# Andy Kaufman and Tony Clifton **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 23, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-kaufman-and-tony-clifton/389095 "2007-01-23T15:07:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-kaufman-and-tony-clifton/389095/21 "2007-01-30T14:20:21Z")
Good job. > [@](#): > > Andy’s supposed plan was that he’d stage a dramatic return after twenty years of being thought dead, so even the most skeptical among us can perhaps be forgiven a tremor of anticipation, followed by a twinge of disappointment, when May 16, 2004, came and went without incident. Until then we couldn’t be sure this master trickster didn’t have one last surprise up his sleeve. I still ain’t. If he could return after, say, 27 years, would he really return after 20? It’s such a boring predictable number, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-kaufman-and-tony-clifton/389095/22 "2007-01-30T18:50:39Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] Good job.I still ain’t. If he could return after, say, 27 years, would he really return after 20? It’s such a boring predictable number, isn’t it? [/QUOTE] We might really find out the meaning of 42 once and for all!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-kaufman-and-tony-clifton/389095/23 "2007-01-31T17:11:37Z")
I thought this was a great report, and just wanted to throw in that the first time I remember seeing Andy Kaufman on television was not on Saturday Night Live, but on a variety show that Dick Van Dyke had sometime in the mid-to-latter 70’s. He did the routine with “foreign man” doing the bad impressions followed by the spot-on Elvis Presley. If memory serves, this was at least a year or two before he ever showed up on SNL. ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-kaufman-and-tony-clifton/389095/24 "2007-01-31T18:45:20Z")
Andy appear on SNL starting in 1975. The Dick Van Dyke’s variety show _Van Dyke and Company_ aired in 1976. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-kaufman-and-tony-clifton/389095/25 "2007-01-31T22:16:18Z")
I first saw him in a focus group sometime in the 70s, in a tape of an old episode of the Mac Davis show, which orginally ran 1974-1976. (The point of the focus group was to test some new commercials.) He did the Mighty-Mouse bit, and the Mexican-cannonballs joke. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-kaufman-and-tony-clifton/389095/26 "2007-02-10T06:25:20Z")
> [@Bricker's Staff Report](#): > > Andy utterly silent and motionless on a bare stage with a scratchy recording of the Mighty Mouse theme song playing, until the refrain “Here he comes to save the day!” comes along, which he proudly and enthusiastically lip-syncs… Nitpick: the line was “Here _I come_ to save the day!” Otherwise, great report, **Bricker** I turned 20 a few days after Andy did that bit on the very first episode of _NBC’s Saturday Night_ (as they called it then), and instantly knew I was witnessing a genius at work. I was a big Andy Kaufman fan from then on, although I did get a little tired of the wrestling women bit. But that was what he wanted. I’ve just gotten the DVD set of the first season of _SNL_, and Andy’s bit is just about the only funny thing on that first show. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/andy-kaufman-and-tony-clifton/389095.md?page=1)