Pat Cooper

I mentioned in a different post that I thought Pat Cooper was an overrated guest and I was downvoted into oblivion. Unfortunately, I didn't represent myself properly on how I wanted to explain myself.

After going on YouTube and listening to the three part Pat Cooper vs. His Family (listen to it. It's fucking fascinating and brutal), I wanted to see if he had made up with his family since that day. Those clips are from 1995. Surely, 25 years later, he made up with his family.

NOPE. In 2010, he did an interview with the NYT.

He is also known for his extreme split from his family from Brooklyn, including his two children from his first marriage in the 1960s. He made his child-support payments, but he had no hand in raising them, and remains estranged from them still.

The relatives insist that Mr. Cooper walked out on them and then exploited them for comic material. Mr. Cooper says they just wanted his money, not his love — all of them: his parents, his sisters, his first wife and their two children. It still bothers him that when his father died, some years back, he was not mentioned in the obituary.

“To them, I became successful to hurt them,” he said, adding that “it would be hypocrisy of the highest order” to ever make up with his blood relatives.

“I don’t love them; I don’t care about them,” he said angrily, nearly yelling."

It's a good article. https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/playing-the-alliterative-ponies-with-a-funny-fellow/

That led me down to see what his Kids were up to, since they were pretty hurt by the situation back in 1995. That led me to here.

https://dearpatcooper.com/epilogue-from-a-fatherless-son/

It is with mixed emotions and concern that this last review of my father, legendary comedian Pat Cooper is posted. It is posted now in his final days of his life and not from a need to prove or defend the truth, but rather as an obligation to heighten the awareness of those readers and his fans that may innocently be unaware of his sixty-year vendetta with his biological family and now his very apparent mental and physical illness.

That is a rabbit hole in of itself. As of 2014, it looks as if they are still extremely estranged. After listening to the argument, both sides are wrong and made bad decisions. However, I tend to side with Pat Cooper on this one. He does seem like they wanted to know him when they wanted some of his money. However, it sounds like they asked for money to pay for braces, shoes, and rent for his kids he abandoned. Of course we will never know the truth, and it lies somewhere in between, but it's still extremely sad. Clearly Pat is a mental case. SIXTY YEARS is a hell of a long time to hold a grudge.

I also stand by my original standpoint that he is an overrated guest. One good appearance does not make up for dozens of forgettable ones.