The King of Comedy

Rupert Pupkin and a young woman named Masha are arguably national late night talk show host Jerry Langford's most rabid fans, the two who know each other from hanging outside the show's New York studio waiting for Jerry to emerge following tapings. While Masha just wants to be with Jerry, thirty-four year old Rupert is an aspiring comic who not only wants to *be* Jerry, but also wants to appear on his show to launch his stand-up career, despite he never having even performed stand-up for a real audience of any sort. Rupert's fandom includes having a mock set in the basement of his mother's house where he lives, that set complete with cardboard cutouts of Jerry and his celebrity "guests" such as Liza Minnelli. Rupert manages to get a few minutes alone with Jerry, during which time Jerry gives him some standard platitudes in trying to get rid of him, which delusional Rupert construes to mean that they have now become best friends and that Jerry will indeed have him on the show. Rupert uses this meeting with Jerry as a launching pad to impress Rita, a bartender who he has known and loved since they were in high school together. Rupert goes about trying to meet with Jerry again to arrange that appearance on the show. He will have to decide how far he should go, as the standard telephone calls to the studio and waiting in the reception area don't get him in to see Jerry.