In all of comedy, few comedians were ever more perplexing to audiences than Andy Kaufman. Separating reality from performance was remarkably hard in Kaufman's world, something he seemed to relish. He famously got into a fight with wrestler Jerry "the King" Lawler on David Letterman's show in 1982 that wasn't revealed as a fake for 13 years, according to Uproxx. Kaufman was all about the performance; not even Letterman knew it was all an act.
In 1981, Andy Kaufman was on an SNL knockoff called Fridays. During one infamous skit, his character was to leave a restaurant table and get high, then come back. Kaufman left but when he returned he didn't follow the script, instead telling the other actors he felt stupid and couldn't play "high."
Things got tense when future Seinfeld star Michael Richards, also acting in the scene, actually grabbed the cue cards and held them up in front of Kaufman. Then another actor smeared butter on Kaufman's face, and everything fell apart. Crew got on set to break everyone up as Kaufman and someone else got into an actual fight. Cut to commercial.
The fallout from the episode is credited with giving the failing show a second season, according to Mental Floss. No one knew the event was staged — some of the crew hadn't even been informed. To audiences, it looked like Andy Kaufman had simply lost his mind.
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