This uncertain blend of satire and dead-on seriousness is one of Martin Scorsese's few forays into comedy, and he made it in reaction to John Hinkley Jr.'s obsession with Scorsese's Taxi Driver. I say it is an uncertain blend because, even during the "funny" moments, there is an underlying bitterness that makes them all the more uncomfortable. This film leads me to believe that Scorsese would make a pretty good comedic director, but I am glad he stuck with drama.

The odd thing is that after first seeing this film, I liked it but didn't think it was fantastic. However, when compiling a top ten films of 1983, I didn't think twice about putting it at the top. It is certainly a film that grows on you.

Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) is a wanna-be standup comedian. He's never performed in front of humans before; instead, he delivers his monologues in his basement to cardboard cutouts of Liza Minelli and others. He wants more than anything to get a spot on the Jerry Langford Show, designed as a Tonight Show-like talk show. He stalks Langford (Jerry Lewis), engineering a stunt along with his weird friend Marsha (Sandra Bernhard) that gets him into the reclusive host's car. When Langford serves him the "call the office in the morning" schtick, he buys it, because he so badly wants to be famous that he doesn't notice that Langford was just trying to get rid of him. So, the next day, he tries to call the office, and when that doesn't work, he camps out in the reception area as the flustered secretaries attempt to get rid of him without hurting his feelings. When his attempts to get in to see Jerry get him tossed out of the building by security, he takes the next logical step (at least to him): he kidnaps the comedian, and his ransom is a starring spot on the show.

De Niro's performance was truly creepy. He delivered his lines and held himself like he was always on stage, exaggerating his laughs and using unnatural changes in pitch to keep us on edge. In a way, it was more edgy than his Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver, because we knew in that film that he was dangerous, and it only gradually dawns on us in this film. Sandra Bernhard was creepy too, but she always is. Jerry Lewis, in a rare dramatic performance, acquits himself well, and I wonder why he didn't branch out into more dramatic fare.

The film has an unusually poignant ambiguous ending. One can read it two completely different ways, but each is a completely acceptable and logical ending to the events in the film. I often complain about unnecessarily ambiguity in endings, but this one worked pretty well.