Irving Cohen

History

Short played Cohen in the closing scene of Muppets Tonight episode 110, sitting in a nursing home with Statler and Waldorf. Cohen's age was never specified but appeared to be in his nineties, and Short wore heavy age makeup for the role. A recurring gag involved sketches being presented as tributes to Cohen on his 90th birthday, regardless of how many such tributes occurred. On SCTV, Cohen appeared on The William B. Williams Show, a spinoff of The Sammy Maudlin Show, and was featured as a spokesman in several commercial parodies.

On SNL, he was included in a sketch with other old Yiddish Vaudevillian characters played by Billy Crystal, Rich Hall, Christopher Guest, and guest host Eddie Murphy as his Gumby character, portrayed as an old Yiddish vaudeville actor. The sketch took place in a deli off Broadway and included a joke about the ingredients of a Morey Amsterdam sandwich; Cohen used his trademark call for a bouncy 'C' and listed ingredients, ending with his usual nonsense phrase.

The sketch concluded when a waiter refused to serve Gumby due to a past dine-and-dash. Cohen featured heavily in a single episode of Primetime Glick, where he was said to be the executive producer of Jiminy's show, though this was not mentioned in other episodes. Appearing even more advanced in age, Cohen suffered a heart attack while cavorting with women in his boudoir; Jiminy announced his hospitalization and later began a video tribute after assuming Cohen had died, but Cohen called from a hospital room made to resemble his boudoir and informed Jiminy he was okay, only to suffer a second heart attack while singing his trademark song.

The character also appeared in Short's 2012 comedy special I, Martin Short, Goes Home and in 'The Irving Who Came to Dinner,' the final episode of The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley.

Did You Know?

• Cohen started his interviews by reminiscing about the old days, starting off with, "In the old days, we had a t'ing, called, 'Vau-de-ville'..."
• He frequently name-dropped Al Jolson and Sophie Tucker and had a habit of punctuating sentences with the phrase "at this time."
• Cohen is loosely based on Irving Caesar, the author of numerous song standards, including "Swanee" and "Tea for Two", who lived to the age of 101.
• The off-camera pianist seemed to follow Cohen everywhere, even bursting into song in the middle of a HUAC hearing.