For a few tantalising minutes earlier this week it did sound as if maybe Andy Kaufman had pulled off the craziest stunt in comedy when his 'daughter' appeared at The Andy Kaufman Awards in New York on Monday and announced that her father had not died of cancer in 1984 but was alive and well and had become a stay-at-home dad.

Kaufman always was a playful comedian who made you wait for the punchline, but it seems as if that he had not actually waited 29 years to deliver this pay-off after all. At the time of writing it is not clear who is behind the events. Was Alexandra Tatarsky, the actor claiming to be his daughter, acting alone? Kaufman's brother Michael reportedly told a journalist: "I'm questioning things as much as you". 

It might not be up there with the Kennedy assassination but conspiracy theories will no doubt float around until a definitive answer emerges. It certainly got the Awards ceremony more attention than it might have, which is probably why some have wondered if they are behind the gag.

In the meantime it is interesting that this bizarre occurence coincided with another event that I assume was a stunt. When Sacha Baron Cohen tipped nonagenarian Grace Collington who worked with Chaplin offstage at the Bafta Britannia Awards in Hollywood there was a gasp from the audience, until it was realised that this was also not what it seemed.

I do love a hoax. I was intrigued to learn earlier this year that Nunhead-based American comedian Lewis Schaffer is actually West Midlands actor Brian Simpson, who has kept up the facade of being a struggling controversial Yank comedian adrift in London for a decade. Or to be more precise, of course he isn't. It was another prank. As it happens Schaffer is actually from Great Neck, New York, where Andy Kaufman himself was/is from. I think Schaffer missed a trick for once. He should have claimed to have been Andy Kaufman's son. Judging by the news reports this week he would have got a lot more publicity that way.