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120-397: Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman ( / ˈ k aʊ f m ə n / KOWF -mən ; January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was an American entertainer and performance artist. He has sometimes been called an " anti-comedian ". He disdained telling jokes and engaging in comedy as it was traditionally understood, once saying in an interview, "I am not a comic, I have never told a joke. The comedian's promise

240-523: A New York Times article claimed that " Bananarama 's recent concert at the Palladium", the "first song had a big beat, layered vocal harmonies and a dance move for every line of lyrics", but "the drum kit was untouched until five songs into the set, or that the backup vocals (and, it seemed, some of the lead vocals as well-a hybrid lead performance) were on tape along with the beat". The article also claims that "British band Depeche Mode , ...adds vocals and

360-462: A Thanksgiving dinner on Long Island in November 1983, several family members openly expressed worry about Kaufman's persistent coughing. He claimed that he had been coughing for nearly a month, visited his doctor, and was told that nothing was wrong. When he returned to Los Angeles, he consulted another physician and then underwent a series of tests at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center . A few days later, he

480-544: A lip dub video) have also been popular as viral videos on the internet. An early example, " Numa Numa ", a video recorded by Gary Brolsma of him dancing and lip syncing to the song " Dragostea din Tei ", was ranked in 2007 by The Viral Factory as the second most-viewed viral video of all time behind the Star Wars Kid . Various television competition programs have been built around lip sync performances, such as Puttin' on

600-437: A speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals. Audio for lip syncing is generated through the sound reinforcement system in a live performance or via television, computer, cinema speakers , or other forms of audio output. The term can refer to any of a number of different techniques and processes, in the context of live performances and audiovisual recordings. In film production , lip syncing

720-726: A "looping" session after the filming. Another manifestation of lip syncing is the art of making an animated character appear to speak in a prerecorded track of dialogue . The lip sync technique to make an animated character appear to speak involves figuring out the timings of the speech (breakdown) as well as the actual animating of the lips/mouth to match the dialogue track. The earliest examples of lip sync in animation were attempted by Max Fleischer in his 1926 short My Old Kentucky Home . The technique continues to this day, with animated films and television shows such as Shrek , Lilo & Stitch , and The Simpsons using lip syncing to make their artificial characters talk. Lip syncing

840-441: A backing track. It is also possible that fans who are watching a live performance on a large-screen video display, either in the venue or remotely as in a live broadcast, are actually seeing a real lip sync timing error. These can be created by the video signal processing delay that occurs in the electronic video signal path between the on stage camera and the large screen displays. This lip sync error can cause those fans to perceive

960-527: A band which lip synced to recordings made by other singers), or to cover deficiencies in live performance. It is also commonly used in drag shows . Sometimes lip sync performances are forced on performers by television producers to shorten the guest appearances of celebrities, as it requires less time for rehearsals and hugely simplifies the process of sound mixing, or to eliminate the risk of vocal errors. Some artists lip sync because they are not confident singing live and want to avoid singing out of tune. Because

1080-463: A concert ticket." Some singers habitually lip sync during live performances, both concert and televised, over pre-recorded music and mimed backing vocals; this is known as singing over playback. Some artists switch between live singing and lip syncing during a performance, particularly during songs that require them to hit particularly high or low notes. Lip syncing these notes ensures that the performer will not be out of tune or strain their voice. Once

1200-420: A couple who never physically meet, and communicated solely via lip syncing. The couple became a major cultural phenomenon in the country, and appeared on-stage for the first time in an October 2015 concert special, Tamang Panahon . A hashtag associated with the special received 41 million posts within 24 hours on Twitter , beating a global record previously set during Brazil and Germany's semi-final match at

1320-528: A few keyboard lines to [a] taped backup [track when they perform] onstage". In 1989, during a Milli Vanilli performance recorded by MTV at the Lake Compounce theme park in Bristol, Connecticut , what sounded to be a pre-recorded track of the group's song "Girl You Know It's True" jammed and began to skip, repeating the partial line "Girl, you know it's..." over and over. Due to rising public questions regarding

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1440-469: A film clip". She indicated that "The NSW Government would be happy to look at options, such as a disclaimer on a ticket which would warn consumers a performance is completely pre-recorded." A writer on ethics calls lip syncing an "affront to all legitimate live performers who risk lyric mistakes and cracking voices to give an authentic performance". The author argues that lip syncing in live concerts will "...destroy our ability to enjoy great live performances

1560-519: A friend of his, in this act for a while. Kaufman initially approached the head of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF)—now World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)— Vince McMahon Sr. , about bringing his act to the New York wrestling territory. McMahon dismissed Kaufman's idea, as the elder McMahon was not about to bring "show business" into his Pro Wrestling society. Kaufman had by then developed

1680-516: A friendship with wrestling reporter/photographer Bill Apter . After many discussions about Kaufman's desire to be in the pro wrestling business, Apter called Memphis wrestling icon Jerry "The King" Lawler and introduced him to Kaufman by telephone. Kaufman finally stepped into the ring (in the Memphis wrestling circuit ) with a man—Lawler himself. Kaufman taunted the residents of Memphis by playing "videos showing residents how to use soap" and proclaiming

1800-667: A guest on NBC 's Saturday Night Live , his first prime-time appearances were several guest spots as Foreign Man on the Dick Van Dyke variety show Van Dyke and Company in 1976. He appeared four times on The Tonight Show in 1976–78, with Foreign Man doing his imitation of Johnny Carson 's sidekick Ed McMahon , with no change in voice: "Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. How hot was eet. Ha ha ha." Kaufman also appeared three times on NBC's late-night concert series The Midnight Special in 1972, 1977, and 1981. Kaufman appeared on The Dating Game in 1978, in character as Foreign Man, and cried when

1920-463: A heart attack and die on stage, after which he reappeared on stage wearing a Native American headdress and performing a dance over her body, "reviving" her. Kaufman ended the show by taking the entire audience, in 24 buses, for milk and cookies. He invited anyone interested to meet him on the Staten Island Ferry the next morning, where the show continued. The Taxi deal with ABC included

2040-443: A homemaker and former fashion model, and his father was Stanley Kaufman, a jewelry salesman. Kaufman began performing at children's birthday parties at age 9, playing records and showing cartoons. Kaufman spent much of his youth writing poetry and stories, including an unpublished novel, The Hollering Mangoo , which he completed at age 16. Following a visit to his school from Nigerian musician Babatunde Olatunji , Kaufman began playing

2160-532: A lip synced performance of " Wasted Years " where the band blatantly swapped instruments mid-song, and at one point had three members "playing" the drums at the same time. After the Milli Vanilli vocal miming scandal, it "...forever embedded skepticism into the minds (and ears) of the listener." In the fallout of this miming controversy, MTV's Unplugged series was launched, "a showcase for artists wanting to prove they were more than just studio creations". As

2280-509: A live performance. Lip sync is considered a form of miming . It can be used to make it appear as though actors have substantial singing ability (e.g., The Partridge Family television show), to simulate a vocal effect that can be achieved only in the recording studio (e.g., Cher 's Believe , which used an Auto-Tune effects processing on her voice ); to improve performance during choreographed live dance numbers that incorporate vocals; to misattribute vocals entirely (e.g., Milli Vanilli ,

2400-425: A murderous policeman. He appeared in two other theatrical films, including the 1980 film In God We Tru$ t , in which he played a televangelist , and the 1981 film Heartbeeps , in which he played a robot. Laurie Anderson worked alongside Kaufman for a time in the 1970s, acting as a sort of "straight man" in a number of his Manhattan and Coney Island performances. One of these performances included getting on

2520-592: A neck brace, insisting that his injuries were much worse than they really were. Kaufman continued to defend the Inter-Gender Championship in the Mid-South Coliseum and offered an extra prize, other than the $ 1,000: that if he were pinned, the woman who pinned him would get to marry him and that Kaufman would also shave his head. Eventually it was revealed that the feud and wrestling matches were staged works, and that Kaufman and Lawler were friends. This

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2640-529: A number of appearances on the daytime edition of The David Letterman Show in 1980, and 11 appearances on Late Night with David Letterman in 1982–83. He made numerous guest spots on other television programs hosted by or starring celebrities like Johnny Cash (1979 Christmas special), Dick Van Dyke , Dinah Shore , Rodney Dangerfield , Cher , Dean Martin , Redd Foxx , Mike Douglas , Dick Clark , and Joe Franklin . He appeared in his first theatrical film, God Told Me To , in 1976, in which he portrayed

2760-531: A one-man play, Gosh (later renamed God and published in 2000). After graduating in 1971, he began performing stand-up comedy at various small clubs on the East Coast . Kaufman first received major attention for his character Foreign Man, who spoke in a meek, high-pitched, heavily accented voice and claimed to be from "Caspiar", a fictional island in the Caspian Sea . It was as this character that Kaufman convinced

2880-593: A peanut gallery, and opened in the middle of an interview in which Kaufman was laughing hysterically. He then proceeded to thank the audience for watching and the credits rolled. In 1981, Kaufman made three appearances on Fridays , a variety show on ABC that was similar to Saturday Night Live . In the last sketch on his first appearance, the cast were to deliberately break the scene and improvise an argument. Kaufman broke character first, announcing that he "felt stupid" and refusing to say his lines. In response, cast member Michael Richards walked off camera, returned with

3000-425: A playable character in the video game Legends of Wrestling II and a standard character in 2004's Showdown: Legends of Wrestling . In 2008, Jakks Pacific produced for their WWE Classic Superstars toy line an action figure two-pack of Kaufman and Lawler, as well as a separate figure release with a royal blue robe. On March 20, 2023, Kaufman was announced as the third inductee into the 2023 WWE Hall of Fame . He

3120-471: A pretaped appearance (his 16th) asking the audience if he should ever appear on the show again, saying he would honor their decision. SNL ran a phone vote, and 195,544 people voted to "Dump Andy" while 169,186 people voted to "Keep Andy". During the SNL episode with the phone poll, many of the cast members stated their admiration for Kaufman's work. After Eddie Murphy read both numbers, he said, "Now, Andy Kaufman

3240-430: A recurring challenge, particularly to eliminate contestants. Mobile apps such as Dubsmash and TikTok (which acquired and shut down Musical.ly in 2017), which allow users to record their own lip sync videos to pre-existing audio and song clips for sharing on social networking services or an internal platform, have also been popular. In 2015, Maine Mendoza — a Filipino content creator who had been nicknamed

3360-510: A requirement for Kaufman's accepting the offer to star on Taxi , he insisted that Clifton be hired for a guest role on the show as if he were a real person, not a character. After throwing a tantrum on the set, Clifton was fired and escorted from the studio lot by security guards. Much to Kaufman's delight, this incident was reported in the local newspapers. On the January 30, 1982, episode of Saturday Night Live , while impersonating Elvis Presley in

3480-494: A ride that people stand in and get spun around. After everyone was strapped in, Kaufman would start saying how he did not want to be on the ride in a panicked tone and eventually cry. Anderson later described these performances in her 1995 album, The Ugly One with the Jewels . In 1983, Kaufman appeared on Broadway with Deborah Harry in the play Teaneck Tanzi: The Venus Flytrap . It closed after just two performances. Inspired by

3600-420: A series of celebrity impersonations , with the comedy arising from the character's obviously hopeless ineptitude at impersonation. For example, in his fake accent Kaufman announced to the audience, "I would like to imitate Meester Carter , de president of de United States" and then, in exactly the same voice, say "Hello, I am Meester Carter, de president of de United States. T'ank you veddy much." At some point in

3720-485: A set of cue cards, and dumped them on the table in front of Kaufman, who responded by splashing Richards with water. Coproducer Jack Burns stormed onto the stage, leading to a fake brawl on camera before the show cut to a commercial. Richards claimed that what was going to happen was known only to him, Burns and Kaufman, but Melanie Chartoff , who played Kaufman's wife in the sketch, said that just before airtime Burns told her, Richards, and Maryedith Burrell that Kaufman

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3840-428: A short segment for an ABC show called Buckshot. The segment was just over six minutes long and was called Uncle Andy's Funhouse . It featured Kaufman as the host of a children's show for adults, complete with a peanut gallery and Tony Clifton puppet. In 1983, a show very similar to Andy's Funhouse and Uncle Andy's Funhouse was filmed for PBS 's SoundStage program called The Andy Kaufman Show . It too featured

3960-532: A sketch, Kaufman broke character by removing his wig and apologizing to the audience. Kaufman explained this incident on the February 17, 1982, episode of Late Night with David Letterman . He said that he had apologized because he disagreed with how Presley was portrayed in the sketch, which involved Presley instructing two young women from his audience to visit him backstage, where they would wrestle topless in mud. Kaufman said that he had initially declined to perform

4080-505: A staged encounter with Jerry "The King" Lawler of the Continental Wrestling Association . The fact that the altercation was planned was not publicly disclosed for over a decade. Kaufman died of lung cancer on May 16, 1984, at the age of 35. As pranks and elaborate ruses were major elements of his career, persistent rumors have circulated that Kaufman faked his own death as a grand hoax. He continues to be respected for

4200-428: A television special/pilot for Kaufman. He proposed Andy's Funhouse , based on a routine that he had developed while in junior college. The special was taped in 1977 but did not air until August 1979. It featured most of Andy's famous gags, including Foreign Man/Latka and his Elvis Presley impersonation, as well as a host of unique segments (including a special appearance by children's television character Howdy Doody and

4320-513: Is a friend of mine. Keep that in mind when you call. I don't want to have to punch nobody in America in the face", and Mary Gross read the Dump Andy phone number at a rate so fast that audiences were unable to catch it. The final tally was read by Gary Kroeger to a cheering audience. As the credits rolled, announcer Don Pardo said, "This is Don Pardo saying, 'I voted for Andy Kaufman.'" Kaufman made

4440-499: Is also used in comedies such as This Hour Has 22 Minutes and political satire, changing totally or just partially the original wording. It has been used in conjunction with translation of films from one language to another, for example, Spirited Away . Lip syncing can be a very difficult issue in translating foreign works to a domestic release, as a simple translation of the lines often leaves overrun or underrun of high dialog to mouth movements. Quality film dubbing requires that

4560-400: Is an example of this; he performed complex dance routines while lip syncing and live singing. His performance on the television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1983) changed the scope of live stage show. Ian Inglis, author of Performance and Popular Music: History, Place and Time (2006) notes the fact that "Jackson lip-synced 'Billie Jean' is, in itself, not extraordinary, but

4680-515: Is not the same thing as miming)". Teenage viral video star Keenan Cahill openly lip syncs popular songs on his YouTube channel. His popularity has increased as he included guests such as rapper 50 Cent in November 2010 and David Guetta in January 2011, sending him to be one of the most popular channels on YouTube in January 2011. The Beatles ran foul of the contemporaneous British law against miming on television in 1967 with their lip synced promo clip to their song Hello, Goodbye . On

4800-560: Is often part of the post-production phase. Dubbing foreign-language films and making animated characters appear to speak both require elaborate lip syncing. Many video games make extensive use of lip-synced sound files to create an immersive environment in which on-screen characters appear to be speaking. In the music industry , lip syncing is used by singers for music videos , television and film appearances and some types of live performances. Lip syncing by singers can be controversial to fans attending concert performances who expect to view

4920-408: Is still on. On the parts they're not confident on or if the performance is physically demanding, the artist will sing quieter, and more of the performance [backing] track vocals can be heard." There are "very few artists who [...] completely lip-sync" while a backing track is playing with "full lead vocals", a practice done due to "weather conditions, technical issues, or sickness." Lip syncing where

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5040-421: Is that he will go out there and make you laugh with him. My only promise is that I will try to entertain you as best I can." After working in small comedy clubs in the early 1970s, Kaufman came to the attention of a wider audience in 1975, when he was invited to perform portions of his act on the first season of Saturday Night Live . His Foreign Man character was the basis of his performance as Latka Gravas on

5160-1288: Is the technique used when animated characters speak, and lip syncing is essential when films are dubbed into other languages. In many musical films , actors sang their own songs beforehand in a recording session and lip synced during filming, but many also lip synced to playback singers , voices other than their own. Rex Harrison was the exception in My Fair Lady . Marni Nixon sang for Deborah Kerr in The King and I and for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady , Annette Warren for Ava Gardner in Show Boat , Robert McFerrin for Sidney Poitier in Porgy and Bess , Betty Wand for Leslie Caron in Gigi , Lisa Kirk for Rosalind Russell in Gypsy , and Bill Lee for Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music . Some pre-overdubbed performances have survived, such as Hepburn's original My Fair Lady vocals (included in documentaries related to

5280-413: Is true of countries in which the local language is not spoken widely enough to make the expensive dubbing commercially viable (in other words, there is not enough market for it). However, other countries with a large-enough population dub all foreign films into their national language cinematic release. Dubbing is preferred by some because it allows the viewer to focus on the on-screen action, without reading

5400-558: The Austin American-Statesman commented "[i]t seemed unlikely that anyone—even a prized member of the First Family of Soul Music —could dance like she did for 90 minutes and still provide the sort of powerful vocals that the '90s super concerts are expected to achieve." The music video for Electrasy 's 1998 single " Morning Afterglow " featured lead singer Alisdair McKinnell lip syncing the entire song backwards. This allowed

5520-557: The 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony , the song " Ode to the Motherland " appeared to be sung by Lin Miaoke at the ceremony, but it emerged that she mimed her performance to a recording by another girl, Yang Peiyi , who actually won the audition. It was a last-minute decision to use lip syncing, following a Politburo member's objection to Yang's physical appearance. International Olympic Committee executive director Gilbert Felli defended

5640-505: The 2014 FIFA World Cup . In the Australian state of New South Wales , the government is considering new laws that would require pop singers to print disclaimers on tickets "to alert fans if [the singers] intend on miming throughout their shows". Fair Trading Minister Virginia Judge stated that "Let's be clear – live means live." Minister Judge stated that "If you are spending up to $ 200 [on concert tickets], I think you deserve better than

5760-461: The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade , which features popular singers lip syncing while riding floats . Sometimes lip syncing is incorrectly identified by fans sitting in the back of a stadium because of the time it takes sound to carry over distance. Viewers might, for example, see a drummer hit a kit before they actually hear the sound. The delay can be mistaken for poor synchronization of miming artists and

5880-615: The congas . After graduating from Great Neck North High School in 1967, Kaufman took a year off before enrolling at the now defunct two-year Grahm Junior College in Boston, where he studied television production and starred in his own campus television show, Uncle Andy's Fun House. In August 1969, he hitchhiked to Las Vegas to meet Elvis Presley , showing up unannounced at the International Hotel . Soon after, he began performing at coffee houses and developing his act, as well as writing

6000-414: The "Has-been Corner"). The program also included a segment with fake television screen static as part of the gag, although ABC executives feared that viewers would mistake the static for broadcast problems and would change the channel—which was the comic element that Kaufman wanted to present. Andy's Funhouse was written by Kaufman, Zmuda and Mel Sherer, with music by Kaufman. In March 1980, Kaufman filmed

6120-456: The "Live Means Live" campaign. "Live Means Live" was launched by songwriter/composer David Mindel . When a band displays the "Live Means Live" logo, the audience knows, "there's no Auto-Tune , nothing that isn't 100 per cent live" in the show, and there are no backing tracks. In film production , lip syncing is often part of the post-production phase. Most film today contains scenes where the dialogue has been re-recorded afterwards; lip syncing

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6240-457: The "Queen of Dubsmash" — became a cast member of the Filipino variety show Eat Bulaga! She appeared in a recurring sketch as a character named Yaya Dub , whose dialogue consisted exclusively of lip synced audio. Her spontaneous reactions to fellow cast member Alden Richards during a remote broadcast resulted in the creation of an on-air couple known as AlDub , in which the two were portrayed as

6360-578: The 1960s, vocals and instrumentals were all (with a few notable exceptions on American Bandstand) synced to pre-recorded music. Since the creation of MTV in the 1980s, many artists have focused on visual effects, rather than singing, for their live shows. Artists often lip sync during strenuous dance numbers in both live and recorded performances. Artists often lip sync during strenuous dance numbers in both live and recorded performances, due to lung capacity being needed for physical activity (both at once would require incredibly trained lungs). Michael Jackson

6480-673: The 1990s; the NFL has confirmed this as standard practice. In January 1998, singer-songwriter Jewel was criticised for lip syncing the American national anthem at the opening of the Super Bowl XXXII to a digitally-recorded track of her own voice. This was noticeable as the singer missed her cue, and thus, did not sing the first few words of the song. Super Bowl producers have since admitted that they attempt to have all performers pre-record their vocals. Some Olympics events have used lip syncing. In

6600-843: The 1996 VHS release of The Beatles Anthology ) was not released on home video up until appearing as a bonus feature on the 2012 DVD release of Magical Mystery Tour . Indian cinema relies heavily on lip syncing. Lip syncing by a playback singer is almost exclusively used in Indian cinema, where actors perform song and dance sequences in movies while lip syncing to the song that is sung by playback singers. The playback singers are officially recognised and have gained much fame in their careers. Some notables among them are Lata Mangeshkar , Kishore Kumar , Muhammad Rafi , Asha Bhosle , Sonu Nigam , Shreya Ghoshal , and many more. In an article about Katy Perry, entitled "Lip-Sync Malfunction Forces Katy Perry to Use Her Own Voice to Sing", Gawker stated that while

6720-514: The 21 November 1967 edition of Top of the Pops , the song was thus played over a series of sequences from the band's 1964 film A Hard Day's Night . On the 7 December edition of the show, a specially-made black and white promo clip was broadcast with the song, which consisted of the band members editing their telefilm Magical Mystery Tour , and (other than the official promo clip in color including miming, which first became commercially available with

6840-532: The Hits , and Lip Service . Comedian Jimmy Fallon incorporated similar performances with celebrities as sketches during his late night talk show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ; he oversaw a standalone television series for Spike , Lip Sync Battle , which extended the concept into a competitive format between pairs of celebrities. Owing to their prominence as part of drag culture, the reality competition franchise RuPaul's Drag Race uses lip sync performances as

6960-512: The King ... Sometimes , Lawler detailed how they came up with the angle and kept it quiet. Even though Kaufman's injury was legitimate, the pair exaggerated it. He also said that Kaufman's furious tirade and performance on Letterman was Kaufman's own idea, including when Lawler slapped Kaufman out of his chair. Promoter Jerry Jarrett later recalled that for two years he mailed Kaufman payments comparable to what other main-event wrestlers were getting at

7080-572: The Moon , playing Kaufman's sister Carol as a young child. In December 1969, Kaufman learned Transcendental Meditation at college. According to a BBC article, he used the technique "to build confidence and take his act to comedy clubs." For the rest of his life, Kaufman meditated and performed yoga three hours per day. From February to June 1971, he trained as a teacher of Transcendental Meditation in Mallorca , Spain. Lynne Margulies, who met Kaufman during

7200-444: The New York stop of her anticipated comeback tour, Spears used her actual vocal cords only three times – twice to thank the crowd, and once to sing a ballad (though the vocals during that number were questionable, as well)". Rolling Stone magazine stated that "Though some reports indicate Spears did some live singing [in her 2009 concerts], the L.A. Times Ann Powers notes that the show was dominated by backing tracks (which granted,

7320-408: The advent of MTV and other video music channels, pop audiences have been fed elaborate videos thick with jaw-dropping effects, awesome choreography, fabulous clothes, marvelous bodies. And the same level of perfection is expected to extend beyond the video set to the concert stage. So if Britney Spears, Janet Jackson or Madonna sounds shrill and flat without a backing track, fans won't pay up to $ 300 for

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7440-489: The audience knows the performer is pretending has also been popular as a form of musical pantomime, in which performers mime to pre-recorded music for the public's entertainment. It is often performed by drag performers ( drag queens and drag kings ). Iron Maiden and Muse both mocked demands by two music television programs to give mimed performances, by having their band members deliberately swap instruments. Examples of lip sync performances (sometimes referred to as

7560-520: The bachelorette chose Bachelor #1, protesting that he had answered all the questions correctly. His SNL appearances started with the first show, on October 11, 1975 . He made 16 SNL appearances in all, doing routines from his comedy act, such as the Mighty Mouse singalong, Foreign Man, and the Elvis impersonation. After he angered the audience with his female-wrestling routine, Kaufman in January 1983 made

7680-542: The cancer had spread from his lungs to his brain. His final public appearance was at the premiere of My Breakfast With Blassie in March 1984, where he appeared thin and with a mohawk hair style (radiation treatments had caused the loss of his hair). Anti-humor The yarn , also called a shaggy dog story , is a type of anti-humor that involves telling an extremely long joke with an intricate (and sometimes grisly) back story and surreal or repetitive plotline, before ending

7800-465: The city to be "the nation's redneck capital". The ongoing Lawler–Kaufman feud , which often featured Jimmy Hart and other heels in Kaufman's corner, included a number of staged " works ", such as a broken neck for Kaufman as a result of Lawler's piledriver and a famous on-air fight on a 1982 episode of Late Night with David Letterman . For some time after that first match, Kaufman appeared wearing

7920-473: The country. Sometimes it was Kaufman performing as Clifton, sometimes it was his brother Michael or Zmuda. For a brief time, it was unclear to some that Clifton was not a real person. News programs interviewed Clifton as Kaufman's opening act, with the mood turning ugly whenever Kaufman's name came up. Kaufman, Clifton insisted, was attempting to ruin Clifton's "good name" in order to make money and become famous. As

8040-588: The dialogue is first translated in such a way that the words used can match the lip movements of the actor. This is often hard to achieve if the translation is to stay true to the original dialogue. Elaborate lip sync of dubbing is also a lengthy and expensive process. The more simplified non-phonetic representation of mouth movement in many anime helps this process. In English-speaking countries, many foreign TV series (especially anime like Pokémon ) are dubbed for television broadcast. However, cinematic releases of films tend to come with subtitles instead. The same

8160-409: The difficult portion of the song has passed, the artist may continue to lip sync or may resume singing live. Some artists lip sync choruses during songs but sing the main verses. The practice of syncing also occurs in musical theater, for much the same purpose as for musicians. A production may include a mix of lip synced and live musical numbers. In long-running shows, this may be done to help protect

8280-464: The duet 'Now I'm Following You', while a Dick Tracy character mouths Warren Beatty's recorded vocals. On other songs, background singers plump up her voice, strained by the exertion of non-stop dancing." Billboard editor Thom Duffy commented in 1990: "The expectations of fans have changed, and that's the driving force here ... They expect a concert as perfect as what they see on MTV." Rashod D. Ollison of The Baltimore Sun observed in 2004: "Since

8400-536: The episode aired, but Kaufman challenged Goldman to a public debate on Presley's character. At the beginning of an April 1979 performance at New York's Carnegie Hall , Kaufman invited his "grandmother" to watch the show from a chair that he had placed at the side of the stage. At the end of the show, she stood, removed her mask, and revealed to the audience that she was actually comedian Robin Williams . Kaufman also had an elderly woman (Eleanor Cody Gould) pretend to have

8520-522: The expense of live singing." Edna Gundersen of USA Today comments that the complexity of modern stage show has forced "singing and musicianship into minor roles", citing as example artists such as New Kids on the Block , Milli Vanilli , George Michael , Cher , Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson. Gundersen elaborates: "The most obvious example is Madonna's Blond Ambition World Tour , a visually preoccupied and heavily choreographed spectacle. Madonna lip-syncs

8640-524: The expense of live singing." Edna Gundersen of USA Today reported: "The most obvious example is Madonna's Blond Ambition World Tour , a visually preoccupied and heavily choreographed spectacle. Madonna lip syncs the duet " Now I'm Following You ", while a Dick Tracy character mouths Warren Beatty 's recorded vocals. On other songs, background singers plump up her voice, strained by the exertion of non-stop dancing." Similarly, in reviewing Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation World Tour , Michael MacCambridge of

8760-533: The fact that it did not change the impact of the performance is extraordinary; whether the performance was live or lip synced made no difference to the audience," thus creating an era in which artists recreate the spectacle of music video imagery on stage. Chris Nelson of The New York Times reported: "Artists like Madonna and Janet Jackson set new standards for showmanship, with concerts that included not only elaborate costumes and precision-timed pyrotechnics but also highly athletic dancing. These effects came at

8880-489: The film track and music track are recorded separately during the creation of a music video , artists usually lip sync their songs and often imitate playing musical instruments as well. Artists also sometimes move their lips at a faster speed than the recorded track, to create videos with a slow-motion effect in the final clip, which is widely considered to be complex to achieve. Similarly, some artists have been known to lip sync backward for music videos such that, when reversed,

9000-570: The film), and Gardner's original vocals in Show Boat were heard for the first time in the 1994 documentary That's Entertainment! III . When songs appear in non-musical films, however, the actors sing live on set, but later dub their voices in ADR using a "better" performance of the song. Lip syncing is almost always used in modern musical films ( The Rocky Horror Picture Show being an exception) and in biopics such as Ray and La Vie en Rose , where

9120-489: The filming of My Breakfast with Blassie , was in a relationship with Kaufman from 1982 until his death in 1984. Margulies later codirected the 1989 Kaufman wrestling compilation I'm from Hollywood , and published the 2009 book Dear Andy Kaufman, I Hate Your Guts! . Kaufman kept his personal life secret and instead engaged in pranks and stunts to further obscure it, such as claiming in a September 22, 1983, appearance on David Letterman's show to have adopted three sons. At

9240-439: The gig. Kaufman disliked sitcoms and was not happy with the idea of being in one, but Shapiro convinced him that it would quickly lead to stardom, which would earn him money he could then put into his own act. Kaufman agreed to appear in 14 episodes per season, and he initially wanted four for Kaufman's alter ego Tony Clifton . After Kaufman deliberately sabotaged Clifton's appearance on the show, however, that part of his contract

9360-445: The help because acid reflux disease had made her voice hoarse." Her manager stated that "Just like any artist in America, she has a backing track that she pushes so you don't have to hear her croak through a song on national television." During the incident, vocal parts from a previously performed song began to sound while the singer was "holding her microphone at her waist"; she made "some exaggerated hopping dance moves, then walked off

9480-493: The hit television show Taxi from 1978 until 1983. During this time, he continued to tour comedy clubs and theaters in a series of unique performance art/comedy shows, sometimes appearing as himself and sometimes as obnoxiously rude lounge singer Tony Clifton . He was also a frequent guest on sketch comedy and late-night talk shows , particularly Late Night with David Letterman . In 1982, Kaufman brought his professional wrestling villain act to Letterman's show by way of

9600-423: The ironic dubbing of Debbie Reynolds by Betty Noyes on Would You " although he pointed out that "the 19-year-old Reynolds never puts a foot wrong on smashers like Good Morning ". Reynolds also later acknowledged Betty Noyes ' uncredited contribution to the film, writing: "I sang You Are My Lucky Star with Gene Kelly. It was a very rangy song and done in his key. My part did not come out well, and my singing voice

9720-455: The joke teller asks the listener what the farmer did in any given situation: Alternative comedy , among its other aspects, parodies the traditional idea of the joke as a form of humor. Anti-humor jokes are also often associated with deliberately bad stand-up comedians . Stand-up comedian Andy Kaufman had his own unique brand of anti-humor, quasi- surrealist acts coupled with performance art ; one of his best-known manifestations of this

9840-479: The joke-telling and celebrity impressions (including Elvis) were included in the November 8 broadcast that same year. The Foreign Man character was changed into Latka Gravas for ABC 's sitcom Taxi , appearing in 79 of 114 episodes in 1978–83. Bob Zmuda confirms this: "They basically were buying Andy's Foreign Man character for the Taxi character Latka." Kaufman's longtime manager George Shapiro encouraged him to take

9960-475: The lyrics, and do it over and over until our spot on the show was concluded", leading to a performance Zappa described as "Detroit's first whiff of homemade prime-time Dada ." Morrissey protested a similar policy on the BBC music programme Top of the Pops by singing " This Charming Man " with a fern plant as a "microphone". When appearing on a German music programme in 1986, English metal band Iron Maiden gave

10080-505: The negative perceptions that are created and the SMPTE ST-2064 standard are discussed in audio to video synchronization . "[S]ome of the most talented singers have been caught in the act of lip-synching". Arts journalist Chuck Taylor says that it is considered "an egregious offense", but he points out that when singers are dancing and doing complex stage shows, it is hard to sing live. On some TV show performances, "the singer's microphone

10200-507: The original recording adds authenticity. But some early musicals usually use live recordings. In the 1950s MGM classic Singin' in the Rain , lip syncing is a major plot point, with Debbie Reynolds ' character, Kathy Selden, providing the voice for the character Lina Lamont (played by Jean Hagen ). Writing in UK Sunday newspaper The Observer , Mark Kermode noted, "Trivia buffs love to invoke

10320-501: The owner of the famed New York City comedy club The Improv , Budd Friedman , to allow him to perform on stage. As Foreign Man, Kaufman would appear on the stage of comedy clubs , play a recording of the theme from the Mighty Mouse cartoon show while standing perfectly still, and lip-sync only the line "Here I come to save the day" with great enthusiasm. He proceeded to tell a few (intentionally poor) jokes and concluded his act with

10440-438: The performance as less entertaining or possibly negatively, as compared to a performance displayed without the electronically introduced error. There is a technical solution to this problem, the SMPTE ST-2064 standard, but as of March 2018 it has not been adopted by any television production groups such as those who provide large venue television, or by broadcasters who provide live broadcasts. These video signal processing delays,

10560-527: The performance, revealed in his 2008 memoirs, Pavarotti Visto da Vicino , that the performance was prerecorded weeks earlier. "The orchestra pretended to play for the audience, I pretended to conduct and Luciano pretended to sing. The effect was wonderful," he wrote. Pavarotti's manager, Terri Robson, said that the tenor had turned the Winter Olympic Committee's invitation down several times because it would have been impossible to sing late at night in

10680-462: The performance, usually when the audience was conditioned to Foreign Man's inability to perform a single convincing impression, Foreign Man would announce, "And now I would like to imitate the Elvis Presley", turn around, take off his jacket, slick his hair back, and launch into a rousing, hip-shaking rendition of Presley singing one of his hit songs. Like Presley, he took off his leather jacket during

10800-536: The performer's voice from strain and damage, as well as to maintain a high caliber of production. A notable example of using lip syncing as a special effect includes performances of The Phantom of the Opera , with swing actors in the same costumes as the lead actors give the illusion of the characters moving around the stage with some mystery. Artists may also lip sync in situations in which their backup bands and sound reinforcement systems cannot be accommodated, such as

10920-523: The pop star was "performing her hit song "Roar" at the NRJ Music Awards in Cannes on Saturday, [she] suffered a devastating lip-sync malfunction." Perry was "unable to match the backing track" with her lip movements, causing the host to stop the performance and ask her if she wished to start again. Perry restarted the song, this time without the backing track. The producers issued a statement indicating that it

11040-633: The process. After these details emerged, at least 26 different lawsuits were filed under various U.S. consumer fraud protection laws. On August 28, a settlement was approved that refunded those who attended concerts along with those who bought Milli Vanilli recordings. An estimated 10 million buyers were eligible to claim a refund. Chris Nelson of The New York Times reported that by the 1990s, "[a]rtists like Madonna and Janet Jackson set new standards for showmanship, with concerts that included not only elaborate costumes and precision-timed pyrotechnics but also highly athletic dancing. These effects came at

11160-455: The request of Rickey Minor , the pregame show producer", who argued that "There's too many variables to go live." Subsequent Super Bowl national anthems were performed live. Whitney Houston 's rendition of the anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl was also reported to have been lip synced. Such pre-recorded performances for the Super Bowl's halftime shows and national anthem have been commonplace since

11280-469: The show used live performances with singers and acoustic instruments, it required performers to "...display their unembellished voices and ability to perform live." On MTV Unplugged , artists could not use lip syncing, backup tracks, synthesizers, and racks of vocal effects. With Unplugged , authenticity in live performances again became an important value in popular music . Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran have called for honesty in live shows by joining

11400-499: The singer is seen to sing forwards while time appears to move backwards in his or her surroundings, such as in Coldplay's " The Scientist ". Notable exceptions to this trend include Bruce Springsteen 's hit " Streets of Philadelphia ", which only uses the instruments as a backing track while the vocals were recorded with a microphone attached on the singer, giving a different feel to it. On American Bandstand and most variety shows of

11520-421: The sketch but was pressured into it. He also alleged that SNL staff threatened to ruin his reputation in the industry if he did not perform the sketch. The sketch was a reference to an incident alleged by Albert Goldman 's controversial 1981 biography of Presley. Critics of the biography derided its scornful tone and charged that it was intended as an exposé. Kaufman said that Goldman threatened to sue him after

11640-456: The song and threw it into the audience, but unlike Presley, Foreign Man would immediately ask for it to be returned. After the song's finale, he would take a simple bow and say in his Foreign Man voice, "T'ank you veddy much." Portions of Kaufman's Foreign Man act were broadcast in the first season of Saturday Night Live . The Mighty Mouse number was featured in the October 11, 1975, premiere, while

11760-443: The source of singing talent in the group, owner Frank Farian confessed to reporters on November 12, 1990, that Morvan and Pilatus did not actually sing on the records. As a result of American media pressure, Milli Vanilli's Grammy was withdrawn four days later, and Arista Records dropped the act from its roster and deleted their album and its masters from their catalog, taking the album Girl You Know It's True out of print in

11880-418: The stage". In 2009, US pop singer Britney Spears was "'extremely upset' over the savaging she has received after lip-synching at her Australian shows", where ABC News Australia reported that "[d]isappointed fans ...stormed out of Perth's Burswood Dome after only a few songs". Reuters reports that Britney Spears "is, and always has been, about blatant, unapologetic lip-synching". The article claims that "at

12000-504: The story with either a weak spoonerism , or abruptly stopping with no real punchline at all, or no soap radio . The obvious punchline involves narratives that are structured like a traditional joke including a set-up and punchline, but whose punchline is the most obvious to the narrative. Some examples of this would be the Why did the chicken cross the road? and the "What did the farmer say/do" set of jokes, which include various situations where

12120-462: The studio, threw himself into the assembled audience, and stuck his nose into the camera while recordings over his own voice played". When appearing on a TV program in Detroit in 1966, Frank Zappa and his band similarly gathered on a "stage" with items from the station's props department, and asked his band members to perform "a repeatable physical action, not necessarily in sync with (or even related to)

12240-405: The sub-zero conditions of Turin in February. The committee eventually persuaded him to take part by pre-recording the song. On occasion, some vocalists have protested being asked to lip sync on television programs by blatantly drawing attention to the fact they are not singing live. When Public Image Limited singer John Lydon performed on American Bandstand , " instead he sat on the floor of

12360-441: The subtitles. Early video games did not use any voice sounds, due to technical limitations. In the 1970s and early 1980s, most video games used simple electronic sounds such as bleeps and simulated explosion sounds. At most, these games featured some generic jaw or mouth movement to convey a communication process in addition to text. However, as games become more advanced in the 1990s and 2000s, lip sync and voice acting has become

12480-497: The theatricality of kayfabe , the staged nature of the sport, and his own tendency to form elaborate hoaxes, Kaufman began wrestling women during his act and proclaimed himself "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World", taking on an aggressive and ridiculous personality based on the characters invented by professional wrestlers. He offered a $ 1,000 prize to any woman who could pin him. He employed performance artist Laurie Anderson ,

12600-400: The time, but Kaufman never deposited the checks. Kaufman appeared in the 1983 film My Breakfast with Blassie with professional wrestling personality "Classy" Freddie Blassie . The film was a parody of the art film My Dinner with Andre . Lynne Margulies, sister of the film's director, Johnny Legend , appears in it, and became romantically involved with Kaufman. In 2002, Kaufman became

12720-471: The use of a more photogenic double. On February 10, 2006, Luciano Pavarotti appeared during a performance of the opera aria " Nessun Dorma " at the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Turin , Italy, at his final performance. In the last act of the opening ceremony, his performance received the longest and loudest ovation of the night from the international crowd. Leone Magiera , the conductor who directed

12840-519: The variety of his characters, his uniquely counterintuitive approach to comedy, and his willingness to provoke negative and confused reactions from audiences. Kaufman was born on January 17, 1949, in New York City, the oldest of three children. He grew up with his younger brother Michael and sister Carol in a middle-class Jewish family in Great Neck , Long Island . His mother was Janice (née Bernstein),

12960-405: The video to create the effect of an apartment being tidied by 'un-knocking over' bookcases, while the music plays forwards. On October 23, 2004, US pop singer Ashlee Simpson appeared as a musical guest of episode 568 of the live comedy TV show Saturday Night Live . During her performance, "she was revealed to apparently be lip-synching". According to "her manager-father[,]...his daughter needed

13080-637: The way we once could, thrilling to the certain knowledge that we are witnessing something extraordinary from a great talent". The author argues that this "...makes lip-syncing in public performances wrong. Not only is the audience being lied to; it is being made cynical". While Michael Jackson 's performance on the television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1983) changed the scope of live stage show, as he mixed singing and complex dance moves, Ian Inglis, author of Performance and Popular Music: History, Place and Time (2006) states that "Jackson lip-synced ' Billie Jean '" during this TV show. In 1989,

13200-417: Was Jewish), but the scene was a hoax. Later, following a sketch about a drug-abusing pharmacist, instead of introducing Pretenders , he delivered a nervous speech about the harmfulness of drugs while the band stood behind him ready to play. After his speech, he informed the audience that he had talked too long and that the show needed to pause for a commercial break. Although Kaufman made a name for himself as

13320-435: Was a writer and later showrunner for Taxi , stated in a 2013 interview on Marc Maron's WTF podcast that the story of Kaufman having been generally disruptive on the show was "a complete fiction" largely created by Zmuda. Simon maintained that Zmuda has a vested interest in promoting an out-of-control image of Kaufman. In the interview Simon stated that Kaufman was "completely professional" and that he "told you Tony Clifton

13440-408: Was diagnosed with large-cell carcinoma of the lung , typically associated with smoking. After audiences were shocked by his gaunt appearance during January 1984 performances, Kaufman acknowledged that he had an unspecified illness that he hoped to cure with natural medicine , including a diet of all fruits and vegetables, among other measures. Kaufman received palliative radiotherapy , but by then

13560-422: Was dropped. His character was given multiple personality disorder , which allowed Kaufman to randomly portray other characters. In one episode of Taxi , Kaufman's character came down with a condition that made him act like Alex Rieger , the main character played by Judd Hirsch . Another such recurring character played by Kaufman was Latka's womanizing alter ego Vic Ferrari. Sam Simon , who early in his career

13680-400: Was dubbed in by Betty Royce [sic]". Automated dialogue replacement , also known as "ADR" or "looping", is a film sound technique involving the re-recording of dialogue after photography. Sometimes the dialogue recorded on location is unsatisfactory either because it has too much background noise on it or the director is not happy with the performance, so the actors replace their own voices in

13800-479: Was going to break the fourth wall . Kaufman appeared the next week in a videotaped "apology" to the home viewers. Later that year, he returned to host Fridays . At one point during the show, he invited Lawrence Welk Show singer Kathie Sullivan to the stage to sing some gospel songs with him and announced that the two were engaged to be married. He then talked to the audience about his newfound faith in Jesus (Kaufman

13920-529: Was him", but he also conceded that Kaufman would have "loved" Zmuda's version of events. Kaufman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television for Taxi in 1979 and 1981. Another well-known Kaufman character is Tony Clifton, an absurd, audience-abusing lounge singer who began opening for Kaufman at comedy clubs and eventually even performed concerts on his own around

14040-410: Was his act as the fictional persona of Tony Clifton , an untalented lounge lizard entertainer. Norm Macdonald was another comedian sometimes associated with performing anti-humor, although he objected to the characterization. Lip sync Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced / s ɪ ŋ k / , the same as the word sink ), short for lip synchronization , is a technical term for matching

14160-480: Was inducted by Jimmy Hart . Kaufman never married. His daughter, Maria Bellu-Colonna (born 1969), was the child of an out-of-wedlock relationship with a high-school girlfriend and was placed for adoption. Bellu-Colonna learned in 1992 that she was Kaufman's daughter when she traced her biological roots. She soon reunited with her mother, grandfather, uncle, and aunt. Bellu-Colonna's daughter Brittany briefly appeared in Man on

14280-691: Was not disclosed until more than 10 years after Kaufman's death, when the Emmy-nominated documentary A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman aired on NBC in 1995. Jim Carrey , who revealed the secret, later went on to play Kaufman in the 1999 film Man on the Moon . In a 1997 interview with the Memphis Flyer , Lawler said he had improvised during their first match and the Letterman incident. Although officials at St. Francis Hospital stated that Kaufman's neck injuries were real, in his 2002 biography It's Good to Be

14400-441: Was planned for Perry to sing live, except that a "technical problem" caused staff to play a "bad soundtrack". The Super Bowl has used lip syncing during singers' performances at the live-to-air sports event. During Super Bowl XLIII , " Jennifer Hudson 's performance of the national anthem" was "lip-synched ...to a previously recorded track, and apparently so did Faith Hill who performed before her". The singers lip synced "...at

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