← Back to Reviews
 

The King of Comedy



The King of Comedy (1982)

Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: Paul D. Zimmerman
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Bernhard
Genre: Dark Comedy, Drama

Rupert Pupkin is delusional and lives in a fantasy world where he dreams of becoming a top comedian. His idol is the host of the nightly talk show,
Jerry Langford Show. Rupert stalks Jerry Langford and seizes an opportunity to jump into his limousine where he then monopolizes the conversation telling Jerry about his comedy routine, and Jerry reluctantly agrees to listen to his comedy tapes, just to get rid of Rupert. The comedy tapes are not that good, and are rejected, but Rupert will NOT take no for an answer.

1982's The King of Comedy was a box office flop, but what do movie goers know? This
satirical black comedy by master director Martin Scorsese is like no other film ever made. It effortlessly blends the fantasy world or Rupert with the real world that he lives in. It's hard to tell where the fantasy ends and reality starts...and that's the way Scorsese planned it...we're seeing through Rupert's eyes and what a world he sees!



The subject matter is dark and the Jerry Langford show looks a whole lot like the The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, right down to using the real Executive Producer Fred De Cordova, as the fictional Director Bert Thomas. This adds a lot of reality, too much for some folks due to the dark nature of the film.

Martin Scorsese later said, "he probably should not have made it."

DeNiro is amazing in this! And so is Jerry Lewis who turns in a subdued and very realistic portal of a powerful TV talk show host being stalked by a deranged fan, two actually.

Good stuff!