Hologram USA, an American hologram company, announced that it is turning experimental comedy legend Andy Kaufman and the King of Party Records Redd Foxx into holograms that will tour the country. Explaining why they picked those two entertainers, the company's founder, Akil David, told the New York Times that they've been “working with other estates of famous funny guys and funny girls, these just happened to be amenable estates who see the vision.” Already on the defensive, another representative told the Times that “every project is done with the utmost respect for the person’s life and work.” 
 
 This is not true. If they respected the "work," if they respected comedy, they'd know this is a terrible idea. 
 
 Where the company's announcements of a Billie Holiday and Whitney Houston hologram felt at best creepy and at worst gross, I could at least imagine it being a solid show. Singers sing, and the audience listens quietly — that arrangement can exist even with a hologram. Comedy is less of a one-way street. The comedian Pete Holmes, referencing something the comedian Brian Regan said, describes a stand-up comic as being a musician whose instrument is the audience. They respond to how the audience is responding to them. A joke might bomb or kill on any given night, and the audience tells the comedian if they want them to push forward or pull back on a line of thought. Not to mention that comedians often talk with the audience members. Foxx and Kaufman couldn't be more dissimilar, but this is true for both. Foxx, one of the raunchiest comedians ever, listened to laughs to know if he could keep on getting dirtier. Kaufman, an anti-comedy pioneer, had to be keenly aware of how much tension and annoyance he was building so he could provide a payoff at the exact right moment. 
 
 It's not that listening to a prerecorded performance of either comedian wouldn't be enjoyable. I listen to comedy albums frequently. Hell, Foxx made a career of making comedy records that people played at parties. The difference is everyone at that party didn't have to pay to listen. I'm sure it will be funny to see a hologram curse a lot, but it won't be worth whatever insane price they are going to charge. There are a bunch of Redd Foxx records on Spotify right now. You can listen for free, and you don't even have to be creeped out about it. ||||| Mr. David, a billionaire entrepreneur, said in an interview that while the company is “working with other estates of famous funny guys and funny girls, these just happened to be amenable estates who see the vision.” 
 
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 Foxx, who released more than 50 albums of his material, was among the first black comedians to find popularity with white audiences and to star in his own network sitcom. 
 
 Kaufman was a prankish provocateur and frequent guest of David Letterman’s “Late Night” program. He was the subject of the 1999 biographical film “Man on the Moon,” in which he was played by Jim Carrey. (He also appeared on Foxx’s short-lived ABC variety show in 1977.) 
 
 Michael Kaufman, the comedian’s brother and a representative of his estate, said in an interview that the hologram show was “the right platform for the new generation of audiences to experience Andy.” 
 
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 In Andy Kaufman’s heyday, when he was picking fights on live television or feuding with the wrestler Jerry Lawler, Michael Kaufman said, such incidents “made it to the newspapers — that’s as much as you could do back then, as far as hoopla.” 
 
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 If his brother were getting up to the same antics today, Mr. Kaufman added, “I think it would have busted the Internet. This keeps him alive.” 
 
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 Mr. David said that the hologram shows featuring these comedians would include some of their best-known material — say, Andy Kaufman lip-syncing the “Mighty Mouse” theme on the debut episode of “Saturday Night Live” — as well as narrative segments that dramatize biographical details. 
 
 Noting that Malcolm X had known Foxx before his stand-up fame and described him as “the funniest dishwasher on this earth,” Mr. David said: “We’re going to have a scene with Malcolm X. We’re going to have various notable names featuring in his story.” 
 
 Mr. David said these shows “will have residencies in multiple locations in tourist-oriented cities across the country.” 
 
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 “They will play several times a day for the first year, and then eventually they’ll be put on a rotation with other acts,” he said. 
 
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 Based in Beverly Hills, Calif., Hologram USA has previously created projections of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (allowing him to appear at a Nantucket, Mass., conference from political asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy in London); and the late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel (so he could host a country-music awards show in Nashville while remaining in Los Angeles). 
 
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 The company is preparing holographic versions of Billie Holiday to perform at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and of Whitney Houston for a worldwide concert tour next year. It is also working with the National Comedy Center, an attraction being built in Jamestown, N.Y., to create a club dedicated to hologram performances from bygone comics, including Foxx and Kaufman. 
 
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 Mr. David, whose FilmOn.com website will also offer online broadcasts of the hologram comedy shows, said that Hologram USA had spoken with the families and estates of many artists, as well as publishing and recording companies, before arriving at Kaufman and Foxx. 
 
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 “There are an awful lot of dead celebrities,” he said. “There are an awful lot of dead people with a lot of followers. The fresher the memory, the bigger the star.” 
 
 Still, it is far from certain whether audiences are interested in these virtual resurrections. 
 
 At best, the shows offer fans fresh opportunities to see the work of artists who each had a significant impact on comedy but have been out of the cultural consciousness for decades. 
 
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 At worst, the holograms risk seeming like crass exploitation of dead performers unable to decide for themselves how their work and likenesses are used. 
 
 Samantha Chang, the director of licensing at CMG Worldwide, the licensing agency that represented the Andy Kaufman and Redd Foxx estates in the Hologram USA deal, acknowledged that the idea behind such projects can be potentially off-putting. 
 
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 “You can now be in multiple places at once, and literally come back from the dead,” Ms. Chang wrote in response to email questions. “This idea can be uncomfortable for some, but for others, it’s groundbreaking.” 
 
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 She added that the estates she represents would be working closely with Hologram USA “to create an authentic experience,” and ensuring “that every project is done with the utmost respect for the person’s life and work.” 
 
 Mr. David said these holograms were no different from other forms of nonfiction storytelling. 
 
 “So what is a biopic?” he said. “What is a biography? Personally, I love the controversy. The curiosity factor certainly brings people in.” 
 
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 The quality of these hologram performances, Mr. David said, is what will ultimately draw audiences, but until then: “The more shock value at the opening, the better. It’s entertainment, right?” 
 
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 Michael Kaufman said he tried to approach any potential controversy with the same equanimity his brother would apply: “If someone was having an argument and they looked to Andy to settle it, he would say, ‘I think you’re right, and I think you’re right.’ ” 
 
 With a nod to those Andy Kaufman cultists who believe that the comedian’s death was actually his grandest practical joke and that he is still alive somewhere, Michael Kaufman said the hologram project was a fitting tribute to his brother, “31 years after he allegedly died. 
 
 “I can’t not put the word ‘allegedly’ in,” he added. “I would feel very disloyal if I didn’t put it in.” 
 
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 Then again, Mr. Kaufman said, “What if Andy actually jumps out of the technology and really appears? He’d be 66 and nobody would recognize him.”
– Forget about Taylor Swift, Sam Smith, and Nicki Minaj. The hot concert tour for 2016 features two comedic geniuses we haven't seen onstage in a very long time: Andy Kaufman and Redd Foxx. Well, not the actual deceased comedians (though you never know with Andy Kaufman), but their holograms, which will be featured in shows around the country thanks to Hologram USA, the New York Times reports. "They're comedy icons," Hologram USA founder Alki David tells the paper. But while the company is "working with other estates of famous funny guys and funny girls," he adds, "these just happened to be amenable estates who see the vision." And that vision for the former Taxi star and the Sanford & Son patriarch includes what David says is the best stuff from their famous routines, as well as biographical snippets that lend further insight into the two funnymen. Although a director at the licensing agency for the Kaufman-Foxx deal concedes to the Times that the idea is "uncomfortable" to some, David insists the mission of Hologram USA—which has also projected WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel into remote locations—is no different than any other nonfiction biopic you might see. Others aren't so sure. Jesse David Fox writes for Vulture that this idea emerged because, as the headline on his post puts it, "people who crave money often have stupid ideas." The idea creeps him out, he writes, and "if they respected the 'work,' if they respected comedy, they'd know this is a terrible idea." But Michael Kaufman, Andy's brother, tells the Times that he's on board. Naturally, he also can't help but feed into the "Andy isn't dead" rumor, adding, "What if Andy actually jumps out of the technology and really appears? He'd be 66 and nobody would recognize him."