Entertainment

Is Andy Kaufman Alive?

by Alanna Bennett

Well, this is... what? Messed up? Legitimately perfect? Kafmanesque. Yeah. That one. Because today the big news is that Andy Kaufman faked his death, and might not have been, you know, dead these past 30 or so years. C'est la vie?

The Andy Kaufman Awards on Monday yielded some surprising results, with Kaufman's brother showing up with a woman he claimed is Andy Kaufman's 24-year-old daughter — despite the fact that Kaufman died nearly 30 years ago.

Kaufman was thought to have died of cancer in 1984, but friend and confidante Bob Zmuda has long hinted to Kaufman's obsession with faking his own death, and these rumors have also long been active in segments of Kaufman's fanbase — the man was (is?) after all, a famous performance artist. Now his brother and alleged daughter are claiming that faking his death is exactly what he (probably) did, and that he's been in hiding these past three decades.

This is according to Sean L. McCarthy, who was in attendance at the Andy Kaufman awards that night and wrote about what went down over at The Comic's Comic.

It turns out that Michael Kaufman was rooting through some of his "late" brother's old writings years ago when he found an essay detailing his plans to fake his own death, including a plan to reappear at his favorite restaurant on Christmas Eve in 1999. And so Michael Kaufman went to said restaurant on Christmas Eve in 1999, and was handed a letter from his brother.

The letter purported that Andy wanted to go into hiding and live a normal life, that he'd met and fallen in love with a woman and had a daughter, and that he didn't want Michael or anyone to say anything while their own father was still alive. Andy's and Michael's father died this summer.

Make of all of this what you will — it could easily turn out to be a hoax at any moment.

But... wouldn't it be the coolest fucking thing ever if it wasn't?? Has any celebrity ever pulled something so amazingly weird and awe-inducingly epic? There's already so much to remember Andy Kaufman by, the man is already a legend — so what happens if something like this proves to be true?

Regardless of how this ends, we can't wait to see what comes next but sadly, Andy Kaufman's resurrection might not be meant to be — CinemaBlend got on the case and seems to think that the young woman claiming to be Kaufman's daughter is instead actress Alexandra Tatarsky.

But... but... if we believe hard enough can we make it true anyway? I feel like the world needs a good conspiracy theory right about now.