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Charlie Kaufman explains it in an (video) interview with Charlie Rose (skip to 21:00): I don't know... I thought it was funny. It's hard to explain, but I thought it was funny, but not jokey. Because [John Malkovich] is a serious actor, he is a great actor, but there is something odd about him and there is something behind his eyes that you can't ...

From Charlie Kaufman: Confessions of an Original Mind, p.138 (by Doreen Alexander Child) The character's name, Sammy Barnathan, may be a clever play on the name of a Rabbi in the Talmud. Rabbi Samuel bar Nathan had a prayer leader removed from guiding a religious service because of his excessive bowing. This overly submissive posture greatly ...