The king of comedy

the film world as representation

pp. 201-255

in: Alberto Baracco, Hermeneutics of the film world, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

The problematic connection between identity and its mediated representation is the linchpin around which the film world of The King of Comedy (Scorsese 1982) revolves. While its spatial structure is based on the contrast between anonymous urban places and the symbolically central television space, its philosophical discourse rests on the contrast between the two categories of fans and stars and on the concept of identity as representation. Rupert Pupkin and the other inhabitants of the film world—restless individuals who spend their lives outside the television studios, away from spotlights and off the screens—believe they can worthily exist only under those lights and through those screens. As Rupert states when he is finally able to conquer his own television space, "I figure it this way. Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime".