The Philosophy of Martin Scorsese by Mark T. Conard

Author:Mark T. Conard
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2007-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

The Pupkin Gambit

Rationality and Irrationality in The King of Comedy

Richard Greene

In Martin Scorsese’s 1983 film The King of Comedy, Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) commits a crime in order to gain notoriety, serves a modest sentence, and then enjoys a life of wealth and fame. Even if the result of his actions exceeds his original, more modest goal of being “king for a night” as opposed to being “a schmuck for life,” his plan works perfectly. I call this plan the Pupkin gambit. Michael Milken (the junk bond king) also employed a version of the Pupkin gambit (although it’s not clear whether he intended to or merely foresaw it as an acceptable worst-case scenario). Milken bilked people out of hundreds of millions of dollars, paid some of that money back in fines, served a fairly modest sentence, and came out hundreds of millions ahead. While there is clearly something morally wrong with the Pupkin gambit (as it involves clear harm to innocent persons), it’s not obvious that there is anything rationally wrong with it.

In this essay I consider the question of whether it is rational for one to employ the Pupkin gambit. In addressing this question I examine two broad theories of rationality. I argue that, paradoxically, in virtue of Rupert Pupkin’s largely irrational nature—he is, at times, delusional and has difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality—for him the Pupkin gambit is rational. A Pascal’s wager–type argument will bear this out. On the other hand, for rational agents, such as Milken, the Pupkin gambit does not rise to the level of rational strategy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.