Irving Cohen

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Irving Cohen was a character played by Martin Short on SCTV, and brought with him to SNL.^[1]

Known for his admiration of Al Jolson, Cohen was a caricature of old Tin Pan Alley songsmiths, and the running gag in any sketch where he appeared was that he would claim that he could "write a song about anyt'ing," at which point Irving would call to a pianist off camera, "Give me a 'C', a bouncy, 'C'", and then he would ad-lib lyrics, ending with, "Da-da-da-da-dee, da-da-da-da-dah, ah, whatever da hell else ya wanna put in da t'ing!" This off camera pianist seemed to follow Cohen everywhere, even bursting into song in the middle of a HUAC hearing. 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 also 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" and lived to the age of 101.