Andy Kaufman, Another Hoax?

On Wednesday, a press release - rather than a news story - appeared on Yahoo, which begins like this:

New York City, NY (PRWEB) May 19, 2004 -- Twenty years ago, on May 16, 1984, most of the world believed that we had lost a comedic legend forever. This has turned out to be what will inevitably be known as the greatest comic prank ever conceived. Andy Kaufman, by all accounts, is alive and well at age 55 and is now living in New York City on the upper west side. To his loyal supporters and fans, Andy says "sorry about faking my death," in a recent interview with ABC News at his apartment. In order to reach legendary comic status and seal his place in the history of performance art, he said it was "necessary to go away for twenty years."

Andy Kaufman's official site has been launched at Andy Kaufman Returns blog.

True or not, who the hell knows? I'm not even sure how many care anymore.

I was one of the ones who sorta liked Andy Kaufman. I was very young and I saw him trying to push the envelope into a wild elephant. But as he made me increasingly uncomfortable, and to be fair, that was distinctly part of Andy's schtick, I watched less and less. I began to pity him, and that's a hell of an indictment.

But if he is indeed alive, the press release is probably right in summing up that his purported death made him more of an historical figure in his craft than his continued presence on the performance scene would have. That's sad, too.