The King of Comedy (1983)

The King of Comedy (1983)


Martin Scorsese’s 1983 feature, The King of Comedy is an underrated film that speaks volumes about celebrity culture-and not much in a kind way. This dark comedy features the legendary director at his best and at his darkest. Coming off the success of 1980’s Raging Bull, people were excited for the next collaboration between Scorsese and Robert De Niro. The people who initially saw the movie was let down. People misunderstood this movie big time. With the word “comedy” featured in the title, they expected full blown-out laughs. Oh no! That is not what Scorsese was aiming for. The man instead created a movie that blasts celebrity culture and the idea of people becoming famous just for the sake of being famous. While at times funny, the movie is also cynical, dark, and sometimes a bit open-ended.



How this movie came to be is quite fascinating. Paul D. Zimmermann wrote the script in the mid-70’s and it fell in the hands of De Niro. The actor showed it to Scorsese, but he was uninterested because he could not find a personal connection to it and the duo made Taxi Driver instead. After the success of Raging Bull, Scorsese was thinking about retiring from directing. He fell ill constantly, and his rising stardom made him feel empty in the inside. Michael Cimino was going to direct the movie, but obligation to another film kept him back. De Niro showed him the script again and convinced him to direct with the promise of little to no Hollywood interference. On a side note, I am thankful Scorsese did not retire, because he is still one of the best working directors today.



Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) and his weird friend Masha (Sandra Bernhard) are diehard fans of standup comedian and late-night show host, Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis). Rupert lives in his mother’s basement, where he keeps cardboard cutouts of Jerry Langford and Liza Minnelli to name a few. His intention is to become a famous stand-up comedian himself. First, he encounters Langford as a fan and the comedian gives him some advice. Rupert takes that as Langford is his brand-new best friend-which means he thinks he will be on Langford’s show. When it appears that he will not be on the show anytime soon, Rupert and Masha have to decide how far they will go to achieve Rupert’s dreams.



With another De Niro and Scorsese team-up, you would expect De Niro to be on top of his game-and that he was! His portrayal as Rupert Pupkin gave me some Taxi Driver vibes. After all, both Pupkin and Travis Fickle are two deranged men who cannot distinguish between reality and fantasy. They are both different characters though-and De Niro made sure of that. To prepare for this role, De Niro did something called role-reversal. He was the one actually stalking his fans-so he can learn who these stalkers are and how they do it. Jerry Lewis is fantastic. He is not necessarily an actor by trade, but he was able to capture the essence of the late-night show host. The hilarious man on-air, but a very cranky personality in reality. Sandra Bernhard was a little weird here and I do not think she brought much to the table. The movie is all about De Niro versus Lewis.



It is sad to see how this is Scorsese’s movie that no one saw. It was criminally underseen and wholly misunderstood at first. But as the years went by, the popularity began to increase as more and more people truly understood the film. It’s a dark comedy that effectively blends fantasy and reality-which is a dangerous thing for stalkers and the celebrity culture. If you are famous, you tend to have these crazy autograph seekers follow you. Also, the fact is where De Niro wants to be famous for famous sake. In today’s world, we can certainly relate to that. Just turn on American Idol where people try to be the next big thing.



Overall, Martin Scorsese created another memorable movie that is funny but cynical. The ending is very divisive, and you have to go back to the whole fantasy versus reality debate to understand the ending-which I really liked. He ended the movie on an open-ended note. I also liked how he did not rely upon or overuse the music. He wanted to focus on the words themselves, but he did blend songs and an original score together-one of the first films to do so. Zimmermann’s script, Scorsese’s direction, and De Niro’s acting makes this film worth the watch.



“Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime.”

-Rupert Pupkin



My Grade: A-

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