The Untold Truth Of Bob Saget

In his long, varied, and strange career, Bob Saget intersected with the world of professional wrestling a couple of times. It wasn't the glitzy WWE with a typical celebrity appearance on a pay-per-view event, however. The first time he appeared was via a video recording in the middle of a CHIKARA show. CHIKARA was a small, independent wrestling federation that trained dozens of wrestlers who would go on to bigger things. In this show, rivals Jigsaw and Icarus were told that the "commissioner of CHIKARA" was going to reveal the stipulation for their upcoming match. It turned out to be Bob Saget, who said that he was both "a commissioner and a gynecologist" and announced a hair versus mask match, much to their consternation. 

In 2010, Saget had a short-lived show on A&E called "Strange Days with Bob Saget," wherein he would examine a different subculture every week. One week, he picked wrestling and the small promotion Dragon Gate USA. He was going to be the ring announcer for a young wrestler named Luke Hawx but was confronted by a young Jon Moxley. Moxley would go on to become a champion in WWE as Dean Ambrose as well as a champion in the new AEW promotion under his original ring name. In this clip, he asks Saget if he's ever been choked out before Moxley gets attacked. Always sticking to his shtick, Saget leaves the ring, claiming he forgot something in his car. 

The greatest paradox in the career of Bob Saget is that most people think of him as incredibly wholesome because of the years he played Danny Tanner and told silly jokes as host of "America's Funniest Home Videos." The truth is that Saget's sense of humor has always been incredibly dark and extremely raunchy. He took those roles because they were a steady paycheck and gained him a great deal of popularity as a result. 

After his stints on those shows ended, Saget delighted in playing against his wholesome image in his stand-up act and in other roles. His foul, seven-minute rendition of the fabled comedian in-joke "the Aristocrats" was perhaps the most shocking version of that joke in the comedy documentary "The Aristocrats." Elsewhere, he had a memorable four-episode run in "Entourage" as the boys' new neighbor. At one point, his character starts discussing having an account at a brothel and sending a plane directly to Colombia to get the best drugs. 

Of course, his comedy specials "That Ain't RIght," "Zero to Sixty," and "That's What I'm Talkin' About" were all R-rated, and he was intentional about this. When speaking with The Daily Northwestern about his tenure on "Full House," he said, "The show changed me. I felt like my voice was tainted because I had to serve that audience. If I cursed, it would have been a big deal in my stand-up back then. Everything I do now is R-rated."

Something that was vitally important to Bob Saget was raising funds for a cure for the rare disease scleroderma. It's the disease that killed his sister Gay when she was just 47 years old after years of being misdiagnosed. After he finished up "Full House," he wrote and directed a film for ABC based on his sister's experiences with the disease called "For Hope," which starred Dana Delany. Describing his sister's experiences and the film, he told Ability Magazine, "The doctors put her on cortisones, which make a person nutty. My sister had a psychotic episode, and I put that in 'For Hope.' That was a crazy time." Elsewhere, Delany spoke warmly of Saget's skill as a director and his keen understanding of the line between comedy and tragedy. "We would ride up to the edge of melodrama, and then there would be some joke that would break the tension. It was just a joyous, joyous film shoot, and everybody remained very close from it," she told The Hollywood Reporter.

Oddly, Saget hosted a comedy benefit for scleroderma a couple of years before his sister was even diagnosed. Saget served on the board of the Scleroderma Research Fund until his death and worked tirelessly to raise money. His willingness to help any of his comedian friends with their causes at any time meant that he was able to call in favors and get people like Jerry Seinfeld to perform at his fundraisers. 

Of all of Saget's many and varied projects, perhaps the most personal was his 2014 memoir "Dirty Daddy," which was a New York Times bestseller thanks to his frank and funny explorations of so many topics. It also revealed that Saget's dark comedy was fueled in part as a response to the tragedy he and his family faced, as he had to experience the death of multiple siblings. He said that his biggest comic influence was his dad, whom Saget told The Oklahoman "dealt with death and hardships through humor ... often sick and weird humor."

It's fitting that the first joke he wrote at the age of 17 was, "I have the brain of a German shepherd and the body of a 16-year-old boy ... and they're both in the trunk of my car and I want you to see them." His sense of humor was infectious. In 2014, he said, "I actually did change Mary-Kate's and Ashley's diapers once. And that was four years ago. Ashley came up with the punch line to that joke."

Saget's first onscreen role came in the '80s sitcom "Bosom Buddies," starring Tom Hanks. However, the book revealed that this role was a favor, and his real job was warming up the audience before the show. Though his part was small, Hanks insisted on giving him a name in the credits: "Bob the Comic." 

Bob Saget couldn't turn off his inner comedian. When watching the 2005 Oscar-winning documentary "March of the Penguins," Saget's reaction was to crack jokes about what he was seeing with "offensive" voices, per The Seattle Times. He had the idea of going much further with this idea, and after National Geographic rejected his request for footage of penguins, he got some of his own on the cheap and enlisted many, many of his friends to provide voiceovers.

The result was a direct-to-DVD movie called "Farce Of The Penguins," and the cast is beyond an all-star team of comedy; it's more like an entire Hall of Fame. Samuel L. Jackson is the narrator, with his notoriously foul mouth being a perfect comedic counterpoint to the dignity of Morgan Freeman's narration in "March of the Penguins." And the film is so cheaply made that Roger Corman might have told them to spruce things up a little. Describing the process, Saget said, "It's like a porn film, where six minutes later it's the same two-shot. You never know who's talking. You just don't care at a certain point." 

The cast included former TV co-stars Brie Larson, John Stamos, Dave Coulier, and Jodi Sweetin. His stand-up friends showed up in bunches: Gilbert Gottfried, Norm Macdonald, Dane Cook, Lewis Black, and Jon Lovitz. Big names like Whoopi Goldberg, Tracy Morgan, and Damon Wayans also all contributed to the silliness. Of the cast, Saget said, "Someone asked me, 'Why are you using all your favors on this?'"

"America's Funniest Home Videos" debuted in 1989 and is still plugging along with current host Alfonso Ribeiro. Based on a Japanese game show that had a celebrity judging panel, creator Vin Di Bona got rid of the celebrities to make room for more videos. People liked the show for the same reason people like viral videos: they like cute animals and guys getting hit in the groin. Bob Saget knew it was getting a response right away, telling The Conway Daily Sun, "When we first aired, I got a call from Tom Hanks, who is a friend, and he said, 'This is the funniest thing I've ever seen!' That was an indication, getting phone calls."

When asked about his favorite clip, Saget said, "My favorite I was never able to air. It's a video of a monkey in the tree, and he scratches his butt, sniffs his hand, shakes, and passes out, falling out of frame. [The network's] standards and practices said, 'You can't run it.' But when Tom [Bergeron[ hosted, he had me on as a guest, and they were finally able to show it."

Oddly enough, ABC News broke into the East Coast broadcast of "America's Funniest Home Videos" to announce Saget's death.