9 Roles That Revealed Bob Saget’s Filthy Sense of Humor
Reading Time: 4 minutesA career encompassing Danny Tanner, talking over home movies, and incest jokes.
As beloved ’80s/’90s sitcom dad Danny Tanner, Bob Saget dispensed wholesome wisdom with a smile, soaking in the ‘awwwws’ from an audience who loved and appreciated the gentle hijinks of the Full House family. During the same era, he hosted America’s Funniest Home Videos, providing amusing commentary over user-submitted family films, as if YouTube were only available once a week.
These roles earned Saget a reputation as America’s family-friendly entertainer of choice, but even then, there were signs that there was a lot more to him as a performer. His foul-mouthed comedy routines were whispered about on playgrounds; 1998 saw him direct Dirty Work, a raunchy, critically panned film that’s since become a minor cult favorite; he made a brief, memorable cameo in Half Baked as a guy in recovery loudly reminding the crowd of the things he’d done for coke. It’s not unusual for a sitcom star to work at changing up his image, nor is it surprising that a comedian with an overwhelmingly family-friendly image would work to broaden his appeal. But this was less about a star trying to rebrand, but about a comedian who no longer felt constrained by his audience. His nearly 10-minute joke in The Aristocrats—which leaves no filthy stone unturned or subsequently unshoved up someone’s ass—proves fairly conclusively that he wasn’t a G-rated guy playing at being a potty mouth. He was the real deal.
By all accounts, Bob Saget was a study in contrasts: a wholesome sitcom dad with a dark sense of humor who, by all accounts, was also an incredibly nice person. The secret to comedy is always in surprise; the best jokes seem to lead in one direction, only to conclude with a punchline no one saw coming. That ability to surprise and shock—without ever losing his status as one of America’s favorite TV dads—was the secret to an unlikely but impressive career.
Full House had only been off the air for a couple of years when America’s most beloved sitcom dad revealed (or, rather, his character revealed) the lengths he would go to for some coke. It’s just a memorable few seconds, but it’s also the moment when a broad audience realized that there was a side to Saget’s work that was quite a bit less wholesome, and quite a bit more interesting.
Where to watch: Digital rental
It was 2007, and people still seemed to be surprised that America’s dad had a facility for blue humor. This stand-up special has plenty of that, and includes a couple of musical interludes—first, a rap video with Jamie Kennedy (who was very popular circa the mid-00s), and then a Backstreet Boys-flavored reminder that ‘Danny Tanner is Not Gay.’ Another special, 2013’s That’s What I’m Talking About, earned Saget a Grammy nomination.
Where to watch: HBO Max
As we’ll see with his appearance in The Aristocrats, Saget knew how to commit to a bit—for better of for worse, he was a comedian who could go all-in. That’s how we get Farce of the Penguins: a feature-length parody the March of the Penguins documentary with an all-star cast riffing on stock footage of penguins wandering off to have sex. This is not a premise that a reasonable comedian would have committed more than five minutes to, but there’s a weird stoner magic in the way it just keeps going. I’m not damning with faint praise here—it’s genuinely impressive for its silliness, and its voice cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Applegate, Lewis Black, Harvey Fierstein, Tracy Morgan, Whoopi Goldberg, Jason Alexander, Norm Macdonald, Brie Larson, and Abe Vigoda are just a sampling of the recognizable names Saget pulled into this farce.
Where to watch: YouTube
Bob Saget made a handful of memorable appearances on Entourage, beginning with season two’s ‘Neighbors.’ He played a version of himself, the next door neighbor to Adrian Grenier’s spoiled star Vincent Chase (their first encounter ends with Vince asking ‘Who the fuck was that guy?’) His character offers a twist on his Full House persona: he’s mean, foul-mouthed, and obsessed with weed, blow, and his house account at an exclusive brothel. By this point, we knew that Saget could tell a dirty joke, but he also plays a convincing creep—by all accounts a stretch for the notoriously nice guy.
Where to watch: HBO Max
There’s not a ton to recommend about the second Dumb and Dumber movie, but Saget is a highlight as the overprotective father of the love interest of both Harry and Lloyd. Once again, the joke is a twist on the Danny Tanner persona—but it works, and provides some of the movie’s few laughs.
Where to watch: HBO Max
Look, if your kids bring a dildo to show and tell at their Catholic school, you’re going to have to answer to Father Bob Saget. Who knows a thing or two about sex toys.
Where to watch: Netflix, Showtime
Netflix’s brief Historical Roasts series was mostly better as a premise than as a fully-realized show, but there’s something wonderful about Bob Saget’s appearance as Abraham Lincoln, if only for the way he concludes by leading the audience in ‘Fight the Power.’
Where to watch: Netflix
Following some inspired roasting from the likes of John Stamos, Jon Lovitz, Gilbert Gottfried, Cloris Leachman, and a wonderfully bizarre rant from Norm Macdonald, Bob Saget wraps things up by giving as good (and as filthy) as he got.
Where to watch: Paramount+
Nothing you’ve seen from Saget so far has prepared you for this. There’s absolutely no coming back his magnum opus of disturbingly filthy comedy. You’ve been warned.
Where to watch: Fubo, Hoopla, Vudu, Tubo, Kanopy, Redbox, Crackle, Pluto TV, Plex, IMDb TV