Joseph Charles John "Joe" Piscopo (born June 17, 1951) is an American comedian and actor best known for his work on Saturday Night Live . Born in Passaic, New Jersey, Piscopo attended West Essex High School and was a member of the drama club "the Masquers" . He developed a reputation for never playing a part the way it was written, preferring to disappoint . When he was not clowning around he could usually be found lifting weights with his cousins Paul LaMagna and Bill Dolphin (Scarecrow) . Although his mother wanted him to follow in his father's footsteps and become a lawyer, Joe ultimately went into stand-up comedy in the late 1970s, becoming a cast member of the short-lived sketch-comedy series, Madhouse Brigade in 1978 . In the summer of 1980, he was hired as a contract player for Saturday Night Live . The show had gone through major upheaval when all the writers, major producers, and cast members had left that spring . The all-new cast bombed with critics and fans with the exception of Piscopo and Eddie Murphy; they were also the only two cast members to be kept when Dick Ebersol took over the show the following spring . One of Piscopo's more successful bits on SNL included his sports commentary on the Weekend Update portion of the show (called "SNL Newsbreak" at that time), lead by a series of rhyming or otherwise associated words, rather than a sentence, leading up to his first story . One example surrounded one of Muhammad Ali's last bouts during the 1980s, with Eddie Murphy in Rick Baker makeup as Ali . During his time on SNL, Piscopo recorded the single "The Honeymooners Rap" in which he impersonated Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden of The Honeymooners . (Also appearing on the single was an uncredited Eddie Murphy as Art Carney's character, Ed Norton). "The Honeymooners Rap" also appeared on Piscopo's 1985 comedy album New Jersey. .