Rockin' Funnies: Honeymooners Rap (1985)

Toward the end of his run on Saturday Night Live, Joe Piscopo released his first---and, as far as I know, only---album, "New Jersey", not to be confused with the Bon Jovi album of the same name that came along three years later. Piscopo used a number of his routines from SNL, including mimics of David Letterman, Frank Sinatra (both in the same skit), and the late Andy Rooney.

"Honeymooners Rap" was released as a novelty single, and, if memory serves, the lone single off the album. Piscopo did his mimic of Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden, with Eddie Murphy backing him up by doing a spot-on Ed Norton (Art Carney), who, as it can be determined from the following slide show, was also the inspiration for not one, but two cartoon icons----Yogi Bear & Barney Rubble. Barney you can understand, since The Flintstones was inspired in turn by The Honeymooners. As it happens, toon fan Piscopo was able to bring in two voice-over legends, June Foray & Bill Scott, to appear on the album as Rocky & Bullwinkle.

Sadly, if Piscopo & Murphy actually made a music video for "Honeymooners Rap", ya can't find it on YouTube. Of course, Murphy released his own music album, "How Could It Be", the same year, relatively around the same time, and scored a #2 hit on the Hot 100 with "Party All The Time", which hit #1 on the R & B charts. "Honeymooners Rap" didn't even come close to smelling the Top 40. The careers of these two comics have similarly followed divergent paths since.

Anyway, here's a slide show that mixes footage from Honeymooners with stills of Piscopo & Murphy, plus a photoshop that pairs them with Gleason & Carney.

Edit, 11/10/22: Had to change the video as the montage was deleted. We'll just use this item.