Scenes of Instruction: The King of Comedy

Abstract

This article explores Martin Scorsese’s 1982 film The King of Comedy, focussing chiefly on its central character, Rupert Pupkin (played by Robert de Niro). Drawing on the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein and those influenced by him (notably G.E.M. Anscombe and Stanley Cavell), it argues for a “partial idealism” centred on phenomena such as promises and manners, whose basis is in shared human practices of education and conduct. This idea is explored via a close reading of our various and conflicting responses to the film’s central character and the way The King of Comedy manages these responses so as to reveal very different relationships on subsequent viewings. It proves to be the case that we can be most closely aligned with a character at the very moment we are surest of our distance from them. The article draws some conclusions from this about the nature of the sharing involved in Anscombe’s “partial idealism.”