Was anyone else disturbed by Shepherd's impressions?

If they were raised that way, they aren't to blame. Place the blame an THE PEOPLE THAT RAISED THEM! Might that be YOUR generation?

I was not disturbed no.

But racial and ethnic humor is. And just because you tell that kind of joke, it doesn't make you racist. It wasn't that long ago that the American people were much more ethnically"pure". There wasn't nearly as much mixing of race and ethnicity as there is today. And most cities were quite segregated. Just about every city had a <insert ethnicity here> town. The Italians had there part of town, the WASPs their's, the Irish their's, the Chinese, Japanese, Latinos theirs and the long time Americans theirs. And the Poles had Chicago. So there were all kinds of jokes made at the stereotype images of each ethnicity. And nobody seemed to care, because pretty much everybody did it. Today, people go around looking for any excuse to be OUTRAGED! Witness the OP.

For several years, Bill Dana, a comedy writer, hit it very big with the Jose Jimenez character, which was first introduced in the "Man on the street" segment of THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW. He sold many, many comedy albums and even starred in a two-season sitcom on NBC, THE BILL DANA SHOW, in which Jose was a bumbling bellhop in a New York hotel. His co-stars were Jonathan Harris (pre-LOST IN SPACE) and Don Adams (pre-GET SMART). In fact, the Adams character, the hotel's detective, was a prototype for Maxwell Smart. I think Dana was credited for creating the "Would you believe?" jokes for Adams' stand-up routine. Because of changing mores, Dana retired "Jose" in the early 70's. Dana also wrote one of the more famous episodes of ALL IN THE FAMILY, the visit from Sammy Davis, Jr.
As an old fart, I can assure you that Alan Shepard wasn't the only Jose Jimenez" imitator in the 1960's. I had an uncle who loved doing Jose and "Parkyakarkus." Who dat? Oh, another "ethnic" comic who happened to be the father of Albert Brooks.

I always knew he was doing a bit he'd seen on TV, a bit that was fairly popular way back then.

Blood never lies.

I guess, by that standard, I can poke fun at white people like yourself and not suffer any repercussions.. Want me do do so? I promise you, it won't be very nice.