Why do you think Andy hated hearing that refrain so much?
Here’s my take. Latka, AKA Foreign Man, was a prop. He was the unfunny side of the “contrasting walls.” He was meant to be an untalented, unfunny character to be used as a prop, as the lame wall against which the other (brilliant!) wall was displayed as a contrast.
Picture this (from Zmuda’s book): It's the Improv, mid town Manhattan, 1973. An array of talented unknowns named Jay Leno, Richard Lewis, Elayne Boosler, Joe Piscapo, Richard Belzar take the Improv's Stage. All through the show we hear a shaggy-haired young foreigner in the back of the room begging, then demanding, that Budd Friedman let him on stage. He is relentless. Finally near the end of the evening, after numerous noisy discussions between Friedman and the weirdo, the club owner threw up his hands and relented. Taking the microphone, he announced "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome a visitor from afar, Mr. Andy Kaufman."
Walking out into the spotlight, this goofy guy with eyes wider than the Hudson and a thick unplaced accent began with a few extremely lame impressions, or 'eemetations' as he called them. He started with Archie Bunker, slid into Ed Sullivan, and finished with our president, Tricky Dick Nixon. Each eemetation was worse than the previous one. As you're expecting Friedman to reach for his "hook," this man continues in a hopelessly amateurish act. As his act painfully continues, some of the audience could not contain themselves and began snorting. Some of the more sensitive in the audience shot the laughers disapproving glances, embarrassed by the discomfort this poor yutz had visited upon himself and now the congregation. When he announced that he was going to do "de Elbis Presley" there was a collective groan from the house.
The poor Iron Curtain comedian then fumbled around in a tired little valise, found a comb, and began raking his hair into an Elvis coif. He reached back and pulled out some props. He combed his hair again.
By now the audience is starting to laugh-this time with him, not at him. Suddenly the house lights go down and a single follow-spot illuminated the man on stage. After a few more hair combs, just enough to whip the crowd into a laughing frenzy-this weird young foreigner began an amazing transformation. Accompanied by the strains of Strauss's famous opening from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, he donned a spangled jacket, popped up the generous collar, hefted an acoustic guitar, and by now he is starting to really look like Elvis! Then he curled his lip in that perfect Elvisian arc and the crowd screamed.
By this time, the poor foreign soul, the cringing little man we had admired and mocked for having the guts to stand before us, was gone. The voice was now rich, sultry, and from the Deep South, as in America. "Thank yeh verra much, you can just stare at me while ah catch mah breath." This was no impression. This WAS Elvis. Then as the trademark lip twitch went out of control, he deadpanned, "There's something wrong with mah lip." This brought a huge laugh, partly because it was funny, but mostly because the audience was still in shock.
Suddenly lights begin to flash, and he launched into "Treat me like a fool." No lip-synch. Killer performance! Then a rendition of "Jailhouse Rock" that brought the house down. The audience was stunned. Speechless. They didn’t expect, nor had ever seen, andything like this! At the end of the act, this person, whoever or whatever he was, nodded politely, eyes agog, and said, "Dank you veddy much." As he left the stage everyone in the place went nuts. A full scale Kaufmanization of the first order!!
Now I ask you? Was it~ Foreign man (Latka)~ that Andy was so proud of at the end of the night? If you had been Andy, how would you feel if everywhere you went, you could see that ALL the audience had taken from this act was that this funny little foreign man was cute, and they wanted to hear him say “ibeedah?”
How would you feel, if you were Andy, and everywhere you went, cries of “Do Latka!” would fill the auditorium?