It's no laughing matter. In Martin Scorsese's masterful black comedy, Robert De Niro plays Rupert Pupkin (his motto: "Better to be king for a night than a schmuck for a lifetime"), a wannabe comic who will go to any lengths to further his career. A joke writer who has never performed anywhere except his mother’s basement, Rupert dreams of appearing on the ‘The Jerry Langford Show’ hosted by the king of late night talk shows, Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis). After relentlessly hounding both Jerry and the show’s talent bookers to no avail, he kidnaps the talk show host with the help of his accomplice Masha (Sandra Bernhard) who herself is infatuated with Jerry. Together they hold him hostage in exchange for Pupkin being given a guest spot on the show.