Latka Gravas

Latka Gravas is a fictional character on the television sitcom Taxi portrayed by Andy Kaufman. Latka was based on a character Kaufman created known as Foreign Man.

Foreign Man

In the 1970s, Kaufman often performed in comedy clubs in character as a nameless amateur comedian who claimed to be from "Caspiar," a fictional island in the Caspian Sea. He spoke little English, and with an indeterminable accent. This character later came to be referred to as "Foreign Man."

Foreign Man would play an LP album of the theme song to Mighty Mouse. As the song plays, he nervously stares at the audience. When the line "Here I come to save the day!" is sung, Foreign Man exuberantly lip-synchs it with a wave of his arm. He then continues to stare at the audience until the line is sung again when he again lip-synchs the line. Foreign Man apparently only understood or enjoyed the one line in the entire song. As the song ends, he quietly bows.

Another well-known bit contained the surprise factor. Foreign Man would nervously tell nonsensical jokes and perform poor impressions of famous people without changing his voice. For example, he would say "I would like to imitate Meester Carter, de President of de United States." He would then say in the same voice, "Hello, I am Meester Carter, de President of de United States. Tenk you veddy much". The audience would begin to heckle him, but Foreign Man would continue: "And now I would like to imitate...
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