Ed the Sock is a fictional character who became a Canadian television personality in the 1990s, best known for his appearances hosting programming on MuchMusic and for hosting his own talk show, Ed's Night Party. Ed is a sock puppet with a perpetual scowl and a cigar sticking out of his mouth and fans believe that he inspired the similar American character Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.

The truth is that Ed was inspired by Harry the Hipster, a cigarette-smoking character from Jim Henson's 1950s program Sam and Friends which appeared regularly in almost every one of the numerous documentaries about Henson throughout the 80s. Ed was also further inspired by the hard-drinking, womanizing late-night adult Henson characters from the Land of Gorch, a recurring sketch which appeared on Saturday Night Live's first season.

Triumph, meanwhile, was based upon Milton Berle, who was often seen with a bow tie and a cigar, which were the staples of many of the Borscht Belt comedians from that era. Triumph's short joke style is also based upon Berle's own style, though the types of jokes more closely approximates the insult style of Don Rickles.

Ed the Sock was created by Steven Joel Kerzner, who also plays the character. Kerzner was a producer at Newton Cable, then a small cable system in Downsview, Ontario, and launched a cable show featuring the character. Kerzner was also a political aspirant, running unsuccessfully as a candidate for school trustee and for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in the 1990 Ontario election. A fiscal and foreign-policy conservative, Kerzner's political heroes include Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. He is also a social liberal, however, and has argued in support of rights for same-sex couples.

External link

• http://www.edthesock.com/
• http://kidshow.dcmemories.com/sam3.html