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Diahnne Abbott, Ed Herlihy, Jerry Lewis

A wannabe stand-up comic, so desperate for a break, kidnaps a famous late-night talk show host in order to get a spot on his show.

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85% liked it

5,799 ratings

Critics

92% liked it

37 critics

PG, 1 hr. 41 min.

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Release Date: January 1, 1983

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DVD Release Date: December 17, 2002

Stats: 1,045 reviews

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The King of Comedy "Don't ask me to do six weeks...!" The King of Comedy
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Flixster Reviews (1,045)

  • SirPant
    September 7, 2009
    SirPant
    De Niro's best comedy performance of his career. I guess there isn't much competition really, he's not really known for his 'Laugh out loud' comedy performances, which is strange though because this is a fantastic dark comedy, where his timing is perfect. One of Scorsese's (and D...( read more)e Niro's) more overlooked pieces. Jerry Lewis is also, as always, brilliant.
  • DrZeek
    July 14, 2009
    DrZeek
    Secretary: Is Mr. Langford expecting you?
    Rupert Pupkin: Yes, I don't think he is.

    A film that manages to be much more disturbing than one might think. It features good performances and provides some satirical looks at the celebrity obsessed culture. Mainly though, this is a ve...( read more)ry awkward film that gives you an interesting look at a desperate man that takes things a bit too far.

    Rupert Pupkin: Why not me? Why not? A guy can get anything he wants as long as he pays the price. What's wrong with that? Stranger things have happened.

    Robert De Niro teams up again with director Martin Scorsese, staring this time as Rupert Pupkin, a wannabe stand-up comedian. Rupert's idol is talk show host Jerry Langford, played by Jerry Lewis. Rupert manages to have a conversation with Jerry, who tells him to give him a call some time, in an effort to get rid of Rupert. This doesn't work. Rupert begins to try with all his might to get a meeting with Rupert, get him to listen to his material, and become a good friend of his. Rupert tries to impress a woman through these efforts. He even brings another Jerry fan, played by Sandra Bernhard, into the mix. During all this, we are treated to a number of fantasy sequences in which Rupert has become successful and is in fact a good friend of Jerry's. There is no need to spoil what ends up happening, but things do take some radical turns.

    As mentioned, I found this movie to be very creepy and dark (especially whenever Bernhard was on screen). De Niro does a great job with this character, a lonely man, who may or may not have the talent he needs, but is clearly standing in the same weird-man line that Travis Bickle is in. Rupert is made more interesting by his basic manner. He is a polite individual, well spoken and dressed, looking for a way in.

    Jerry Lewis deserves a lot of credit here for being an amazing straight man in this movie. The way he puts up with a lot of the events that unfold in this movie is portrayed wonderfully through his facial expressions and reactions.

    This was a strange picture, but not one I regret watching. The Scorsese/De Niro team does manage to remain solid.

    Rupert Pupkin: I'm gonna work 50 times harder, and I'm gonna be 50 times more famous than you.
    Jerry Langford: Then you're gonna have idiots like you plaguing your life!
  • rubystevens
    June 19, 2009
    rubystevens
    this may be de niro's greatest performance; funny, creepy and criminally underrated. it's also the only jerry lewis film i can stand. it's like a black comedy version of taxi driver. it may not be bloody but it's nearly as tough to watch
  • binky013
    June 19, 2009
    binky013
    As a huge fan of De Niro, this is one I always wanted to see but hadn't until now. No surprise to me here: What a beautiful movie. I'm not a big Scorsese fan, as you may know by reading my past comments about his work. Have to say, however, this is a masterful directing effor...( read more)t that draws outstanding performances out of all the actors involved.

    And speaking of folks for whom I'm not planning to join a fan club, Sandra Bernhard . . . she's a problem. But she's wonderful here.; I kid you not.

    But I've saved the best for last. I think I actually might have sensed this before, but because Jerry Lewis often plays to type, it's very difficult to determine whether he has innate ability. I've now decided the question -- at least for me myself. Jerry Lewis is a very good actor. This may be the best work he's ever done. Astonishing. Maybe this is the one that convinced the French to name him the greatest American actor of all time. See this just for the great ensemble effort. I really do have to give Martin Scorsese kudos for this work. I never thought I'd say that about him.

    Thinking about it as I'm typing this, I'm struck by the fact that one of the great emotional beauties of this film is that it reads pretty much like classic tragedy from the beginning. Rupert Pupkin is destined to fail. You know it by every single one of the signposts along the way. Flaw after flaw after pathetic flaw. But he doesn't fail. Amazingly, he succeeds; he is a winner. It's tragedy turned on its head. Actually, in the end, this truly is classic comedy.
  • RiderOfTheStorms
    April 20, 2009
    RiderOfTheStorms
    The Acting makes this movie
  • magnolia12883
    November 5, 2009
    magnolia12883
    PG, 109 min, 1982

    Martin Scorsese's pitch-black comedic expose of the obsessions of uber-fans and their effect on the objects of their affection is as odd, unnerving and painful a comedy as I could ever imagine. Robert De Niro is Rubert Pupkin, an aggressively extroverted aspi...( read more)ring stand-up comic and full-time autograph collector whose main attraction is to a goofy late night talk show host named Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis). Rupert hangs out outside of Jerry's studio after the show, watches him every night, and practices fake interviews with him and his guests (such as Liza Minnelli) in the form of cardboard cutouts on a disturbingly realistic looking homemade set in his basement dwelling (his mother, voiced by Scorsese's own mother, can be heard yelling at him from upstairs). One night, fate (or is it a less occult force?) throws Rupert a bone and he is able to leap into Jerry's car and accost him with his dreams and aspirations in hopes that Jerry might give him the time of day. Jerry listens politely, gives him sound if pandering advice, and has his driver drop him at home. Soon, Rupert is showing up at Jerry's offices, calling incessantly, waiting in the lobby without an appointment, and following him from work. His partner in crime is a quirky and utterly unhinged young woman named Masha (Sandra Bernhard), whose obsession with Jerry runs at least as deep and disturbingly as Rupert's, though it's also tinged with a ferocious sexuality through which she finds herself unfettered. Together, they finally decide to kidnap Jerry in the hopes of coming to some sort of understanding of why he couldn't just have been "nice" in the first place and their demands are simple - let Rupert have a guest spot on the show to showcase his shoddy routine. Rupert as a comedian is tasteless, awkward and forced, with jokes as stale as week-old bread, yet he has the audience in the palm of his hand seemingly when his penultimate achievement finally arrives. The thing about this film is that you are never sure exactly how much is real and how much is in the warped wasteland of Rupert Pupkin's vivid imagination; early scenes feature an imagined conversation where Rupert is asked by Jerry to a nice restaurant to take over the show for six weeks while he rests, and in that fantasy Rupert's the famous one who fans are coming over to get autographs from while Jerry is completely ignored (except by the Maitre'd). Yet later in the film, Rupert's fantasies seem to almost spill over into the "real world" and we can't be sure exactly if his success on the show and the subsequent fallout is true or just another wild dream somewhere in his mind. Martin Scorsese might not seem like the most obvious director for this material, and you'd be right to express surprise at the choice, yet he has actually gotten quite a bit of experience traversing the landscape of the emotionally immature and psychologically unstable (see 1976's "Taxi Driver"). Like De Niro's masterful portrait of Travis Bickle in that film, Rupert is a lonely, well-meaning sociopath who has such tunnel vision when it comes to his own way of dealing with the world, you'd best bend to his will or you might not make it out alive. Lewis is very funny and spot-on as the put-upon idol, and Bernhard is a revelation as the clearly insane sidekick. Then there's Diahnne Abbott as Rita, Rupert's lovely African-American school classmate to whom he finds himself trying to prove his current worth and success. What does she make of Rupert? Does she really believe that he will ever be what he claims he will be, or is she just along for the ride, as unconvinced and put-upon as Jerry? It's not totally clear until the end. The film, from a screenplay by former film critic Paul D. Zimmerman, is as entertaining as a painful, bitter, wickedly awkward slog through a delusional wannabe's existence can possibly be. Scorsese, working with cinematographer Fred Schuler ("Arthur"), doesn't employ his usually kinetic camera, instead opting for almost realism in the simple camera movements (when there are any), and a kind of flat palette, employing colors really only in the TV offices and sets. De Niro is sort of amazing as Rupert, always forcing himself, never without a word to say, completely oblivious to the vague hints that he is simply not welcome in Jerry's world; it's quite a performance. As in "Taxi Driver" (1976), Scorsese and De Niro manage to find the tortured, lonely soul of a deeply disturbed individual (however relatively benign in this case that he may be), and their portrayal is fascinating, sometimes hilarious and often extremely unnerving.
  • cotaxidriver
    November 3, 2009
    cotaxidriver
    One of the underestimated Scorsese's movies.
  • rajiv23gooners
    November 1, 2009
    rajiv23gooners
    the forgotten masterpiece.,
    i love everything about this movie, probably the best comedy film i've ever seen..
  • dukeakasmudge
    October 29, 2009
    dukeakasmudge
    Deniro & Jerry Lewis were brilliant.I love this movie
  • tsigur
    October 6, 2009
    tsigur
    De Niro is amazing, one of his best performances. I watched this movie again and it was like watching for the first time. I honestly think this is one of Scorsese's best. Not only is De Niro amazing, but also what surprised me is how amazing Jerry Lewis is in this film. It seems ...( read more)like every performance in this film is extremely naturalistic and that just shows how great Scorsese is with actors. There is also the scene stealing Sandra Bernhard who really astounds ("I feel like Tina Turner!!" is one of my favorite lines of the movie.) There is also the mixture of reality and the surreal which is done perfectly. The scene where he is standing in front of the black and white picture of everyone laughing is a work of art. One of the best of the black comedies and worth another watch if you haven't seen it in a while.

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  • os99
    April 4, 2007
    os99
    This has got to be one of scorsese's most underated films, its a classic.
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  • In which movie, directed by Martin Scorsese, did Jerry Lewis basically play himself, though his caracter was a talkshow host called Jerry Langford?  Answer »
  • What do all these movies have in common: Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Raging Bull and The King Of Comedy  Answer »
  • Scared Stiff The Ladies Man The Bellboy Arizona Dream Sailor Beware The King Of Comedy Who am I?  Answer »
  • In The King Of Comedy (1983) who takes over as guest host of The Jerry Langford Show when Jerry becomes "unavailable"?  Answer »
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