Tony Clifton
[7] Rodney Dangerfield was a big fan of Andy Kaufman, and he hired Clifton to open for him for two shows at Bill Graham's venue Fillmore West.
After a disastrous first show, where Clifton took the stage with Tony Bennett's famous "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and was summarily booed, he reappeared on the second night in riot gear amid a shower of rotten vegetables and other detritus.
It was announced on May 16, 2008, that Comic Relief, in recognition of the 24th anniversary of Andy Kaufman's death, would present "The Return of Tony Clifton", with his "Katrina Kiss My Ass Orchestra".
In 1977, the producers of Taxi saw Kaufman's Foreign Man act at The Comedy Store and offered him a role in their show based on the character.
[11] Kaufman was not a fan of sitcoms, but his manager, George Shapiro, convinced him that this would propel him to stardom, where he would make a lot of money, which he could then put into his act, which became Andy's Funhouse.
Clifton (played by Zmuda) appeared once on Late Night with David Letterman, where he was interviewed and sang a medley with the band.
[15] According to legend, Clifton arrived for the taping drunk and then pressured Shore in front of the studio audience to sing a duet with him although he had been previously told that she had a sore throat.
[16] The myth continues that, after dumping eggs on Shore's head, the show's producers quickly cut to a commercial as Clifton was escorted out of the studio, and the videotape of the incident was "destroyed".
However, the plan was sidelined after the box office failure of Kaufman's first major motion picture Heartbeeps, in which he co-starred with Bernadette Peters as a robot who falls in love.
Kaufman's Tony Clifton character has influenced other "anti-comedy" acts, notably standup comedian Neil Hamburger and singer/comedian Unknown Hinson.
Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann, the protagonist in the 2016 Oscar-nominated German movie of the same title, was influenced by Kaufman concerning appearance, humor and first name.
