Andy Kaufman Gets Slapped. Hard.
Real or elaborate put-on? It’s hard to tell when Andy Kaufman — comedian and performance artist — is involved. In the early 1980s, Kaufman engaged in a series of absurdist exercises whereby he wrestled women and declared himself “Intergender Heavyweight Champion.” Such bluster soon caught the attention of professional (male) wrestler Jerry Lawler, who challenged Kaufman to a match and proceeded to pile-drive him into the mat twice, thereby injuring his neck.
The pair appeared on Letterman’s show in June 1982 to hash it out, Kaufman taking an aggrieved tone and Lawler assuming an arrogant, lackadaisical pose. In one of television’s more shocking commercial lead-ins, an exasperated Lawler stood up and slapped Kaufman in the face hard enough to knock him off his chair (at about the 5:00 mark in the clip above). When the show returned from break, viewers witnessed Kaufman lose it, cursing and throwing a cup of coffee at Lawler. It was all very entertaining. But many have claimed that it was staged — just another Kaufman goof.
Next: Crispin Glover Goes Back to the Crazy
Crispin Glover Goes Back to the Crazy
So normal — square, even — as Marty McFly’s father in Back to the Future, Crispin Hellion Glover (apparently that’s his real middle name) turned in a thoroughly bizarre and completely uncomfortable performance during this 1987 appearance on Letterman’s show. Ostensibly there to promote his film River’s Edge, Glover babbled haltingly and read random clips about himself from Los Angeles society pages, all while wearing hippie pants, an off-kilter wig and platform shoes. It remains debatable as to whether it was all a performance (some have speculated that he was dressed up as a character from his future film Rubin and Ed) or if he was actually on some sort of drug. Letterman miraculously allowed Glover’s rambling to go on — until Glover almost kicked him in the face.
