The King of Comedy

1982 Directed by Martin Scorsese

It's No Laughing Matter.

Aspiring comic Rupert Pupkin attempts to achieve success in show business by stalking his idol, a late night talk-show host who craves his own privacy.

Robert De Niro Jerry Lewis Diahnne Abbott Sandra Bernhard Ed Herlihy Lou Brown Loretta Tupper Peter Potulski Vinnie Gonzales Whitey Ryan Doc Lawless Marta Heflin Katherine Wallach Charles Kaleina Richard Baratz Catherine Scorsese Cathy Scorsese Chuck Low Liza Minnelli Leslie Levinson Alan Potashnick Michael Kolba Robert Colston Ramon Rodriguez Chuck Coop Sel Vitella Margo Winkler Tony Boschetti Shelley Hack Show All…

Alternative Titles

O Rei da Comédia, 喜劇之王, Král komedie, Ο Βασιλιάς της Κωμωδίας, Re per una notte, キング・オブ・コメディ, 코미디의 왕, Король комедии, Король комедії

comedy drama

109 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Sean Baker 14

I realized this time around that there isn't a wasted scene in this film.
Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★★★ 39

This is a perfect movie!
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★ 9

Both deliciously funny and scary as hell; Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy is a work of ingenious, prophetic wisdom and focus. Both grounded and elevated by one of Robert De Niro's finest performances, the film slivers and slides through different forms of deconstruction and satire until the final irony hits like a ton of bricks.
Martin Scorsese's direction is magnificent here. While not as classical as Raging Bull or as lush as Taxi Driver, It feels just as pure, mainly when the camera decides to watch Rupert Pupkin in all his mesmerizing and terrifying glory. Both hilarious and creepy, De Niro embodies this complex character with glorious quirkiness and a sense of childish playfulness. In particular, the scenes involving…
Review by katie ★★★★½ 12

todd phillips is rupert pupkin
Review by maria ★★★★½ 7

new joker movie lookin' good
Review by Matt Singer ★★★★½ 3

"Better to be king for a night, than schmuck for a lifetime."
Review by Keith Phipps ★★★★★ 2

Kind of thought of this as second-tier Scorsese—second tier being a still pretty high perch—until this recent rewatch. When I got to the monologue I felt like I was watching pretty much a perfect movie.
Review by davidehrlich ★★★½ 2

but seriously, how long has Jerry Langford been tied up in Jay Leno's basement? ...someone really ought to go check on him.
Review by Mike Ginn ★★★★★ 3

I read the interview for this in ‘Scorsese on Scorsese’ and he claimed that to get in character Robert DeNiro started stalking and harassing his own stalkers. Showing up to their apartments, calling them in the middle of the night, etc. Thought it was worth posting here.
Review by josh lewis ★★★★★ 2

"i know, jerry, that you are as human as the rest of us, if not more so."
Review by Maxx ★★★★ 3

"The King of Comedy" is an accurate description of how i feel whenever i post a Letterboxd review that gets more than 20 likes
Review by Mr. DuLac ★★★★★ 2

Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime.
-Rupert Pupkin
Vito Corleone, Travis Bickle, Jake La Motta and... Rupert Pupkin. Those names are not mentioned together nearly often enough. The King of Comedy is one of Robert De Niro's greatest performances and his most underrated collaboration with director Martin Scorsese. Sure people here praise the film, but it's overwhelming how many people have never seen this.
De Niro's performance is so genuine that there's several scenes in the film that I find incredibly hard to watch. It's like seeing a real person filled with desperation for validation and receiving nothing but rejection time and again. At first it just looks like Pupkin is simply obsessed with…

Recent reviews

Review by theomorriis ★★★★½ 2

i hate Joker even more now.
Loved this and De Niro was perfect.
Review by Tom Bruce ★★★★★

Joker (1982)
Review by cecilie ★★★★★

the angsty protagonist in taxi driver + the storyline of the king of comedy = joker (2019)
Review by Felipefcb ★★★★★

Better to be King for a night than Schmuck for a lifetime."
Rupert tem um objetivo e por mais que seja inconveniente ou assustador está disposto a qualquer coisa para alcança-lo.
As vezes temos desejos tão profundos que projetamos tudo melhor do que acaba sendo na realidade. Mas é como o quote acima, não o julgo.
Com certeza um dos melhores filmes de Scorsese e ainda bem que serviu de inspiração para Joker... Deviam parar de achar isso ruim e apenas celebrar que uma obra se inspire em outra.
Robert de Niro é inacreditável, um dos melhores all time. Que recital!!! Não consigo achar alguém que Pupkin caísse tão bem como ele. Jerry Lewis incrível. Sandra Bernhard um absurdo.
Ainda se tem uma trilha sonora colossal contando com B.B. King e Ray Charles. Enfim, filmazo.
Review by Gavin ★★★★

The second half is amazing, the first half was messy tho
Review by Gio ★★★★★

Is it weird that this is somewhat inspiring to me?
Review by alex ★★★½

successfully cringey and unfunny (in a good way)
i noticed that there was a lot of awkward cuts, and lack of continuity in a lot of cuts and editing, idk if that was intentional though
Review by Andrew ★★★★½ 1

There is nothing that Joker does better than this movie, though it tries its hardest to emulate everything this movie does. People act like people, you care about all the characters, and the story has a satisfying and logical conclusion. I could talk about how good this is or I could just keep dunking on Joker.
Review by quietprofanity ★★★★

This movie yanked hard on my cringe reflex for 1 hour and 48 minutes and I dug it.
Review by Michael Kowaleski ★★★★★

Quite honestly, this could be the best Scorsese movie. I’ve never seen De Niro better & Lewis was unbelievably great.
Review by sweetiepie1995 ★★★★

This is what Scorsese thinks comedy is (dark, disturbing, and sad) needless to say I loved it
Review by Freedoooom ★★★★ 2

If filmtwitter hypocrites were consistent with their criticism, they would call this film The Fan (1981) ripoff. But normal people who don't use that dumbass piece of shit argument to review something, would call this one a good movie. Not outstanding one, but good.