What are the career highlights of comic Artie Lange, recently charged in NJ with DUI?
In 1995, he landed a role as one of the original cast members of FOX’s sketch comedy show MADtv. Lange had previous sketch comedy experience with the improv troupe “Live on Tape”. Lange later attributed his hiring to the fact that he fit the John Belushi mold that was popular in sketch comedy. His most popular recurring character on the show was “That’s My White Mama”. Among his impersonations on the show were Ed Harris, Ed McMahon, F. Lee Bailey, Joe Pesci, Larry Csonka, Newt Gingrich, Richard Karn, Roseanne Barr, Rosie O’Donnell, and Yassir Arafat. Lange stated that his lowest point of cocaine use occurred during a shooting of the MADtv sketch “Babewatch” (a parody of Babe and Baywatch), in which he played Babe the pig as a lifeguard. Because the sketch involved going through hours of make-up so as to transform the comedian into a pig, he snorted cocaine in his car in full pig make-up during a break in the shooting of the sketch. Upon returning from the shoot, he passed out in his ho
