The late Andy Kaufman, Latke of "Taxi" fame, once said, "I never told a joke in my life." Considering his deadpan delivery, it's a claim few would deny. But Kaufman, "the Dada of ha-ha," wasn't interested in whoopie-cushion humor. Instead, he confronted the audience with its desire for distraction and transformed humor into a species of hostility that challenged and often riled the captive consumer. Perhaps his most subversive work took place on television. Guest appearances that jostled the easy mirth of celebrity, and numerous insurgencies on "Saturday Night Live," set the stage for a barbed persona that found its most delirious and irksome expression in several TV specials. During these specials, Kaufman got inside of television like it was a cheap suit, exposing the tattered inner-lining. He accomplished this with a deck of dubious personalities that boggled the viewer's relationship to the unfolding spectacle. In Andy's Fun House, the variety-show format gets its pants pulled down and ends up the butt to Kaufman's incisive humor. An imploding interview with Cindy Williams, a droll rendition of "It's a Small World" with the disaffected B Street Conga Band, the infamous "Has-Been Corner" complete with certified has-been, a world-class Elvis imitation and a sugary chat with Howdy Doody provide the burlesque for this timeless bomb. But the biggest blast is aimed at TV itself, as countless salvos are fired at the base of our televisual expectations. Andy Kaufman could really bring down the house.--Steve Seid