There were a load of great standup comedians active at the time anyone of whom would have made a better choice, such as Frank Gorshin who was a great impressionist and wickedly funny too. Hoffman gave a dry as dust performance, which completely let down Bruce's legion of countercultural fans. What's more he was too short for the part.
At the time, the movie industry had abandoned its tried and true approach, moved its headquarters East from Hollywood, and was producing a series of pretentious and often tasteless pictures, influenced by the European art-house film industry. In a misguided attempt to score with college educated moviegoers, the New York school ignored the proved popular taste of the audience in favor of a phoney attempt to culturally legitimize American movies by making them less commercial and more like their (usually less popular and less well-made) European counterparts.
At the time, the movie industry had abandoned its tried and true approach, moved its headquarters East from Hollywood, and was producing a series of pretentious and often tasteless pictures, influenced by the European art-house film industry. In a misguided attempt to score with college educated moviegoers, the New York school ignored the proved popular taste of the audience in favor of a phoney attempt to culturally legitimize American movies by making them less commercial and more like their (usually less popular and less well-made) European counterparts.