By Comedy is, and always will be, strange. I find it fascinating how subjective comedy can be and what makes jokes land versus fail. Some jokes are pretty universal and can be easily understood, but then you have strange comedians whose jokes aren’t exactly universally understood. In case you were wondering, Andy Kaufman is one of those comics, and Andy Kaufman Is Me is an attempt to peel back the layers of a strange, strange man.
For those of you who don’t know, the best way to describe what Andy Kaufman’s humor is is almost a proto-Adult Swim anti-humor. His jokes aren’t quite jokes, but he commits to the bit so much that his dedication to the absurdity in itself is funny. One of my favorite routines he ever did was when he went onstage and ate a bowl of ice cream. No set-up, no punchline, just sitting around and eating ice cream. Plenty of people laughed, but you can easily tell why he’s such a polarizing figure in the world of comedy, and Andy Kaufman Is Me does a sufficient job painting a picture of the man, but lacks a certain spark.
Andy Kaufman Is Me
Director: Clay Tweel
Release Date: June 6, 2025 (Tribeca Film Festival)
Andy Kaufman Is Me is a very personal look at Kaufman, with anecdotes primarily coming from his childhood friends and family. While there is a very in-depth look at his career and many of the highlights of it, such as his time on Taxi, SNL, and his numerous appearances on David Letterman, most of the documentary tries to dissect his actions through whatever they have of him. This includes all of the footage that Kaufman recorded of himself, both audio and video, as well as excerpts from the rough draft of his unpublished semi-autobiographical book, “The Huey Williams Story.”
It’s clear from the get-go that this documentary is a deeply personal snapshot of Kaufman. It hits the standard beats of his upbringing, his tumultuous relationship with his father, and his initial breakout on the comedy scene. In fact, just in terms of structure, for as unconventional of a person as Kaufman was, his documentary is anything but. We see the rise, the height of fame, and then the inevitable fall and decline. If you’ve seen any documentary at all in your life, then you know exactly how Andy Kaufman Is Me is structured. At the very least, what separates it from other retrospectives about the man is how much of the reflections on his career come from Kaufman himself.
Kaufman recorded almost every part of his life, whether it be calls from fans, having his stand-up routines filmed, or recording whenever he had an idea for his book. Those ideas of “The Huey Williams Story” are probably the most interesting bits of the narration, because it becomes fairly clear towards the end that several of the points of the book directly parallel his own life. Both paint a picture of a man who was never truly comfortable with himself. That should be pretty obvious to anyone who watches a bit of his stand-up special, especially towards the end of his life, but you can see the joy in his face in his earlier years when he first reaches some success, and how he almost seems to sabotage himself with stunts like his ill-fated wrestling career.
The documentary depicts Kaufman as “a comic’s comic,” but this depiction feels at odds with the film’s central theme, especially when modern-day comedians such as Eric Andre discuss Kaufman’s influence on their style. Sure, people do praise him, but it almost seems like Kaufman never truly thought of himself as important or anything special. Then again, given Kaufman’s own routine, which features plenty of self-deprecating humor, was that all part of the bit as well? It’s unclear, and Andy Kaufman Is Me does really drive home that uncertainty. I just wish it were a little bit more entertaining.
Because of how traditional Andy Kaufman Is Me is, it drags down parts that should be more exciting than they are. It should be fascinating to hear about his wrestling career and how he tried to only wrestle women, as well as hearing about how he was voted off of SNL, but the documentary presents these rather plainly and without any real fanfare. Here’s what happened to him, here’s how it affected him; let’s move on.
There’s nothing wrong with a documentary being fairly traditional in its presentation, but when you include accounts and footage that are deeply personal and offer more insight into Kaufman than any documentary before, Andy Kaufman Is Me feels at odds with itself. It’s not terrible, mind you, but the documentary slowly becomes incompatible with the extremely personal approach the editing takes and the matter-of-factly, and honestly dull, presentation. Some may think the personal touch is enough, but to me, the standard presentation left me bored, and lord knows I’ve seen plenty of examples this past month of deeply personal documentaries that deserve far more praise and attention than this one.
