In which movie is Robert De Niro more creepy, Taxi Driver or The King of Comedy? I can’t decide. His character in both films is a depressing psychotic zilch, but everything else about them is completely different. Here he’s Rupert Pupkin, a 34 year old wannabe comedy star and delusional idiot who lives in his mother’s basement. When he manages to get a few moments alone with his idol, TV talk show host Jerry Langford (a perfectly smarmy Jerry Lewis), Pupkin misinterprets his resistance as a friendly gesture. You see, Pupkin talks constantly and lacks even the most basic ability to listen to others or read body language. He eventually becomes a stalker and a kidnapper in an effort to contact Langford again and get himself on TV. Pupkin has no friends, but he does have a combative relationship with a similarly sociopathic groupie (Sandra Bernhard) who helps him out with his scheme.
This is another Martin Scorsese masterpiece and one of the great black comedies. Rupert Pupkin has no good qualities whatsoever. He’s not even a good comedian. He IS weirdly funny at times, but if you laugh, you’re definitely laughing at him. He mostly makes you wince.
Audiences at the time didn’t know what to make of it and the film bombed in theaters.