Standup comedian Mason dies at 93

NEW YORK — Jackie Mason, a rabbi-turned-comedian whose feisty brand of standup comedy led him to Catskills nightclubs, West Coast talk shows and Broadway stages, has died. He was 93.

Mason died Saturday at 6 p.m. ET at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan after being hospitalised for over two weeks, the celebrity lawyer Raoul Felder told The Associated Press.

Mason was known for his sharp wit and piercing social commentary, often about being Jewish, men and women and his own inadequacies. His typical style was an amused outrage.

“Eighty per cent of married men cheat in America. The rest cheat in Europe,” he once joked. Another Mason line was: “Politics doesn’t make strange bedfellows, marriage does.” About himself, he once said: “I was so self-conscious, every time football players went into a huddle; I thought they were talking about me.”