Just a few years after Full House ended its eight-season run as the anchor of ABC's TGIF line-up, Bob Saget shook off the lemon fresh Pledge-scented aura of Danny Tanner with a vengeance.
"I used to suck d--k for coke," the beloved sitcom dad declared in an unforgettable cameo in the 1998 comedy Half Baked, a quick turn as "Cocaine Addict" that would've broken the Internet if dial-up connections had allowed for such things.
But back when buzz occurred by word of mouth and those same devoted Full House fans who came of age along with Candace Cameron Bure's DJ Tanner graduated to quoting Half Baked after repeated VHS viewings, Saget's shocking lines became the stuff of late '90s legend, so funny because that was America's ultimate corny 'n' clean TV dad saying dirty things.
And the comedian never looked back. Well, except for when he reprised the role of Danny for Netflix's Fuller House from 2016 to 2020, but by then he had been seamlessly segueing between family-friendly guy you want hosting your game show and R-rated stand-up comic you live to see playing against type for years.
Which is why Saget's sudden death at only 65 years old on Jan. 9—just hours after performing in Florida in the latest stop on a multi-city tour that was supposed to last through at least June—sent so many fans of all ages and interests into a tailspin.
He was forever the fastidiously tidy widower whose best friend and brother-in-law move in to help him raise his three daughters on Full House, as well as the first host of Sunday night hit America's Funniest Home Videos (an astute tweeter noted that he was the host of YouTube before there was a YouTube) and later the voice of older and wiser Ted recalling his journey to fatherhood in How I Met Your Mother.
HIMYM star Josh Radnor called his elder counterpart "a mensch among mensches."
Yet Saget was also a beloved comedian's comedian, irreverently vulgar but also—as quickly confirmed by the tsunami of tributes—one of the nicest people you could ever hope to know.
"Beautiful Bob Saget passed away today at 65," Jim Carrey tweeted Sunday along with an early-career photo of the two of them. "He had a big, big heart and a wonderfully warped comic mind. He gave the world a lot of joy and lived his life for goodness' sake."
Seinfeld star Jason Alexander tweeted, "I know that people lose loved ones, good people, every day. No one gets a pass. But the loss of Bob Saget hits deep. If you didn't know him, he was kind and dear and cared about people deeply. He was the definition of 'a good egg'. Too soon he leaves."
Wrote Judd Apatow, "Bob Saget was so kind and when you spent time with him he made you laugh hard. He loved to be funny and he was hysterical. He was also there for everyone. A beautiful soul."
And the like-minded sentiments just poured in, seemingly everyone counting Saget as a friend and/or comedic inspiration for decades, starting with his Full House costars John Stamos ("gutted"), Dave Coulier ("my heart is broken"), Cameron Bure ("one of the best human beings I've ever known in my life") and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen ("the most loving, compassionate and generous man"), who were barely 12 months old when they started switching off in the role of Danny's youngest daughter, Michelle Tanner.
In a joint statement on behalf of the whole cast, they said that they were grieving as a family: "He was a brother to us guys, a father to us girls and a friend to all of us. Bob, we love you dearly. We ask in Bob's honor, hug the people you love. No one gave better hugs than Bob."
After graduating from Temple University in Philadelphia, Saget moved to Los Angeles when he was 22 and found his niche at the Comedy Store, as well as friendships with the likes of Rodney Dangerfield and Don Rickles, legends who had inspired him. He scored the role of Danny Tanner—who starts out as a sportscaster and goes on to host Wake Up, San Francisco—in 1987 after a brief stint on an actual CBS morning show, "where I got fired because I was a little too 'hot' for morning TV," he recalled to Willamette Week in 2016.
He acknowledged that his fellow stand-ups at the time were thinking, "'He's such a sick bastard, it's so funny he's doing that part.' But it's a part anyone would be lucky to have if they wanted it...All I wanted to do was be on a sitcom. That was a big thing, so I was thrilled to get it."
His impeccable sitcom dad credentials enshrined in TV history, his memorable blue moments over the years included being among the graphic raconteurs in the history-of-a-dirty-joke documentary The Aristocrats, which hit theaters a month before HIMYM premiered in 2005; as the guest of honor at The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget in 2008; performing stand-up specials such as 2007's That Ain't Right and 2013's That's What I'm Talkin' About; appearing as an extra crass version of himself on Entourage, both on the show and in the 2015 movie; and 10 appearances on The Howard Stern Show in its terrestrial and satellite iterations.
So by the time Fuller House was ordered up by Netflix, everyone who knew Saget was in on the joke—that he was this authentically nice and lovely guy whose comedy also tended toward the unabashedly filthy.
And if you weren't into that, then you at least had Danny Tanner's fatherly reassurances, endless patience, impossibly even temperament and epic dance moves to cherish.
"I didn't know I was being called the biggest geek in the world while it was happening or that I would be revered as the guy who loved hugging," Saget reflected to the Los Angeles Times in 2016 when the Tanners returned for round two. "I came up with that. I made him a hugger. That was one of my contributions."
Saget was also the father of three daughters in real life, his now grown kids with first wife Sherri Kramer, and he had been married to Kelly Rizzo since 2018.
In a Jan. 10 statement to People, Rizzo called him her "absolute everything" and said she would share more stories about her husband once she's up to it.
His family had said in a previous statement to NBC News, "He was everything to us and we want you to know how much he loved his fans, performing live and bringing people from all walks of life together with laughter. Though we ask for privacy at this time, we invite you to join us in remembering the love and laughter that Bob brought to the world."
Aubrey Saget, 34, also shared the last text she got from her dad, seemingly right before he went onstage Jan. 8, a message reading, "Thank u. Love u. Showtime!"
HIMYM star Alyson Hannigan tweeted the day after his death, "One of my fav memories of Bob was when I was babysitting his daughter. I was 15 & couldn't get her to sleep/stop crying. Bob came home, took her in his arms, played a Tracy Chapman song & danced with her until she fell asleep. He was a wonderful Dad and human #RipBobSaget Love u."
Saget acknowledged the fascinating dichotomy of his show business personae in his 2014 memoir Dirty Daddy, sharing that he loved humor of all kinds but he inherited his propensity for "'sick silliness'" from his own dad, "a grown-up who said things a nine-year-old like me always wanted to say because I was told not to."
Saget told Willamette Week in 2016, when he was stepping back into sweet sitcom dad mode on Fuller House, "When I would do stand-up on the road when I was 17, I was cursing. When I hosted at the Comedy Store for eight years trying to get a job, I would drop f-bombs whenever it seemed appropriate, because that's how I talk in front of people. I mean, I do corporate gigs where I don't say any swear words. I'm a professional.
"I'm able to do Fuller House without cursing. That's an acting gig, and I'm an actor. I've thought about because I've been asked for 25 years. 'Are people going to be surprised?' What, do they expect me to DustBust?"
Well, maybe shake his booty at least.
"Until I find out my friend Bob Saget's cause of death, I'm just gonna assume irritable bowel syndrome. It's what he would want," tweeted Neal Brennan, who wrote Half Baked with Dave Chappelle. The Unacceptable comedian also tweeted out his buddy's iconic cameo with a broken-heart emoji, knowing Saget considered laughter to be the best medicine.
(Authorities in Orlando, where Saget was found unresponsive in a room at the Ritz-Carlton, said there were no signs of foul play or drug use at the scene; cause of death is pending following an autopsy.)
"Bob would want to be remembered as a real artist in the comedy community," his touring partner Mike Young told E! News in a Jan. 10 interview. "He would want to be remembered as a great comedian and a great performer, great artist."
Everyone who loved and appreciated him "knew there was something brilliant about Bob," Young said. "He was so sharp and quick-witted. He had a gift. He really had a gift of wit and timing…I think he would just want to be remembered as respected by his peers."
He was also thoughtful as far as his comedy went, too. "I really don't want to offend anybody," Saget told Willamette Week. "I like saying things and people go, 'What?' and they laugh at the awkwardness of it or the truth of it."
He was obviously aware that anyone in the public eye was under a tougher microscope than ever in the age of Twitter and that comedians' sets were being combed for possible offenses, but he didn't walk on egg shells. Rather, he evolved.
For instance, he felt a kindship with Danny (and frequently referred to his Full House days in his stand-up act because it was such an unavoidable cultural force), but not the "Bob Saget" he played on Entourage, he noted. "There's a misogynist thing I've pulled back on, which was very popular during the times I was on Entourage," he recalled. "People wanted to hear me act like I'm some badass, when I'm just some skinny guy that looks like your dentist onstage."
He also said, "The new world that's out there is exciting for me, to be able to mature in front of people's eyes into something that has more than two dimensions."
On the Sept. 12, 2021, episode of People's Party With Talib Kweli, Saget acknowledged there were simply just a lot of jokes from 10 or so years ago—made by him and others on stage and in movies, on TV, etc.—that simply wouldn't fly now. "But the point of that comedy then," he said, "was trying to go, 'Look how horrible this is, so I'm going to point it out and do that joke.' And then you go 'whoa.' But that intention doesn't travel and it doesn't do well with time, and it isn't even part of my consciousness now to do a joke like that."
"I feel like I have to be conscious," he said, but he also felt there were definitely ways to tee up controversial subjects while doing comedy, so long as the jokes were actually funny and not just told for shock value.
"I'm really proud of the work I'm doing now and I'm very conscious of the work I've done," he added. "I'm trying just to move forward."
Saget also started hosting a podcast in 2020, the now bittersweetly titled Bob Saget's Here for You meant as a balm in these pandemic- and politically fractured times (he admirably conversed with people he didn't agree with but counted as good friends just the same), and he welcomed everyone from members of his Full House family to Jon Hamm, Marc Maron, Bill Burr and Jim Gaffigan. His latest episode, with guest B.J. Novak, was released Jan. 3.
When Norm Macdonald died in September after a long cancer battle he largely kept private, Saget—who made his feature directional debut behind the camera of Macdonald's 1998 comedy Dirty Work—dedicated a podcast episode to him, explaining, "I've lost many friends and this is just a f--king knife in the heart for all of us that were close to him, and all of you who loved him."
Reluctant to make fun of Saget at his 2008 roast, Macdonald turned in his infamous set of archaic jokes that left everyone on the dais stumped but also cracking up when it dawned on them what the usually brazen comedian was doing.
But that's the kind of guy Bob Saget was, the kind who Norm Macdonald was reluctant to say a bad word about, however fitting the moment.
In his 2014 book, Saget wrote, "The goal of living a full life is so, at its end, you'll have learned some things along the journey. I'm nowhere near the end yet, but I've already had some incredible experiences. I've met and worked with some amazing people, I've lived, I've loved, I've cried...and through it all, I did it my way."
He may have cribbed that line from Frank Sinatra, but Saget was an original: a show business veteran who managed to look just as at home doling out life lessons on Full House as he did holding court in front of an audience who wanted to laugh their asses off.
And as showing kindness became increasingly important to him, especially over the last few years, he took greater pride than ever in bringing people joy as a comedian.
"The root of who I am, the older I get, is love," Saget told Kweli last year. "And yeah, I'm not always like that. I'm disgruntled at home, or I'll watch the news and I'll yell, I'll get really upset about stuff. But if you're coming from a place of love, and you're a good person...
"That's the key, and that's why I'm more inspired to do stand-up now than ever."