Latka Gravas

For no particular reason, I choose this evening to remember the passing of Andy Kaufman, who played the character of Latka on the TV series TAXI.

Andy was by no means a one hit wonder.  He was a great entertainer in his own right.  His sense of humor sometimes puzzled even his closest friends, but it was real.  It made people wonder whether he was actually sane or not, but I think he was.  He knew what he was doing.  It might take the rest of the world 200 years to figure it out though.

Andy supposedly died in 1984 or thereabouts from renal failure due to cancer.  There have been many who have said that Andy staged his own death, and that he's still alive and well somewhere, but I doubt that it's true.  I wish it were, but it's probably not true at all.  Andy Kaufman died, and is gone forever.

From the song that inspired the movie that bears his legacy:

Andy did you hear about this one?

Tell me, are you locked in the punch?

Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?

Hey, baby, are you having fun?

If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon

If you believe there's nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool.

By the Athens, Georgia band REM.

Like I said before, it's probably going to take all of our combined lifetimes to figure out exactly what Andy Kaufman was trying to say to us.  

God rest people like Andy and John Belushi and George Carlin.  The world needs more funny men like them.

Go in peace, or I will wreck you!

Spenser