"Dear Andy Kaufman: I Hate Your Guts!"

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE:

Looking for a great gift for the pop culture aficionado in your life? Or perhaps your uber feminist friend? You gotta get them “Dear Andy Kaufman, I Hate Your Guts!” One of the most misunderstood yet genius comedians of the 70s and 80s—Andy Kaufman fooled the world by disguising himself in crazy characters (um, yeah, who do you think paved the way for Sacha Baron Cohen to get away with Bruno and Borat?). Andy would open for himself as sleazy lounge singer “Tony Clifton” or never really break character as strange foreigner Latka while on the set of the classic sitcom Taxi.

But, “Dear Andy Kaufman, I Hate Your Guts!” focuses on Andy’s other passion—professional wrestling. Many believe he was fascinated with it because so many wrestlers “fooled” their audiences with their characters and made-up storylines—just like Andy. And so, in 1979 Andy went on live TV and claimed that he was the "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World." He famously challenged women around the country to take him on in the wrestling ring—and win $1000 if they could pin him down! He also promised to shave his head if a woman defeated him and also said he would marry that woman too! Needless to say, women everywhere were shocked, outraged and offended and the letters started pouring in. “Dear Andy Kaufman, I Hate Your Guts!” is simply a collection of these amazing hand written letters, photographs and illustrations from woman that wanted nothing more but to take him down in the ring.

Either as a gift or for your own personal amusement (and infuriation over Andy’s audacity), you must get it! Some of our favorite excerpts include:

“I would enjoy nothing more in this entire galaxy than to come to the defense of all female species by pulverizing you on national TV.”

“Give me a chance and I could wrestle you and win, until you cry and plead with me for mercy. I am a punk woman and I intend to overtake you.”

“I can beat you because of an infamous wrestling hold I use. The Tickler. . . You’ll need an ambulance to taxi you off the stage when the match is over.”

“You must be insane, you’re nothing but a scrawny little stick man. You have no meat on your body, you’re just flesh and bones. Why I could whip you in nothing flat.”