Film
The King of Comedy
- Director
- Martin Scorsese
- Certificate
- PG
- Running Time
- 109 mins
There are those who argue that Raging Bull, GoodFellas or Taxi Driver are Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro’s finest collaborations. But if there’s an under-appreciated masterpiece in the duo’s canon ripe for reappraisal, it is surely the atypical 1983 film, The King of Comedy. Massively ahead of its time (and hence a huge box office flop on release), this delicious black comedy has much to say about our increasingly fame- and celebrity-obsessed culture. In one of his finest ever performances, Bob plays nerdy loser Rupert Pupkin, who dogs celebs for autographs and fantasises about being a great comedian appearing on the top-rated talk show hosted by Jerry Lewis. But no one anticipates just how far he’s prepared to go to realise this dream.
Watch closely in the scene where Bob argues in the street with Sandra Bernhard and you’ll notice that three of the people who take the piss out of them are played by Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Joe Strummer of The Clash. They’re listed in the credits as ‘Street Scum’. Fascinating method trivia fact: while making the film, Bob refused to eat lunch with Jerry Lewis because their characters wouldn’t do so. The film is back on screen to complement the Watershed’s screenings of Joker, on which it was a direct influence.
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