Joseph “Benign” Karofiwasakisk graduated with Honors in Doctor Humor, then the School’s most burgeoning field of study.  Upon graduating, Joey found difficulty breaking into the myriad of nightclub and Catskill comics cracking wise about their doctor bills.  In search of a message, he spent months lurking around intensive care wards, observing disease first hand and writing material.  After much research, he found his niche in the emergent field of cancer humor.  A classic Joey Benign line: “Boy, I tell you, I had cancer so bad last week that I almost died.  It was that bad.”  

The public was slow to catch on to the material, and Joey became used to their stunned silences, followed by hisses and boos.  Hecklers were also a problem.  In those early days, it seemed like there was a loudmouth in every audience with a dead mother, or a child on chemo.  Joey later wrote in his autobiography, “If I had a nickel for every time I heard, ‘I hope you get cancer!’ I’d be a millionaire.  But you know what?  I never did get cancer!  Isn’t that great?  The world is so fair.”

Though Joey’s standup career never took off, he became a supporting player in Hollywood.  He co-starred with Gilda Radner in 1977’s That’s My Mammogram!, and Carcinoma Cowboy with John Wayne, in 1973.  His best-selling and critically overlooked autobiography, “Tumor Humor,” is available from WPSA Press.  It retails, hardback, for just $24.95, plus shipping.  WPSA students and white people get an additional 5% off.  Contact our catalog hotline at 1-816-WPSA MERCHANDISE.