R.E.M. – Man On The Moon

In new york they built a skyscraper on stilts above St Peter's catholic church. The building houses some parcel delivery company. Truck stop.

What are you talking about!!

That would make the Elvis reference make sense too.That would make the Elvis reference make sense too.

I believe the lyrics are, "here's a little adjit for the never believer" rather than "legend"

adjit is a verb being to "shake-up" or "stir" so what you are saying still makes sense.

Andy was a troll, before the internet even existed to have trolls on it. I'm not saying this as a diss to the man, I'm saying it because everything he did was a farce, to push people's buttons, and even when he was trying to act hurt and upset, it was all still kayfabe (look it up). I loved this song, as I remember having heard it on the radio during the early days of Comedy Central (back in the days they had stuff like the original MST3K with Joel, The Young Ones, Kids in The Hall) and in-between shows they'd play the documentary "I'm From Hollywood," so right away I knew the song was about Andy and I associated it with that piece.

Anyways, I'll try to interpret the bits of the song I ''get'' :


**Mott the Hoople and the game of life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**

Not sure about Mott The Hoople (looked them up, it's a glam band that was buddies with David Bowie, and Bowie himself did stage personae like Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke and such - so that could kinda be linked with Andy's putting himself deep into a character). By the "Game of Life" I think they mean the Milton Bradley game.


**Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
Andy and 'Classy' Fred Blassie were friends and were in an indie film
together called "My Breakfast With Blassie." It's pretty much Andy
trolling the viewer and down-talking non-city dwellers and talking
about events that had happened, like the slapping incident on Letterman.
youtube.com/…


Monopoly, twenty one, checkers, and chess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Let's play Twister, let's play Risk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
See you heaven if you make the list. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

These are all games where you're trying to outspart and out-perform
an opponent, and I think it's also insinuating that all of Andy's
bizarre actions and rants were just part of 'the game' he created.
The last bit, I think is Stipe fantasizing about hanging out with
Andy in the after-life.


**Now, Andy did you hear about this one?**
A line anybody says when they're about to tell a joke,
also it could kinda be like "Did you hear this theory
people have about you???"

**Tell me, are you locked in the punch?**
It's like a friend of Andy in the biz asking
"Are you locked in the punchline that is the
character you've gotten so deep into?"


**Andy are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby are we losing touch?**
Andy's routines usually consisted of him doing something really
bizarre, or deliberately un-amusing and then he'd break out the
Elvis bit and it was like "I sucked then, but what about now?"
The losing touch bit could be about him losing touch with the
real world, or losing touch with a friend or co-star because
of all the crazy stuff he was doing for the sake of comedy.


**If you believed they put a man on the moon. Man on the moon.**
Some conspiracy theorists think the moon landing was staged in
a sound studio, that we did it to ''beat'' the Russians in the
Space Race. It's like saying "If you believe what Andy's doing
is for real, then you'd believe pretty much anything.

**If you believed there's nothing up his sleeve, then nothing is cool.**
I think this one is like saying "If you think the man is 100% serious,
that this -isn't- all just "taking the piss," so to speak, and you
take everything he's ever said or done as the true Andy Kaufmann,
then it's all in vain, you don't get it... but then, I thought
that was kind of the point, to make people believe it really
was him when he was in the ring or on TV.


**Moses went walking with the staff of wood. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
**Newton got beaned by the apple good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
**Egypt was troubled by the horrible Asp. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
**Mister Charles Darwin had the gall to ask. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**

Not sure about the Moses bit, might have something to do with the story about
the story where God commands him to make a "brass serpent" that would revive
anyone who had died from a snake bite.

As for the rest, it seems to be listing off people who made big discoveries
or took big chances and because of that, changed the world. Andy was a
pioneer and he would risk anything, even himself, for the sake of comedy,
or at least riling people up and using their venom to maintain the
misogynist ''villain'' persona he had made for himself.


**Hey, baby Are you having fun?**
Andy always talked about having fun, like it was
the only reason he did anything ever at all.
In the docu, he says after getting whooped
by Lawler, he says "I was just doing this
for fun, I always thought it was all fake."


**Here's a little agit for the never-believer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
Agit means to shake up (hence the word, agitate), so here's something
to shake up even the most hard to fool person.

**Here's a little ghost for the offering. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
I'm not sure about the meaning of the phrase above, but there's
an urban legend that Andy's ghost haunts the Comedy Store in L.A.


**Here's a truck stop instead of Saint Peter's.**
You were expecting something, but got something else
totally out of left field.

**Mister Andy Kaufman's gone wrestling. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
A comedian and television actor makes a totally unexpected,
unexplainable potentially career destroying venture into
a field he has, as Lawler often put it, "no business
being in," it made no sense but that just may have
been the point and part of the joke.