Pat Cooper, an outrage-comedian, passed away at age 93.

The stand-up comedian Pat Cooper passed away on Tuesday night at his Las Vegas home. His act evolved from making fun of Italian American families, including his own, to publicly disparaging stars like Frank Sinatra and Howard Stern. He was 93.

Pat Cooper, an outrage-comedian

His wife Emily Conner released a statement to confirm his passing.

For more than 50 years, Mr. Cooper, dressed in a tuxedo and wearing Clark Kent glasses, made humorous speeches about his upbringing, his family, the people he felt had done him wrong, and pretty much anything else that troubled him.

In the 1950s, when there were considerably more Jewish than Italian American comedians making jokes about their families and their culture, he developed the act, which was loaded with sound effects, in small clubs in Baltimore and New York.

Following his debut on “The Jackie Gleason Show” in 1963, he established himself as a popular opening act for performers like Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Tony Bennett, Jerry Lewis, and Sammy Davis Jr. at nightclubs and casinos like the Copacabana in Manhattan and the Sands in Las Vegas. He released a number of records, most notably “Spaghetti Sauce and Other Delights” (1966), and appeared on television programmes hosted by Merv Gryphon, Dean Martin, and Mike Douglas.

The album’s name was a satire of the 1965 single “Whipped Cream and Other Delights” by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, which featured a woman who appeared to be wearing nothing but whipped cream on the cover. The image of Mr. Cooper on the cover showed him covered in marinara sauce and seemingly naked aside from a pile of pasta.

In one of his routines from his 1965 album “Our Hero,” Mr. Cooper quipped, “I got a genuine Italian mother — four feet eleven.” “She has a mole over here, a bun over here, a knitting needle over here, a gold tooth over here.”

Put garlic around your neck, she advises; that wards off evil spirits, he added. I have no buddies. What spirits do you have?

The album cover for Mr. Pat Cooper 1966 release was a parody of the one Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass had released the year before.

Audiences chuckled at the stereotypical portrayals of Italians, but an anti-defamation organisation of Italian Americans did not understand the humour and threatened legal action. (A lawsuit was never brought.)

The ramifications of Mr. Pat Cooper deed were severe in his personal life. He grew distant from his parents, siblings, and eventually his first wife, Dolores Nola, as well as his kids. They couldn’t stand his success, he claimed.

In an interview for this obituary in 2014, Mr. Pat Cooper stated, “The only way I can beat them, I made fun of them.”

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Later in his career, he informed the public if he believed that a celebrity had harmed him. He claimed in “How Dare You Say How Dare Me!” (2011), a memoir he co-wrote with Rich Herschlag and Steve Garrin, that Paul Anka never said hello to him during the more than 50 gigs they performed together. Anka later fired him for bringing the issue up. He asserted that Johnny Carson once peed on his foot in a men’s restroom while intoxicated, and that after he loudly objected and used an expletive, he was not given another chance to appear on Carson’s “Tonight Show.”

Another time, when he was performing as Sinatra’s opening act, the singer ordered him to take out a joke. He said, “Hey, Frank, do I tell you what songs to sing?” as Mr. Cooper stated to The Daily News of New York in 1997. Sinatra let him go.

In 1981, Mr. Pat Cooper criticised Dionne Warwick, Tony Bennett, and Lola Falana for not treating their opening acts with respect during an interview with talk show host Tom Snyder on NBC. Mr. Pat Cooper denied having any jealousy when Mr. Snyder questioned him about it. He stated, “I want to put an end to the absurdity of some of the stars in my industry who think they own a Pat Cooper.

“We’re comics,” he continued. We are not canines.

After that, his representative called him and informed him that his career in show business was over. Mr. Cooper, however, disagreed, and the incident actually increased his notoriety.

He claimed in the interview from 2014 that “everyone thought I lost my career — I raised my price!” “Back then, what I did was an awful thing to say. Now it’s a reality programme!”

Midway through the 1980s, Howard Stern requested Mr. Pat Cooper to appear on his radio show after becoming intrigued by his venom. But perhaps unsurprisingly, they fell out. Mr. Pat Cooper refused to engage with his estranged son Michael and his ex-wife when they were introduced on air by Mr. Stern. Mr. Pat Cooper then started criticising Mr. Stern. He was no longer a guest on Mr. Stern’s show.

Up until his retirement in 2012, Mr. Pat Cooper performed at Friars Club roasts, clubs, and casinos. He persisted in saying that the business had mistreated him. They don’t want me, he claimed, “because they punish me for saying what I think.”

In 2005, Mr. Cooper attended a showing of “The Aristocrats,” a well-known documentary about the dirtiest joke in history, in Las Vegas, where he established himself as a resident. He also had a mafia role alongside Robert De Niro in the blockbuster comedies “Analyse This” and “Analyse That.”

Born on July 31, 1929, in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, Pasquale Vito Caputo was raised in the Midwood and Red Hook neighbourhoods of the same borough. His mother Louise (Gargiulo) Caputo was a stay-at-home mom, while his father Michele was a bricklayer. He did not grow up in a pleasant environment.

“I think I broke a record in my neighbourhood — I think I must have run away 14 times,” he claimed. Good homes don’t cause people to flee.

He attempted to flee and enlisted in the Marines, Air Force, and Navy but was turned down by each service because of his “hammerhead toes,” according to his memoir. He was enlisted in the Army in 1952 and assigned to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, but Mr. Cooper claims that due to his disruptive behaviour, he was quickly released.

He subsequently went back to New York, got married to Ms. Nola, and they had two kids together. While earning a living as a cab driver, he also started honing his act. “I was a stand-up comic who just happened to be sitting down at the time,” he added.

While playing in the Catskills in the early 1960s, Mr. Cooper decided to change his name to American, which further enraged his family. He is credited with creating the phrase “Bada-bing,” which can be heard during the routine “An Italian Wedding” on the “Our Hero” CD, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. (Mr. Cooper did not claim to be the author.)

He later acted as a crime boss opposite Robert De Niro in the blockbuster comedies “Analyse This” (1999) and “Analyse That” (2002), which also included Billy Crystal. He also starred in “The Aristocrats” (2005), the acclaimed documentary about the dirtiest joke in history, along with many other comedians.

In 1961, Mr. Cooper’s first marriage broke up. Michael and Louise Caputo, his children, were nearly lost to him forever. In 1990, Michael Caputo discussed what he perceived as his father’s negligence on the talk show “Geraldo” and wrote a book on their strained relationship.

To defend his innocence and to chastise his son, Mr. Cooper called “Geraldo” on the phone.

Let me tell you something, you’re not that exciting, and I don’t have to be your father, Mr. Cooper continued. “And I don’t want to be your father.”

Geraldo Rivera, the host of the programme, cut him off and said: “Pat, enough, enough. Even now, you are troubling me.

The singer Patti Del Prince, Mr. Cooper’s second wife, passed away from cancer in 2005. In 2018, he wed Ms. Conner. He is also survived by his three sisters, Grace Ferrara, Carol Caputo, and Marie Caputo Mangano; five grandchildren; and his children from his first marriage and second marriage, Patti Jo Weidenfeld.

Mr. Cooper claimed that throughout the years, his son Michael had made an effort to make things right. He didn’t seem to care.

“Well, now I want,” he said. What is it? — ‘closure,'” Mr. Cooper stated. I responded, “Well, get a closet.”