Name: Jerry Lawler Slaps Andy Kaufman | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-02-01T16:07:18.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jerry Lawler Slaps Andy Kaufman | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-01. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jerry Lawler Slaps Andy Kaufman | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-01. Transcript available.

On April 5th, 1982, in Memphis, Tennessee, Andy Kaufman, the actor, comedian,
and inter-gender wrestling champion,
had his first wrestling match with a member of his own sex.
The opponent was a very serious wrestling favorite named Jerry Lawler.
Tonight, for the first time on network television, they meet face-to-face.
Here are Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler.
Andy, come on over and have a seat.
Andy, go ahead and have a seat, if you will.
First of all, gentlemen, thank you.
Thank you very much for being here. Andy, let's take care of your neck injury.
Now, when was the match? April 5th, right?
And it's now almost August.
Do you still need that neck brace on there?
Yes, I do.
Are you in a lot of pain?
Well, I'm not in nearly as much pain as I was.
It's healing, but it's still enough to wear the brace.
One of those kind of nagging, lingering injuries that...
I don't know what you call it, but I just have to wear the brace.
Now, when I see Jerry here, I've never seen the man in person before.
To me, you'd have to be nuts to want to get into the ring with this guy.
He appears to be maybe twice your weight, and he's better looking.
I'm just...
What was...
I'm just teasing there, you know.
But what was your motivation for wanting to fight him?
Well, I had had so many matches with women, and I always won, and I started
really believing that I was a good wrestler.
So, I don't know.
I'd beaten women bigger than him.
I really thought that I could beat him.
And also, when I started getting worried and thinking maybe I couldn't beat him,
I thought I would just run away from him the whole time.
I couldn't do that.
Now, Jerry, was there ever any doubt in your mind that you would have any
difficulty wrestling Andy?
Not really.
No doubt at all.
You see, I don't want to sit out here and pretend that I'm friends with this
guy, because I think he's a wimp.
You see, I think when Andy was born, his father wanted a boy, and his mother
wanted a girl, and they were both satisfied.
Now, just a point of order here.
I don't know a great deal about wrestling, but it looks to me like you gave
Andy that second pile driver after the bell.
Now, that didn't seem like a really sportsman-like thing to do.
Well, see, I noticed a small smattering of boos from the audience and
everything, and I think that the people have gotten the wrong impression from
all of this.
You say that wasn't a sportsman-like thing to do.
But everybody that sees Andy Kaufman the way he is now, you know, Mr. Nice Guy,
very lovable, the latke character and everything,
this is not the Andy Kaufman that I saw, because he sent a lot of interviews
and clips into Memphis insulting me.
As I recall, Andy, you kind of just egged him into this, didn't you?
Just teasing and fun.
Just teasing and fun.
Jerry Lawler and Andy Kaufman are here, and we saw the tapes that allegedly
provoked Mr. Lawler into the match.
Andy, why did you do that?
That didn't seem like a very nice thing to do there.
I don't see how a person could get so mad from that.
I was playing bad guy.
That's what I was doing.
I was playing bad guy wrestler.
It was a role I was playing.
I wasn't serious about it.
I don't take things like that seriously, like I am a star.
You know, that was just a role I was playing.
So in your estimation, Jerry...
And I think that he just was taking it too seriously.
You think he owes you an apology then?
Look, I always said he didn't have a sense of humor, and here the people are
all laughing at it.
So it proves my point.
Yeah.
And that's why I came here.
It was because I asked for an apology.
I apologized for all the wrestling I've ever done, all the abuse I've ever
given the people that didn't understand what I was doing.
And I simply think that apology is in order.
So it's come to this, hasn't it, Andy?
You want Jerry to apologize.
Now, is this the way...
Would that be an equitable thing as far as you're concerned?
I don't think so.
Yeah.
I don't think I owe him an apology.
You know, he says it was all a big joke.
I'm sure it was to him.
I think he came down there with the intention of...
Did you want to hurt him?
Well, yeah.
I thought I had to hurt him.
In all the matches I ever had against 400 women, I'll tell you, I was bigger
than most of them, a lot bigger.
And I never, not one time did anyone ever get hurt.
I never had to prove anything.
I never had to hurt.
I was always very gentle with everybody.
I wrestled.
You know, it's something that I take very seriously.
It's the way I make my living.
And he comes in making a joke out of me.
He did it all for publicity.
That's why he's still wearing...
I don't know if it's a neck brace or a flea collar.
I mean, you know, it's...
Sure, you don't need it this long.
You don't need it this long.
I was in the hospital...
He's milking it for every bit of publicity.
He can get it.
That's all he's...
I had to spend three days in the hospital in traction.
And I was given this neck brace in the hospital.
It's a very real neck brace.
It's a real thing.
And it's something...
It's been five months ago.
Yeah, it seems a little...
But if people have been in car wrecks or another...
You know...
Yeah.
I just don't think that there was any...
It wasn't really called for to do...
You could have...
I could have been killed.
And I could have been...
Had my neck broken.
But on the other hand, I mean, nobody actually forced you into the ring, you
know?
That's right.
I don't come out here and try to do stand-up comedy or anything like that.
You know, I'm a wrestler.
So you're a comedian?
If you were the man that you think that you are, then you'd apologize.
You're the man that you think that you say you are.
Because you're always talking about being a sportsman and how you're such a
great athlete.
I never say anything about being a sportsman.
Let me...
Well, I thought that you're...
I thought you're a professional athlete.
You could...
You're always talking about sportsmanship.
And sportsmanship isn't just to...
That's right.
I'm a professional athlete.
And if it's a professional sport...
You're a comedian, you should stay telling jokes and things like that.
You don't have to go in the ring.
Yeah, well, I was going in the ring and this is something that I was doing.
And it was no reason to hurt me.
It's not a joke to me.
Yeah.
It's not a joke.
Well, it wasn't...
It wasn't a joke to me.
Did you laugh after when you were laying in the hospital?
It was a joke then?
No, it wasn't.
But there wasn't any reason to purposely hurt me.
You could have proven the point by just beating me.
You want to prove what a big man you are.
Let me...
Let me just clear up one point here.
There are a lot of people watching who probably view wrestling as being a show,
a display, a demonstration.
And this may be as the pinnacle representation of that.
Was this thing fixed or rigged?
Are you guys really friends?
Was it a scam?
I couldn't warm up to this guy.
We were cremated together.
He is a wimp.
That's exactly what he thought.
That's what he thought about wrestling.
He thinks it's all a big joke, a big fix or whatever.
And then you're right.
There are a lot of people that think that.
You're nothing but a redneck.
Well, there's...
And you're just trying to prove a point because I was a Yankee and I heard this
from so many
people in Memphis.
I was going down there and because you believed all that stuff that I was...
There are a lot of people that think that, David.
And he was one of them.
And I did to Andy exactly what I would like to do to everybody that thinks that
way.
You're lucky I didn't sue you.
It was a chance to show him exactly what he's really like.
If there were...
Because let me tell you something.
My father said, my father said, my manager said, they all said that I had a
right.
I could have gotten a lawyer and I could have sued you for what you did.
And I didn't.
And I just...
All I want is an apology.
Even you asked me last time I was on your show if I was going to have a lawsuit.
And I could have sued you.
I could have sued you for everything you're worth.
And I didn't because I'm not that kind of a guy.
Yeah.
You know what...
What kind of a guy are you?
You're not the kind of guy here.
I'll just be over here.
We're going to applause here for station identification.
Get the hoses out here.
No, no, no.
I am sick of this...
Hi there.
Hi there.
And welcome back to the show, ladies and gentlemen.
As you can tell, Andy Kaufman is here, sort of.
And Jerry Lawler is also here.
And there's some nights I wish Tom were here.
But that's not the case.
Is Andy...
Are you coming in here again?
Or...
I am sick of this...
You're a...
My friend.
I will sue you for everything you have.
I will sue your...
You're a...
As far as I'm concerned.
You hear me?
You're a...
I will get you for this.
I am sorry.
I am sorry to use those words on television.
I apologize to all my friends.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
But you, you're a...
A...
A...
A...
I think, I think you can use some of those words on TV.
But what you can't do is throw coffee.
I've said it over and over again.
Well, that about wraps this segment up.
I want to thank my guests.
Mr. Lawler.
Jerry, thank you very much for being here.
And good luck to you, sir.
And my thanks to Andy Kaufman.
Thank you.
Thank you.