Bob Saget is not really Danny Tanner, his fictional widowed daddy figure on the classic sitcom “Full House.” They both love to clean, but Saget’s sense of humor of far dirtier, based on the scatological words that come out of his mouth in his stand-up routine.
Saget himself embraces this dichotomous imagery in his memoir, appropriately named "Dirty Daddy," which he'll discuss at the Marcus Jewish Community Center Book Festival Nov. 1. (Tickets on sale here)
“I don’t even look at myself as a dirty joke teller. I tell jokes,” he said in a recent interview. He tells his off-color stories (often focused on private parts and bodily fluids) in a pleasant, agreeable style that somehow makes the jokes seems less off color. He embraces what he dubbed in his book “gallows humor” and “sick silliness,” a sense of humor cultivated by his father. He wrote that humor was a way to cover up pain from numerous family deaths.
Saget is not an "insult" comic in the vein of Jeffrey Ross or the late Joan Rivers. He prefers self deprecation. In 2005, for instance, he played a jerk-ish version of himself on HBO's 'Entourage." "Jack Benny once said the smartest thing to do is make fun of yourself first," he said. "You don't have to make fun of anybody else."
His book was released in the spring and he said sales have been building momentum. “It’s more like an independent film,” he said. “Word of mouth is good. People are really loving the book.”
He admits being a sensitive soul and doesn’t like to hear negativity so he doesn’t read reviews or comments on Amazon, where his book received 3.5 stars out of five. The negatives mostly focused on how overly obsessed he was with his self-described “adolescent ramblings.”
“When people tell me that’s really dirty, it doesn’t change me, it doesn’t help me,” he said. At the same time, “I’m very very fortunate with the sordid career I’ve had and continue to have.”
Could the real Bob Saget be friends with sweet Danny Tanner? “I have friends like him,” said Saget, who is 58. “Most of them at this age are not very happy.”
At the same time, he is very protective of the Olsen twins and the show itself. "I get very defensive when people trash them or 'Full House,' " he said. He wasn't thrilled that the 2008 Comedy Central roast featured so many Olsen twin jokes, some of which were edited out of the telecast, probably for redundancy.
He has done spoof bits with fellow "Full House" brethren John Stamos and David Coulier in a Super Bowl ad and a Jimmy Fallon sketch. And he is open to participating in a "Full House" revival. "I'd be a part of it," he said. "I'd do Danny Tanner if he'd evolve into a new person and it was a movie."
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Book appearance preview
Bob Saget at the Marcus Jewish Community Book Festival
8:15 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1
$18-$50
MJCCA Zaban Park
5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody
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