IMDb user comments for
The King of Comedy (1982) More at IMDbPro »

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 5 of 17:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

Index

164 comments in total

---

2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Famous for Fifteen Minutes, 24 April 2007

Author: James Hitchcock from Tunbridge Wells, England

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Andy Warhol once said that in the future everyone would be famous for fifteen minutes. Rupert Pupkin, however, is a man who has not yet achieved his fifteen minutes of fame, and is getting desperate. Rupert's great ambition is to be a stand-up comedian, and a chance meeting with his idol, comedian and chat-show host Jerry Langford, convinces him that he is in with a chance of realising his dream. He sends Langford a tape-recording of his act, hoping that he will be invited onto the show. When he realises that Langford has never listened to the tape in person, Rupert starts to pester him, first at his studio and then at his luxurious home, trying to persuade him to do so. All his efforts are met with a rebuff, and, in desperation, he, together with Masha, another obsessive fan, kidnaps Langford As the price for Langford's release, Rupert demands a slot on the show and to be introduced as "the new king of comedy".

In the past, I have never really thought that Robert de Niro and comedy suit one another, so I was surprised by how good he is in "The King of Comedy". Rupert can be seen as a darkly humorous, satirical, take on Travis Bickle, the character he played in an earlier Scorsese film, "Taxi Driver". Both men are obsessive loners, living in a fantasy world. Bickle, however, always seems menacing, whereas Rupert is, for the most part, charming and polite. Even his surname, with its overtones of "puppy" and "pumpkin", suggests someone benign and unthreatening. His main fault is that he never knows when to take "no" for an answer. He is a Walter Mitty figure, not a brooding avenger of society's wrongs. He genuinely imagines that he is a brilliant comedian and that Jerry is a close personal friend. We never learn what his job is, but we know that lives with his elderly mother, whom we hear but never see. He is unmarried, but has a casual, on/off relationship with Rita, an attractive barmaid from his local bar, but she dumps him after the attempt to gate-crash Jerry's house.

There is another very good performance from Jerry Lewis as Langford. Although on television he comes across as a charming personality, away from the cameras he is smug, cold and unfriendly, treating his fans with patronising condescension. When Rupert and Masha kidnap him we are left hoping that they will get away with it, not only because there is something very likable about Rupert but also because we sense that Jerry is getting his just deserts.

There is a brilliant, surprise ending. After the show's producers have agreed to Rupert's demands and he has performed his act for the cameras, he is being led off to jail by the police. As a favour, they agree to take him to Rita's bar so he can watch the show on television. For the first time in the film, we get to see Rupert's act. Up to this point we have been lead to believe that Rupert will be exposed as a dreadful comedian and that his act will prove to be a disaster. Instead, his presentation is very slick and professional and his material very amusing, if sometimes in dubious taste. He ends with the line "Better to be king for a night than a schmuck for a lifetime". We learn in a coda that after serving time in prison, Rupert goes on to become a comedian and media celebrity in his own right, bringing out a much-praised autobiography and selling the film rights for eleven million dollars.

This ending can be interpreted in two ways. On the one hand, it can be seen as just one more Mittyesque delusion. (There are scenes earlier in the film which clearly reflect what is going on in Rupert's imagination rather than in the real world). On the other hand, it can be taken literally, as a satirical comment on the nature of fame and the media's obsession with celebrity. A criminal act turns Rupert from a naïve, unworldly loser into a sudden winner, a man who is much more famous because of his crime than he would be if he had achieved success legitimately by working his way up via the comedy circuit. It is essentially the same point that Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarentino make in "Natural Born Killers"- that the media love all celebrities, even (or especially) those who have achieved their fame through crime. The difference is that Scorsese makes his point with a lot more lightness of touch.

This film was not a great success at the box office, and was totally ignored at the Oscar ceremony (where the big winner was the horribly sentimental "Terms of Endearment"). Its lack of recognition by the Academy was perhaps not surprising, given that, at least prior to his recent win with "The Departed", Scorsese was never their favourite son and that satirical comedy, with occasional exceptions such as "The Apartment", has never been their favourite genre. Today, however, "The King of Comedy" can be seen as one of its director's major achievements, a bitingly satirical comment on the pretensions of the showbiz world and on the media's obsession with celebrity, an obsession which has grown ever greater over the intervening quarter of a century. 9/10

---

2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
A terrific Scorsese/De Niro comedy., 5 January 2007

Author: fedor8 (fedor8@yahoo.com) from Serbia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

A great premise executed with utter precision, with Scorsese/De Niro showing a keen eye for detail and nuances of the main character (and others). De Niro is terrific in what has to be the most pathetic character he's ever played. Pupkin is the non-menacing version of the frustrated semi-lunatic from "Taxi Driver". While the latter remains mysteriously silent and therefore uncomfortably unpredictable, Pupkin appears basically harmless and can't stop talking. Pupkin's inner and outer world, the latter which includes the even more insane (or far more insane) Bernhard, is a lot of fun from the first scene onwards. The pathos is always there from the very start, and it's hard not to almost get embarrassed watching the totally prideless Pupkin make an idiot of himself over and over in front of a celeb like Lewis, then later in front of Lewis's staff (and even when alone at home in his fantasy world). Clever, how much we learn about Pupkin in the opening scene alone. His day-dreams and fantasizing are funny and at the same time easy to identify with, even if Pupkin's fantasies appear to be very over-the-top naive. Lewis and Bernhard are also very good. Lewis has a couple of funny lines himself, the best being his smart-ass "self-defense" replies when confronted with the uninvited De Niro at the former's villa. In particular Lewis telling De Niro that he didn't become (an a**hole) after his success but rather that he was "always like that" is hilarious. But De Niro walks away with the movie. I was a bit surprised by the ending. I didn't expect Pupkin to gain much from the whole ordeal, but this IS a comedy, after all - if a satiric one - and even Scorsese can feel obliged to end a comedy with a "happy" ending. Plus, with this ending he gets to make a very ironic point.

---

2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Celebrity Obsession Taken to a Funny and Frightening New Level..., 18 December 2005

Author: ijonesiii from United States

THE KING OF COMEDY is an oft-overlooked gem from the De Niro/Scorcese library that is one of my favorite films and is part of my permanent video collection. De Niro gives one of his most on-target performances as Rupert Pupkin, a slightly demented fan of talk show host Jerry Langford, who wants to be a stand up comic and goes to very extreme lengths to achieve his goal. De Niro's Pupkin is ultimately hysterically funny and tragic at the same time, almost heartbreaking in the way he justifies in his own twisted mind the things he does to get what he wants. Jerry Lewis practically channels Johnny Carson, in the performance of his career, as Jerry Langford, the no-nonsense talk show host who blows off Rupert and pays a terrible price for it. I saw an interview with Lewis once where he stated that this role was the easiest thing he had ever done and that he wasn't really acting, just reading the lines, but I disagree. Lewis gives us deep insight into the pressure of celebrity fame and the sacrifices that come with that fame. Sandra Bernhard steals every scene she is in as Masha, another fan obsessed with Langford who finally gets her chance to be alone with the man. Her rendition of "Come Rain or Come Shine" is a classic. There is a school of thought that Scorcese erred by having Pupkin come out at the end smelling like a rose and I understand those that feel that way, but I found myself so strongly sympathizing with the character that I found the ending quite satisfying. Not for all tastes, but if you are a DeNiro/Scorcese fan and love the business of show business, THE KING OF COMEDY is a must see.

---

2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Absorbing and Memorable, 15 March 2001

Author: MisterWhiplash from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

(Possible Spoilers)

Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro have they're most under-rated combo here. The film has some scenes that I felt were as if not maybe even more disturbing than those in the infamous Taxi Driver. The movie has De Niro as a struggling comic named Rupert Pupkin (if you define struggling as a man who talks to cardboard pictures of Liza Minelli in his basement working on his talks on the show he plans to get on) who stalks a comic named Jerry Longford (Jerry Lewis is gives straight laughs here) to listen to his material so he can get on his show. When Pupkin fails at his attempts, he goes for the desperate and kidnaps him. Startling most of the way, but it is the ending which will feel audiences feel stunned from the righteously irony in the tie in. One of the best Scorsese films (but of course, there are so many great ones, it's not fair to compare); he appears briefly as a director form the talk show. By the way, considering how annoying Sandra Bernhard can get, she actually gave a good breakthrough here. A

---

2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Scorsese's offbeat take on the pulse of wannabe celebrities..., 5 May 1999

Author: Donald J. Lamb from Philadelphia, PA

THE KING OF COMEDY is Martin Scorsese's strangest film, something so different from his other work but still frighteningly good. Up until 1983, he had perfectly captured small-time hoods, New York insomnia, and raging boxers, amongst other topics. With this picture, he does a 180 and displays yet another side of New York paranoia in the form of celebrity-obsessed freaks. "Rupert Pupkin", as played by Robert De Niro, is a complete nut, a loose cannon not seen before in films this way. De Niro becomes "Pupkin" and creates a stunningly sad and demented character. His verbal thoughts and disillusionment are hilarious, and his screaming mother reminds us that they are illusions. "Shut up Rupert" yells his Mom when Rupert gets out of hand interviewing a cardboard Liza Minelli in his basement. The real performance to catch is Jerry Lewis as a Johnny Carson clone, an understated, realistic portrayal of a talk-show host who has had enough and seen it all.

None of Scorsese's typical techniques are here, but no matter. Maybe a couple of quick zooms and some camera bulbs splashing, but nothing like the fluid movement seen in his other flicks. He presents a brutal portrait of a very real epidemic; the stalking of celebrities who have access to an audience the stalkers could never fathom. Just listen to Howard Stern and you will hear at least one "Rupert Pupkin" a day, trying to gain attention with crank calls or unannounced appearances. This is an art film that does not tell a story in straight narrative whatsoever. A loony De Niro and an even more sick Sandra Bernhard (in a truly memorable performance) make for quite a scene, especially after De Niro loses the last glint of sanity he has. They both want the fame but have no realistic idea of how to achieve it except to pursue Jerry Lewis' character night and day. Surprisingly, it actually works for one of them.

For an absolutely funny and offbeat experience, see THE KING OF COMEDY. Scorsese is so good at recreating a mood or a period, usually composed of mobsters, tortured women, or whacked-out civilians. Here, he perfectly creates something fresh and real with two superstars (De Niro & Lewis) at the top of their game, with De Niro splurging and Lewis playing someone who may not be that far from who he really is. If you think about it, there is a Rupert Pupkin in us all, isn't there?

---

3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Ahead of it's time., 21 March 2009

Author: Irishmonk from Canada

King of Comedy was so far ahead of it's time when released in 1982 that no-one understood it, not even the critics. What seemed implausible and bizarre 25+ years ago is today's unfortunate reality. With our current celebrity universe packed with ridiculous no-hopers like Joe the Plumber and "OctoMom"--i.e. "stars" who attained their fame/infamy purely through outlandish behaviour--an obnoxious , no talent train wreck like Rupert Pupkin would be in constant demand for reality TV and talk shows everywhere. Hell, he'd probably even get married to Carmen Electra or Britney Spears-if only for a couple of days.

Scorsese captured lightning in a bottle with this film (even if he still doesn't realize or acknowledge it) and Robert DeNiro hit a creative peak with his depiction of the desperate unfunnyman Pupkin that he hasn't approached since.

---

3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
A Felonious Fifteen Minutes of Fame, 6 November 2007

Author: dataconflossmoor from United States

Rupert Pupkin was a lost soul who wanted his shot at being in the limelight, and he was willing to go through some very unconventional methods to have it.. Such a compulsive nature is not that unusual, especially considering the fact that Pupkin is a New Yorker!! Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro's character) was very impervious to the fact that being a famous television personality requires a lot of patience and perseverance!! The expedition of being a celebrity dictates that you devote a good portion of your time to obligatory publicity ,and that you have a thorough comprehension of the industry's rigid guidelines with regard to standards and practices!! The aggregate requirements to stardom seem very mundane to Rupert Pupkin, Rupert Pupkin's idea of add water and stir success is something that professionals such as Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis' character) know is not possible!! In the pursuit of such a seemingly glamorous fate, Rupert Pupkin becomes the proverbial recipient of polite shove offs, a stilted Park Ave decorum, and a patronizing demeanor from hatchet men who dish out an underlying belittlement of a Brooklyn simpleton, Rupert Pupkin, and his desire to be a high profile comic!! All of this sparks a perennial state of agitation for Pupkin with his amateurish drive to be an overnight television icon!! The acting in this movie is terrific, Sandra Burnhard, Robert De Niro, and Jerry Lewis are all sensational in this film!! Martin Scorsese, who is one of the greatest directors in the history of movie making, does a remarkable job with this movie!! Surprisingly enough, I found this film to be my favorite Scorsese film out of all of them!! The itemizations and peculiar depictions of pejorative emotional reactions in this movie had a succinct and sorrowful element of reality to them!! Scorsese is very well known for so many excellent movies, and, he is best known for masterpieces such as "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull". Like most Scorsese films, "King of Comedy" illustrates aspects of human behavior that are generally misunderstood to the American public!! The intense grasp on such deliberate proclivities with all of the main characters in this film is phenomenal!! "King of Comedy" effectuates the intuitiveness of Mr Nobody (Robert De Niro) to be neurotic about getting national attention by way of being on a nighttime talk show!! Coercive disruption of this nature is generally not taken lightly in the real world, but, for innovative movie material, HOW ORIGINAL AND CREATIVE!! The grade this movie gets for originality with relation to the plot, would be an A++!!! New York City emanates such a compounded exuberance in this film, which becomes very conducive to the wry component of erratic behavior that this movie orchestrates!! All in all, "King of Comedy" emerges as a resounding winner in the cinema industry!! Word to the wise, please do not try this reckless stunt at home, if you did, the only famous place in New York you will wind up in is New York's world renowned mental health facility called Bellvue!!

---

4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
It doesn't quite work. A bit like this review., 11 July 2005

Author: Lupercali from Tasmania

I'm a huge fan of De Niro and Scorsese (at least of how they used to be), but I feel I have to inject a note of dissent here. Such that I can pretty much predict that "0 out of 8 people will find the following comment useful" (you ever notice that nobody ever finds it useful when you pan something?) I remember 'King of Comedy' being released. I was twenty. In the crowds I moved in at the time it was pretty much seen as a success: an audacious departure. And in many ways it comes very close to being that. But nearly a quarter century later, 'King of Comedy' seems to lack real satiric power, and despite some great acting from De Niro and Lewis, feels like it's lost its way.

De Niro plays Rupert... well, he complains that his name is often misspelled, so you'll excuse me if I don't try here... a delusional, aspiring but talentless fan of Jerry Lewis's 'comedy king' character. Abbetted by an even more deranged female accomplice Rupert kidnaps Jerry, as his only means of getting his break in showbiz.

Early on the movie has a relatively conventional feel. De Niro is genuinely chilling (as well as embarrassing) as the gormless Rupert. Lewis's stoic grumpiness is perfect, too. It's when you begin to become aware that the film is straying into black comedy and satire that things start to go a bit awry (for this viewer anyway). Of course it's difficult to get away with being critical of such a movie, because it's possible for anybody to argue that any sequence I see as a blunder is actually not meant to be taken seriously. Nevertheless, I don't feel that Sandra Bernhard's hysterical babbling in her scene alone with Jerry Lewis works either as drama OR comedy, and Rupert's comic abilities seem to improve dramatically overnight for no reason at all.

These aren't my major problems with 'King of Comedy' though. I'll admit it's actually quite riveting a lot of the time, and it's certainly nowhere near either Scorsese or De Niro's worst film (frankly, after the terrible 'Gangs of New York', and the 'Aviator', which could have been made by anyone, I wouldn't really mind if Scorsese chucked it in and stuck to 'directing' Larry David in CYE. And let's not even mention that Dreamworks cartoon.. urrrgh!) Err, yes. This review isn't going very well, is it. Maybe I should just stop now, like in a Monty Python sketch.

OK, my main problem is I don't really see what this movie 'getting at', or in what way it's controversial or audacious. It's black humour doesn't seem that black today, and whatever point it's trying to make about celebrity leaves me with a feeling of 'so what?' I'm sure this would have been more powerful and surprising back in 1983, but if you're looking for a black comedy/drama about TV, 'Network' knocks spots off this, and it's about seven years older (and don't tell me that wasn't a comedy-drama. There's nothing in 'King of Comedy' as funny as the black Marxist terrorists arguing with TV execs about syndication rates).

Oh hell, this review was a mess. I know, I know. 0 out of 8 of you are going to find it useful. That's if you even see it, seeing as how for some reason rave reviews get automatically bumped to the top in this weird system.

It's a decent film with good acting, and is certainly worth watching as a curiosity, but whatever it was trying to be, I just think it didn't quite cut it. In its favour, I can't quite think of anything to outright to compare it with, and it's worth seeing for that reason alone.

---

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Obsession with anything can lead to destruction of everything; or, "As I think, so I am!", 14 February 2008

Author: John T. Ryan (redryan64@hotmail.com) from Chicago, Illinois, United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In spite of the title, THE KING OF COMEDY (1983) is not a comedy; although the Comedy branch of Show Bizz is central to its theme. It is an interesting study of pandemic loneliness in our society and how the artificial and man-made become the all-important to those in our "Modern World."

OUR STORY…………In New York City, the king of Late Night is one Jerry Lawford (Jerry Lewis in the role of a fictionalized version of a Johnny Carson-like character). As a highly successful icon of show bizz, Mr. Lawford has a tremendous following of fans, groupies, bimbos and far out, strange true fanatics. Two of these extreme types, Masha (Sandra Bernhard) and Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) are constantly conniving to get close to their Icon, Mr. Lawford. While the two are most usually cast as rivals, they do work together so that Rupert can fake doing Jerry a really big favor, thus gaining consideration of his audition tape of Rupert's delusional stand-up comic routine.

Because he had been dreaming more and more of becoming a famous comic and he starts to believe that he and Jerry are on a first name basis, he believes that Mr. Lawford has given his Stand-Up Routine his Imprimatur. But no such conversations ever take place and Rupert never has any meeting with Jerry.

He is the recipient of a polite, but cool meeting with a show staffer, who suggests that he get some experience at a local comedy club first, and then maybe he will be ready for an appearance on the show.

Having realized that he has been given a sort of polite brush-off by Lawford's production aide, Cathy Long (Shelly Hack); Rupert plots with Masha to kidnap Jerry; thus leveraging his way into a booking to appear on the Lawford Show.

He and Masha do kidnap Jerry and she holds him at her place, all bound in Duct Tape and mouth gag; while Rupert gives his demand to the Network that he must get to do his routine at the beginning of the show, or Jerry will be harmed.

Tony Randall (playing himself) introduces Rupert with one of the aspiring funny-man's own gags, something like: "We have no writers tonight because they were all shot by the Network Firing Squad!"

Meanwhile, Jerry manages to trick Masha into releasing him and he works his way back to the Theatre where the Show, HIS SHOW, is still in progress. Pupkin is arrested and a montage of graphics and voice overs boom out the story of his arrest, trial and sentencing to the State Pen.

The announcements cover a great deal of time in a very short time and finishes up displaying a stack of Rupert Pupkin's Best Seller about how he did it all, and had the whole Network and Jerry under his power. THE END!

Or is it?

By way of me own theory, it appears that Director, Mr. Martin Scorsese, has left the ending very ambiguous, indeed. It appears that rather than just wrapping things up, one way or the other, we are left to decide for our selves. Did this business about Pupkin's Best Selling book real, or is it, like so much of the rest of his life, imaginary.

After all, this is America, where anything can happen!

---

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Brilliant Dark Comedy, 4 January 2008
Author: samurai9 from United States

I believe a dark comedy is defined as as a comedy without laughs. Whether considered a comedy or a drama, The King of Comedy is really brilliant in every respect and very much underrated. De Niro gives a fabulous performance as a totally self-deluded wannabe who cannot understand or accept rejection. Bernhardt, Lewis, and others in the cast are terrific. Here Scorsese presents a theme which underlies many of his films: violence works. At the end of The King of Comedy we find that Pupkin has parlayed the fame generated by his crime into a major career. This is parallel to the ending of Taxi Driver, in which Travis Bickel, after brutally killing several people, escapes punishment and is lauded as a hero.

---

---

Page 5 of 17:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

Add another comment

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Plot synopsis	Amazon.com summary
Ratings	Awards	Newsgroup reviews
External reviews	Plot keywords	Main details
Your user comments	Your vote history