Bob Saget, the star of the hit show “Full House,” the longtime host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” and one of the greatest standup comedians of all time is dead, far too soon, at the age of 65.
According to the Orange County, Florida Sheriff’s Department, Saget was found unconscious in his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando on Sunday, mere hours after he completed what turned out to be his final live performance, at Ponte Vedra Concert Hall in Ponte Vedra Beach.
The cause of Saget’s death is still being determined, but officials have said there is no sign of foul play or drugs.
This tragic news comes just four months after fellow funnyman Norm Macdonald passed away from cancer. Saget’s death will surely sting the comedic world just as much, as touching tributes continue to pour in by the likes of Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, Bill Burr, and his former co-star on “Full House,” John Stamos who wrote this heartfelt tweet, “I am broken. I am gutted. I am in complete and utter shock. I will never ever have another friend like him. I love you so much Bobby.”
Saget was likely best known for his portrayal of the affable Danny Tanner on “Full House” (which aired for eight seasons, from 1987 to 1995), where he played a widowed father who asks his brother-in-law and best friend to help raise his three daughters.
But perhaps Saget’s finest work came when it was just him standing on stage behind a microphone, doing what he did best, making people laugh so hard their abs started hurting.
What was unique about Saget was his versatility as an actor and as a standup comedian. He was very much a crossover star. It isn’t often that entertainers are given the nickname “America’s Dad,” a reference to the G-rated, clean-cut character he portrayed on “Full House,” while also making crude jokes in cameo appearances on the popular HBO show “Entourage,” in which he played a hilarious caricature of himself.
The many variations of Saget were something even he didn’t quite know how to deal with, as he explained during one standup routine: “It’s weird, just like a pop culture thing, to be in the big bird suit that I’m in. People will yell out ‘Full House,’ someone will yell out ‘Entourage’ . . . but some people get disappointed, like this one lady was sitting in the audience at a show a few weeks ago and she said, ‘Oh my god, I wanted you to be Danny Tanner, why aren’t you acting like Danny Tanner,’ I’m like, what do you want me to do, dust bust, like hug people, have a cardigan sweater, do the reach around, I don’t know. Another girl said, you’re not dirty enough, so I pissed on her.”
Sure Saget’s humor could be vulgar at times, but similar to his friend, the late, great insult comedian Don Rickles, it was never offensive, or in poor taste.
The unpredictability of his jokes was what made him great.
“I am really happy to be here, I am honored you all came to this thing, it’s a beautiful space, but enough about my penis,” a 60 year-old Saget remarked to an audience in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 2017, before continuing “I’ve played here before and I had a good time, got nine people pregnant, that’s why I came back. Just want to make some support payments, and that’s the story of how I met your mother.”
Saget, born in Philadelphia in 1956 and raised by Jewish parents, spent some of his childhood in Los Angeles before moving back to Philly where he attended Temple University’s film school. He often used his parents, particularly his father, as fodder for his jokes.
“He taught me something very, very valuable,” Saget said of his father. “He said at the end of your life, if you can count all of your friends that you’ve had, really good friends on just one hand, then you know you’ve been spending a lot of time alone in your room. That’s what he taught me, and his hand was in his pants when he said it.”
During a tumultuous time when many entertainers are being canceled and replaced by humorless, talentless individuals who check off all the correct boxes by the woke Left, all Saget wanted to do was make people laugh. And that he did for 40 years. He will be missed, but his comedy will never be forgotten.