The King of Comedy (1983)

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nTitle: The King of Comedy (1983)

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nDirector: Martin Scorcese

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nCast: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Sandra Bernhard

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nReview:

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nThere are a couple of movies out there that are aboutndesperate people looking to make it in the big time. They want to make it sonbad that they are willing to go to the craziest lengths in order to achieventheir goals. For example the film Airheads (1994) starring Adam Sandler,nBrendan Frasier and Steve Buscemi (among a slew of other comedy greats) is anfilm about this rock group who wants to become famous so bad that they hijack anradio station in order to play their demo tape over the air. In many waysnAirheads is the rock and roll version of the film I’ll be talking about today,nMartin Scorcese’s The King of Comedy; a film about a pair of wannabe’s who suffernfrom celebrity worship. Basically, these two individuals (played by Robert De Nironand Sandra Bernhard) worship a comedian who’s the host a television varietynshow called The Jerry Langford Show. De Niro’s character Rupert Pupkin justnwants his shot at doing his stand up comedy act on Jerry’s show, will he evernmake it?  

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nRupert waits for Jerry outside thentelevision station, his plan is to harass Jerry about how much he worships him and about how much henwants to be like him. Pupkin is so obsessed with making it as the next ‘King ofnComedy’ that one day, while the masses are being particularly savage outside the television station, Rupert takes the opportunity to slip intonJerry’s limousine with him in order to pitch his comedy act to Jerry. Jerry decides tongive this desperate soul a chance, and listens to Ruperts plea for attention. Jerryngives him some advice about how to get started in the comedy world and thenntells Rupert to call his production office, to set up some kind of a meeting. Ofncourse, Jerry just wants to get this obviously crazy loon off his back when hentells him this, but little does Jerry know what a nasty chain of events he has justnjumpstarted.

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nNormally, and specially in a Martin Scorcese picture Robert DenNiro plays these ultra macho types, the epitome of a man. Sometimes, De Niro’sncharacters will border on being arrogant or chauvinist because of this. De Niro’sncharacter in Scorcese’s New York, New York (1977) is a good examplenof this, on that film he plays Jimmy Doyle, the kind of man who doesn’t want anwoman to usurp his place; the kind of man who tells a woman to “come here” and expectsnher to follow suit. And here’s where The King of Comedy is just a littlendifferent then your regular De Niro/ Scorcese collaboration; on this film DenNiro plays a complete nerd; a guy who lives with his mother, practicing comedynroutines in his basement. He wants to be a celebrity so bad, that he borders onninsanity.  He has fake conversations withncardboard cut outs of his favorite celebrities, and so on. He takes things to annoyingnextremes. It thought it was so interesting seeing De Niro playing against type.nThis isn’t the De Niro we saw in Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976) or RagingnBull (1980). On this one De Niro is a mama’s boy who still hasn’t foundnindependence. Another interesting aspect of the film is that Jerry Lewis, thenfamous comedian who plays Jerry Langford also plays against type. Lewis wasnalways known for playing wacky, absent minded characters, but on The King ofnComedy he plays the opposite; a weathered actor who carries himself in andecidedly serious manner.

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nThe film basically plays out like a celebrity’s worstnnightmare, not unlike Rob Reiner’s excellent Stephen King adaptation Misery (1990),nonly without the horror. Actually, this is one of the few Scorcese comedies,nbut of course, this being Scorcese it’s not just any comedy, it’s a dark comedy.nSame as the film he did after The King of Comedy, After Hours (1985), yetnanother Scorcese dark comedy I highly recommend! The King of Comedy exploresnthe dark world of celebrity obsession, those psychos that chase a celebrity,ninvade their homes or call them on their private telephones. Basically, thisnmovie is about a pair of stalkers. These are people that want to skip thennormal way of doing things; they don’t want to start at the bottom and workntheir way up. No, they want to skip straight to the big time. I thought thenfilm does well in pin pointing the fact that to get to the top, you have tonstart at the bottom, and work your way up. The thing about this movie and it’snprobably the main reason why it tanked at the box office, is that its mainncharacter is completely unlikable. Rupert Pupkin is a guy who is blind tonreality, he is so persistent with his obsession that he becomes annoying,ntherein lays the comedy in this film, but I guess not a lot of people saw itnthat way. Audiences came to expect mean and gritty films from Scorcese and withnthis one they got this dark comedy with an unlikable protagonist, I think thisnis part of the reason why the film bombed.

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nEntertainment Tonight declared The King of Comedy “the flopnof the year” on national television. But I say that no matter what its boxnoffice returns where like, this is not a bad film; in the least. Many ofnScorcese’s films have tanked at the box office only to later be admired andnrevered, same has happened to Ridley Scott and Francis Ford Coppola with manynof their own films. A lot of films simply fail to connect with their audiences,nor are simply ahead of their time, as I suspect was the case with this one. Innmy book, this is yet another misunderstood and underrated Scorcese picture. Asknanyone about their favorite Scorcese film, and chances are this one isn’t goingnto pop up. But take it from me my friends, it is good. Yeah, it’s a differentnkind of collaboration between these two greats, but at the end of the day, Inthink that’s what makes this film unique, it’s not what you’d normally expectnfrom them. In the film, Pumpkin says that he’d rather be “King for a day, thenna schmuck your whole life” and in this way, long before reality television rearednits ugly head, this film foreshadowed what reality television was going to benlike; where people will do anything for those ever popular 15 minutes of fame.

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nRating: 4 out of 5

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