When you consider all of the folks hooked on the drivel that is “reality TV” today – and how many would sell their soul to be a part of it! – you are amazed at just how prescient this film is. The writing here is spectacular. It is bust a gut funny – if you like your humor painful – while giving us some truly insightful [and scathing] pokes into the world of “show business”, the media and fame.
As for the ending controversy, I never saw it as just another one of Rupert’s pipedreams. Instead, I saw it as the director’s final kick in the gut. It shows how noteriety – good or bad – becomes the Holy Grail in our pop culture. You do whatever it takes to gain it. You get your 15 minutes [or more] by making a spectacle of yourself.
Once you are up on the stage though it all comes down to how successful you are in marketing [and then selling] yourself. Nothing…nothing…is too banal, tawdry, submental. Nowadays, it’s not so much what you become famous for but that you become famous. Period. You’re no longer just another face in the crowd. One of the indistinguishable “masses”.
IMDb
[b]Robert De Niro used anti-Semitic remarks to anger Jerry Lewis while filming the scene where Rupert Pupkin crashes Jerry Langford’s country home. Lewis, who had never worked with method actors, was shocked and appalled, but delivered an extremely credible performance.
Martin Scorsese said later that making this film was an “unsettling” experience, in part because of the embarrassing, bitter material of the script. Scorsese said that he and Robert De Niro may have not worked together again for seven years because making “The King of Comedy” was so emotionally grueling. Scorsese has stated that he “probably should not have made” the film.
When Jerry Langford is walking down the street, he is stopped by a woman talking on the telephone. When Jerry refuses to talk to someone on the phone, the lady says I hope you get cancer. This incident actually happened to Jerry Lewis. According to Scorsese, Lewis directed this segment himself.[/b]
wiki
[b]Film scholar David Bordwell, writing in Film Viewer’s Guide, mentioned the (un)reality of the ending as a topic for debate. A number of scenes in the film — Rupert and Jerry in the restaurant, Jerry meeting Rupert after having listened to his tape and calling him a genius, Rupert getting married “live” on Jerry’s show — exist solely in Rupert’s imagination, and Bordwell suggested that some viewers would think the final sequence is another fantasy.
In his commentary on The Criterion Collection DVD of Black Narcissus, Scorsese stated that Michael Powell’s films influenced The King of Comedy in its conception of fantasy. Scorsese said that Powell always treated fantasy as no different than reality, and so made fantasy sequences as realistic as possible. Scorsese suggests that Rupert Pupkin’s character fails to differentiate between his fantasies and reality in much the same way. Scorsese sought to achieve the same with the film so that, in his words, the “fantasy is more real than reality.”[/b]
trailer:
youtu.be/0wVhCCo02P4
Look for The Clash.
THE KING OF COMEDY [1983]
Directed by Martin Scorsese
[b]Jerry: Alright, look pal, I gotta tell you…this is a crazy business, but it’s not unlike any other business. There are ground rules, and you don’t just walk on to a network show without experience. Now I know it’s an old, hackneyed expression, but it happens to be the truth. You’ve got to start at the bottom.
Rupert: I know. That’s where I am, at the bottom.
Jerry: Well, that’s the perfect place to start.
…
Rupert: Jerry. I’m a little short on cash but if you don’t mind just appetizers…I’d love to take you to dinner sometime.
…
Rita [tending bar]: Well, here I am. Local cheerleader makes good.
…
Rita: I bet some of these autographs are worth money.
Rupert [showing her his own signature]: Oh, yeah. Especially this one.
Rita: Who’s this?
Rupert: Well, just take a guess.
Rita: God, it looks like retard wrote it.
Rupert: The more scribbled the name, the bigger the fame.
…
Secretary: Is Mr. Langford expecting you?
Rupert: Yes, I don’t think he is.
…
Rupert [arguing with Masha]: What about things that I did for you that no money can buy, no money can buy? What about the time I gave you my spot! You came over there, I gave you my spot! You stood there and I let you get right next to Jerry. I waited for 8 hours for him and you went right next to him cause you were crying to me cause you wanted to get next to Jerry and you got next to him. And what about the time I gave you my last album of the Best of Jerry, what about that? It wasn’t anybody else it was me and I didn’t even ask you for money and I can’t even pay my rent! What are talking about? I live in a hovel! And you live in a townhouse! I can’t believe this girl!
…
[Jerry and Rupert inside Rupert’s head]
Jerry: At least once in his life, every man is a genius. I’ll tell you something, Rupe…it will be more than once in your life for you… because you’ve got it. From what I’ve heard here, yeah, you’ve got it…and you’re stuck with it. If you wanted to get rid of it, you couldn’t. It’s always going to be there. I know there’s no formula for it. I just don’t know how you do it…and I’m not curious, mind you because I want to use the material. I’m curious because I don’t know how you do it. I really have to ask you that. How do you do it?"
Rupert: I think it’s that I look at my whole life and I see the awful things in my life…and turn it into something funny. It just happens…but what about the first few one-liners?
Jerry: Were they strong enough? If they were any stronger, you’d hurt yourself. They’re marvelous, you daffy bastard. Leave them alone. They’re beautiful!
…
[Justice of the Peace George Cap inside Rupert’s head]
Dearly beloved when Rupert here was a student at the Clifton high school none of us–myself… his teachers… his classmates…dreamt that he would amount to a hill ofbeans. But we were wrong…and you, Rupert, you were right. And that’s why tonight before the entire nation we’d like to apologize to you personally and to beg your forgiveness for-for all the things we did to you. And we’d like to thank you personally…all of us…for the meaning you’ve given our lives. Please accept our warmest wishes, Rita and Rupert for a long and successful reign together.
[he turns to face the camera]
We’ll be back to marry them right after this word from our sponser.
…
Jonno [to Jerry]: His name is, uh, uh, Pumpkin. Pumpkin, yes. Do you know a name Pumpkin?
…
Jerry [to Rupert]: Did anyone ever tell you you’re a moron?
…
Jerry: I have a life, OK?
Rupert: I have a life, too.
Jerry: That’s not my responsibility!
Rupert: It is when you tell me to call you…
Jerry: I told you to call to get rid of you!
Rupert: To get rid of me?
Jerry: That’s right. If I didn’t tell you that we’d still be standing on the steps at my apartment!
…
Rupert: So alright I made a mistake.
Jerry: So did Hitler!
…
Rupert: I just want to say one more thing, Jerry. I’m glad what you did to me today…because now I know I can’t rely on anybody and I shouldn’t rely on anybody.
Jerry: Right.
Rupert: I’m going to work times harder…and I’m going to be times more famous than you.
Jerry: Then you’re gonna have idiots like you plaguing your life!
…
Detective: First of all, we don’t know whether we’re dealing with kidnappers or terrorists.
TV Executive: Terrorists?
Detective: Terrorists. You might have this man go on the air deliver a coded message and very possibly 50 people… around the country would lose their lives.
TV Executive: You’re out of your mind!
…
Masha [to Jerry]: I just want to dance. I want to, like, put on some Shirelles. I want to be black![/b]
The Monologue? I actually thought it was pretty funny. Especially once he got going.
[b]Rupert: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Let me introduce myself. My name is Rupert Pupkin. I was born in Clifton, New Jersey…which was not at that time a federal offense. Is there anyone here from Clifton? Oh, good. We can all relax now. I’d like to begin by saying my parents were too poor to afford me a childhood. But the fact is that no one is allowed to be too poor in Clifton. Once you fall below a certain level they exile you to Passaic. My parents did put the first two down payments on my childhood. Don’t get me wrong, but they did also return me to the hospital as defective. But, like everyone else I grew up in large part thanks to my mother. If she were only here today I’d say, “Hey, ma, what are you doing here? You’ve been dead for nine years!” But seriously, you should’ve seen my mother. She was wonderful. Blonde, beautiful, intelligent, alcoholic. We used to drink milk together after school. Mine was homogenized. Hers was loaded. Once they picked her up for speeding. They clocked her doing 55. All right, but in our garage? And when they tested her they found out that her alcohol had 2% blood. Ah, but we used to joke together, mom and me…until the tears would stroll down her face and she would throw up! Yeah, and who would clean it up? Not dad. He was too busy down at O’Grady’s throwing up on his own. Yeah. In fact, until I was 13 I thought throwing up was a sign of maturity. While the other kids were off in the woods sneaking cigarettes I was hiding behind the house with my fingers down my throat. The only problem was I never got anywhere…until one day my father caught me. Just as he was giving me a final kick in the stomach for luck I managed to heave all over his new shoes! “That’s it”, I thought. “I’ve made it. I’m finally a man!” But as it turned out, I was wrong. That was the only attention my father ever gave me. Yeah, he was usually too busy out in the park playing ball with my sister Rose. But today, I must say thanks to those many hours of practice my sister Rose has grown into a fine man. Me, I wasn’t especially interested in athletics. The only exercise I ever got was when the other kids picked on me. Yeah, they used to beat me up once a week…usually Tuesday. And after a while the school worked it into the curriculum. And if you knocked me out, you got extra credit. There was this one kid, poor kid… he was afraid of me. I used to tell him, “Hit me, hit me. What’s the matter with you? Don’t you want to graduate?” Hey, I was the youngest kid in the history of the school to graduate in traction. But, you know, my only real interest right from the beginning, was show business. Even as a young man, I began at the very top collecting autographs. Now, a lot of you are probably wondering why Jerry isn’t with us tonight. Well, I’ll tell you. The fact is he’s tied up. I’m the one who tied him. Well, I know you think I’m joking… but, believe me, that’s the only way I could break into show business…by hijacking Jerry Langford. Right now, Jerry is strapped to a chair somewhere in the middle of the city. Go ahead, laugh. Thank you. I appreciate it. But the fact is, I’m here. Now, tomorrow you’ll know I wasn’t kidding and you’ll think I was crazy. But, look, I figure it this way. Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime. Thank you. Thank you.
…
Rupert: You didn’t like my act?
Detective: No.
Rupert: No?
Detective: Matter of fact I’m looking for the guy that wrote the material. I’ll pick him up and take him along with you.
Rupert: I wrote the material. I disagree with you. I thought they were very good jokes.
Detective: If you wrote that material I got one piece of advice for you. Throw yourself on your knees in front of the judge and beg for mercy.
…
TV Announcer: In what has to rank as the most bizarre debut in recent times a self-styled comedian named Rupert Pupkin appeared on the Jerry Langford Show. There’s no doubt the incident has made Rupert Pupkin a household word. Pupkin’s performance has been viewed by a record 87 million American households.
…
Announcer: Rupert Pupkin, kidnapping king of comedy was sentenced to six years imprisonment at the government’s minimum security facility in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, for his part in the abduction of talk show host Jerry Langford. On the anniversary of his appearance on the show Pupkin told a gathering of reporters he still considers Jerry Langford his friend and mentor. He reported he had been spending his time writing his memoirs, which have been purchased by a leading publishing house for in excess of $1 million.
…
Announcer: Rupert Pupkin was released today from Allenwood after serving 2 years and 9 months of a six-year sentence. Hundreds greeted the -37 year-old comedian and author…among them his new agent and manager David Ball who announced King For A Night, Pupkin’s best-selling autobiography, will appear as a major motion picture. Pupkin said he used his stay at Allenwood to sharpen his material. He said he and his people were weighing attractive offers and he looked forward to resuming his show business career.
…
Announcer: And now, ladies and gentlemen the man we’ve all been waiting for…and waiting for. Would you welcome home please television’s brightest new star…The legendary, inspirational, the one and only king of comedy…Ladies and gentlemen, Rupert Pupkin![/b]
Uh, ain’t that pretty much how it works?