20th Century Fox; Retrieved from The Ringer

Could Rupert Pupkin succeed today? Would he be different at all, in a modern context?

Scorsese: I don’t see how. And why should he be? There are so many Ruperts around us. There’s so much dilution, and democratizing of what quality is, for better or for worse.

 

In the early 80s, I got the chance to work with Jerry on The King of Comedy. By that time, he had become a legend in movies and on the late night television talk show circuit, which was a world unto itself – one that I loved and that I was paying homage to in the picture. It was a world in which professionals such as Jack Paar and Johnny Carson and regular guests like Don Rickles and Jerry used all of their performing skills, the sense of timing and rhythm that they’d honed throughout the years to the finest point, to create a feeling of relaxation and intimacy with their audiences. We were looking at the other side of the equation, namely the people in the audience who took the intimacy literally, and the very thin line between love and hatred that could develop when they learned that it was all just a beautiful illusion. I remember Jerry telling us many stories about his own experiences, one of which we incorporated into the picture.

 

... This invigorating sense of possibility ... is the great gift of Americanness. ... “according to his ability or achievement” is the tempering phrase, a shrewd bit of expectations management. A “better and richer life” is promised, but for most people this won’t be a rich person’s life. “Opportunity for each” is promised, but within the bounds of each person’s ability; the reality is, some people will realize the American Dream more stupendously and significantly than others. ... The American Dream was now almost by definition unattainable, a moving target that eluded people’s grasp; nothing was ever enough. It compelled Americans to set unmeetable goals for themselves and then consider themselves failures when these goals, inevitably, went unmet.

 

It is about selling the Dream, regardless of whether it results in success or failure—and about the enactment of an ideology that hovers at the edges of any discourse about American morality. It is the potential of great ambition, rather than of great talent, that drives these hopefuls and inspires their fans. William Hung's devotion to his new vocation evokes the famous words of Florence Foster Jenkins: “Some may say that I couldn't sing,” she allowed, “but no one can say that I didn't sing” (Peters 23).