Most Happy Fella
“Life is like eating artichokes, you have got to go through so much to get so little.” ― Thomas A. Dorgan You know things are bad when you make Geraldo Rivera upset. Pat Cooper was one of my favorite comedians when I was growing up. Born Pasquale Caputo in Brooklyn, my hometown, Cooper based his act on his experiences growing up in an Italian family. My siblings and I were all half-Italian, so we thought he was funny, and I have such fond memories of seeing him on The Ed Sullivan Show . “I got a genuine Italian mother — four feet eleven,” he said in one of his bits. “She has a bun over here, knitting needle over here, gold tooth over here, mole over here.” He joked about being an outcast in school, noting that while other kids had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches his mother gave him an artichoke for lunch, so he had to put the leaves between his teeth to pull off the good stuff. “Look at that kid, he’s eating flowers!” his classmates said. I distinctly remember my Ita...