"CPO Sharkey" is peripherally remembered for an incident that occurred when Rickles was a guest on "The Tonight Show" on December 13, 1976, during which he inadvertently broke Johnny Carson's wooden cigarette box, an heirloom that Carson had kept on his desk since 1967. Rickles pretended to be an immigration agent while joking with guest host Bob Newhart, using the cigarette box as a rubber stamp, slamming it down on the desk several times and accidentally breaking the lid in two. Upon seeing what he had done, Rickles went into mock panic.