Synopsis
The King of Comedy (1982) is a Martin Scorsese dark comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM. Robert De Niro plays Rupert Pupkin — a talentless, delusional wannabe comedian who rehearses his act alone in a basement in front of celebrity cutouts.
Rupert's fixation is Jerry Langford, the king of late-night TV played by Jerry Lewis. First he corners him outside the studio, then shows up at his weekend house with a fake fiancée in tow, then simply demands a spot on the show. Every rejection lands as a bureaucratic error. When patience runs out, Rupert moves to kidnapping. Fame at any cost.
Scorsese shot this in 1982, decades before influencer culture made Pupkin's pathology mainstream — which is exactly why the film aged into a cult classic after flopping on release. De Niro plays the character completely straight, which makes him impossible to dismiss. Written by Paul D. Zimmermann, the film stands as Scorsese's most uncomfortable portrait of American ambition. Stream The King of Comedy (1982) online on iFILM.
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