Tony Clifton is a fictional character created by comedian Andy Kaufman in the late 1970s. Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman (January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was a New York-born American self-described song and dance man. Though many refer to him as a comedian, Andy himself hated this, saying I never told a joke in my life. He is one of the most famous practitioners... Events and trends Although in the United States and in many other Western societies the 1970s are often seen as a period of transition between the turbulent 1960s and the more conservative 1980s and 1990s, many of the trends that are associated widely with the Sixties, from the Sexual Revolution...

Clifton appeared to many as simply an abusive lounge singer that sometimes opened for the comedian. But in reality, there was more to it than that. In many cases, the singer was Andy Kaufman. Promoters who thought they had caught on to the joke started to hire Clifton to perform a show in their town because he was cheaper than booking Kaufman. But Kaufman had the last laugh: most of the time that this happened, it wasn't Kaufman performing as Clifton at all. It would be Kaufman's brother Michael or his good friend, Bob Zmuda. Bob Zmuda is an American writer, comedian, producer, and film director. ...

Clifton (possibly played by Zmuda) appeared once on Late Night with David Letterman, where he was interviewed and sang a medley with the band. Clifton was hired to appear on an early episode of ABC's Taxi sitcom, but ended up being escorted out of the building by security guards when he threw a fit on stage, an incident depicted in the biographical film Man on the Moon. Late Night with David Letterman was the name of NBCs nightly hour long comedy talk show, which premiered in 1982 and went off the air in 1993. ... The ABC Circle logo, designed by Paul Rand in 1962. ... Taxi was the name of an acclaimed American sitcom that aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC. The show was about the every day life of a handful of New York City taxi drivers working for the Sunshine Cab Company, as well as... A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ... Known as a face on the moon. ...

At one point, Kaufman and Zmuda wrote their own screenplay which was a biography of Tony Clifton and had been planning on making it into a movie.

Tony Clifton still makes the odd appearance (by Zmuda, of course), most notably in the days leading up to May 16, 2004, the twentieth anniversary of Kaufman's death. May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...