Editing Andy Kaufman (section)

===''Saturday Night Live'' Elvis sketch incident===
{{See also|Albert Goldman#Elvis Presley biography}}
On the January 30, 1982, episode of ''Saturday Night Live'', while impersonating Elvis Presley in a sketch, Kaufman broke character by removing his wig and apologizing to the audience.<ref>{{Cite episode |series=Saturday Night Live |date=January 30, 1982 |season=7 |number=10 |url=https://archive.org/details/saturday-night-live-s-07-e-10-john-madden-jennifer-holliday |title=Saturday Night Live S07E10 – John Madden}}</ref>

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 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.<ref>{{Cite episode |series=Late Night with David Letterman |date=February 17, 1982 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbBQTfSzwBQ |title=Andy Kaufman on Letterman, February 17, 1982}}</ref>

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 the episode aired, but Kaufman challenged Goldman to a public debate on Presley's character.<ref>See [http://home.online.no/~ov-egela/careless.html Jonathan Yardley, "CARELESS LOVE: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930075214/http://home.online.no/~ov-egela/careless.html|date=September 30, 2008}}.</ref><ref>See [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674194229 Greil Marcus, "THE ABSENCE OF ELVIS: The Myth Behind the Truth Behind the Legend"]</ref>