldn’t keep a secret to save her own life—she’s worse than Sheldon Cooper. I think he’s dead, Jim. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-did-you-hear-about-this-one-new-andy-kaufman-rumor/673914.md?page=2)