Piscopo left "Saturday Night Live" at the end of the 1983–1984 season. In 1984, he starred with Michael Keaton in the movie "Johnny Dangerously", to mixed reviews, as well as a special for HBO and wrote a book for Pocket Books called "The Piscopo Tapes". An album, "New Jersey", for Columbia Records, followed in 1985 and an ABC special called "The Joe Piscopo New Jersey Special" in May 1986. In 1987, Piscopo was mentioned in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' No. 1 rock single "Jammin' Me".