A Sit Down With Saget

By Morgan Rousseau

Talking to Bob Saget, it’s hard to believe you are not sitting there with his former TV alter-ego, Danny Tanner. That is, until he drops the F-bomb.

Saget has battled the clean-cut, single father image of the ABC family sitcom “Full House” since it first aired in 1987. On top of that, Saget’s corny humor on “America’s Funniest Home Videos” branded him as a wholesome family comedian. But after bidding adieu to both shows, Saget exposed the darker side of his comedic talents - raunchy humor.

In an interview with the Collegian prior to his performance at Curry Hicks Cage Friday night, Saget opened up about his long-standing career in comedy, and where he's found himself now.

“Stand-up gives you a rush like nothing else. It’s nothing but fun,” said Saget, adding that he feels at home with a college audience.

“I think that’s one of the reasons people like me, because I appreciate that we have great, amazing young people,” said Saget.
Saget’s risqué style of humor was perhaps best depicted in the 2005 film “The Aristrocrats,” in which he tells the infamous dirty joke of the same name. He admits the joke is so risky that when he tells it at stand-up shows he usually loses 90 percent of laughs in the room. Needless to say, he told it Friday night.

“It depends on the audience. If I look down from the stage and see a 10-year-old kid sitting there, I’m going to clean it up a little bit. I mean, I won’t start talking about his mom’s t***ies, because...well, because he shouldn’t be having thoughts like that about his mom, anyway.”

But going out on a limb is what fills the seats, particularly if it’s a college-aged audience. College venues are now his forte, or so his tour schedule says. He was right at home with the depraved humor of the average male college student who has daily doses of “Family Guy” and “Opie and Anthony.”

This might account for why his stand-up act“This Ain’t Full House” sold out the Curry Hicks Cage on Friday night, and packed hordes of excited students. All chanting his name, of course.

As the scene of enthused pandemonium radiated through the Cage and into Saget’s backstage trailer, the comedian could only sit back and say, “I’d love to go out drinking with everyone here tonight, but I don’t want to get half the campus pregnant. It’s a joke.”

Young adults eat up a chance to hear a 50-year-old Danny Tanner -who we thought we knew so well - spewing a rainbow of profanity and talking about Uncle Jesse’s pubic hair, or lack there of.

Somewhere in the middle of his act, Saget grabbed a guitar and toyed around with it, swearing like a belligerent teenager. He was just too excited to be up there, it seemed, because his act was all over the place. He would start a story that wouldn’t draw to a close for another 40 minutes, or so. Tangents were a-plenty Friday night, and Saget was dishing them out like a caffeinated line cook. He intermittently named off some of the Internet’s most heinous adult Web sites; this was where male humor took over.

The manner of his stand-up is simple: swear constantly, be blunt and to the point, but most of all, remain confident. Anyone can try it and fail miserably, but Saget knows he is Bob Saget, and he is confident in every sense of the word. As we all saw Friday night, it is hard to stop a man who thinks he is The Man. I

Friday’s stand-up routine also consisted of UMass students screaming to Saget, and him playing off of it with a friendly yet offensive response. Combine that with rancid jokes as dirty as they come. As his set grew to a close, clusters of obnoxious girls rushed the stage, rambling incoherently and pleading for Saget hugs - but considering his cracks about college-aged girls, he must have enjoyed it.

Saget says he didn’t decide to be a comedian at a young age. Originally he was interested in filmmaking.

“When I was eight, my dad, who was a butcher, gave me an eight millimeter camera, and I played around with it,” Saget said. “I made all the cliché effects and showed them off. It was like “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

He went on to study film at Temple University, where he won a Student Academy Award for a documentary he made in 1977 titled “Through Adam’s Eyes.” After college Saget went to work at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, where he met some of the most successful comedians in history, including Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Pryor and Robin Williams.

“I was interested in acting but never thought I’d be good,” said Saget. “But I worked for free six years at The Comedy Store, and got to meet and become friends with some of the best comedians.”

In the 1980s the comedian turned to acting, and because of the popularity of his stand-up he gained roles in television shows, like “Bossum Buddies.” He also had a small role in Richard Pryor’s 1987 movie, “Critical Condition.”

“I’d land small roles in television shows, but at the end I’d be edited out, and the credits would still say ‘guest Bob Saget’ at the end,” Saget said.

But it’s the role in “Full House” as Danny Tanner that made the difference in his career. Saget said it was just a matter of good timing that he was cast on the hit show. He didn’t expect the show to run eight years.

With his success in “Full House,” ABC offered him the role of the host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and Saget accepted. Starring in both shows made him the first person in television history to have two top rated shows in the same week.

Since leaving his role as the host of “Home Videos” and the close of “Full House,” Saget has remained busy with directing, playing small roles in movies and doing stand-up. He has also tried having his own show again called “Raising Dad,” but it only lasted one season. Now Saget is in the process of developing his Web site, http://www.thebobsaget.com/.

Look for him later this fall, as he will be returning to television as host of NBC’s new game show “1 vs. 100.”

“The show has been on Europe, but now we are bringing it to America. It’s kind of like ‘Hollywood Squares’ but its one person answering against 100,” he said. “It’s Hollywood squares with diarrhea.”

As published in The Massachusetts Daily Collegian