Life's Ironies in The King of Comedy

Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis

I've been on sort of a Scorsese binge lately, going through the popular stuff first and then onto his lesser-known movies. If nothing else, this marathon has convinced me that Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest directors to have ever graced the medium.

When I first read the synopsis, The King of Comedy seemed quite unlike the rest of the director's filmography, which features his trademark violent outbursts and excessive grandeur a la Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street. Nevertheless I fell in love with it and now I can't stop recommending it to every person I meet.

The plot follows Rupert Pupkin, a down-on-his-luck comedian trying to make it big, following in the footsteps of his idol Jerry Langford, a famous talk show host. Now the cliché thing to do would be to get the underdog to beat all odds and win, but instead Scorsese shows the viewer how a 'real' underdog would fare in the ruthlessly competitive world of show business. 

Rupert is obsessed with stardom to the point of being delusional, creating daydreams for himself where everyone adores him. Quickly you realize that he is borderline psychotic, more concerned with the applause he "deserves" instead of the jokes themselves. What makes the movie outstanding though is the career-best performance by Robert De Niro, whose nuances and subtleties makes the already uncomfortably optimistic Rupert even more memorable, showcasing his incredible range as an actor.

Midway through the movie, Rupert mentions that he gets all the material for his jokes from the terrible life he had growing up. This to me is what The King of Comedy is all about, a study on how ironically funny life can get once you think about it for long enough. So be sure to watch it!