OT: RIP Gilbert Gottfried

[Maynard13]

11 minutes ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

That's sad.  So it was obvious he wasn't healthy then?  Somehow I didn't know that. When was it that you saw him?  I talked to him after a show in NYC a few years back too.  He seemed okay at the time but this probably a little over 5 years ago.   I had the same experience that you did in that he was kind, and easy to talk to.  I'm glad I got to tell him "you're the best" (or something like that).  I was being sincere.   I'm upset that he's gone.  He was truly one of a kind.  
 

 

It was about 2.5 years back. He was very sick. It was clearly evident. He was just strolling along 6th avenue around 20th street with his little poodle. He looked tired and beat down. I noticed him immediately. I was shocked no one recognized him. I stopped him ‘Gilbert! OMG I can’t believe it’s you!. We talked for several minutes. He was so sweet and kind. But it was heartbreaking to see him so sick. Still, it was such a thrill to meet him and he was so gratuitous and humble. ?

[TuscanyTile2]

[sourceworx]

16 hours ago, munchmemory said:

Literally, just saw this online and was about to start the thread.  Gut punch.  One of my favorite comedians.  I never laughed so hard as when he would go off on Howard's show.  RIP.

 

His appearances on Stern were legendary. I loved Gilbert.

[DoomProphet]

RIP

[munchmemory]

Saw Gilbert a few times in this era.  Totally nuts.

 

[munchmemory]

 

[Sperm Edwards]

2 hours ago, munchmemory said:

Saw Gilbert a few times in this era.  Totally nuts.

 

I remember seeing him around this time, or really a little earlier, in this ****hole in/around Suffern-ish that I think young bands used to play, too (can't recall the name). I think it was before he was on Arsenio (the clip posted above) but can't be sure. Definitely when he was a semi-regular on Howard. A couple of my buddies and I were standup fanatics then (it was, or it seemed like it was, just a bigger thing then): HBO used to have its annual Young Comedian's special, which was the start for so many household names, and Comedy Central back then was (or seemed like) 90% of the airtime was just snippets of different standup routines, from nobodies to the well-known.

Then HBO had their Comedy Half Hour specials and Gilbert had one, closing with his Dice bit with that g-g-g-g-OWH! punchline, waving a make-believe cigarette all over in uncontrolled arm movements. Jack & Jill go up the hill she's says wah-wah-wah-way-jack-goes-g-g-g-g-OH! It's nothing without him doing it, but the gist was it reduced the most famous part of Dice's routine down to a big nothing. Made you feel stupid for ever laughing at Dice in the past.

Anyway we saw him back then & he had this weird routine with some reference to Carl Sagan and moist turtles (dead turtles are said to have lost their moisture so a good one to have is a moist one, or something, but being him he just went on about this nonsense for 10-15 min and you could see in the audience you either loved it like we did or the rest couldn't understand why anyone thought he was funny). The hammed-up Seinfeld and Dice impersonations were classic. IIRC Seinfeld ****ed with Gilbert's career a lot, just as he was about to take off, because he didn't think much of the impression (nor subject material), and Seinfeld had so much power back then. Howard couldn't care less - that was also when he had Janis Ian do that hilarious At Seventeen parody referencing Jerry's underage then-girlfriend - so he let Gilbert do whatever he wanted back then, on the radio and then on that TV show he had for a while. 

He was such a favorite of ours from so long ago, but a lot of my memory of his earlier standup was that half (or more than half) his laughs were the delivery as much as the material back then. His material got so much stronger as time went on, like his roast stuff. Went from just quirky-weird and pretty funny to not as quirky-weird (since we'd all experienced his voice/squinting plenty by then) to heart-stopping funny material where you need to pause the video to catch your breath. A rare few are just that funny, when they really hone their acts to go from funny to brilliant, and he was one of them. 

Sad that this funny little man is gone. People of the world need to laugh & now there'll be less of it without him. That's about as philosophical as I get. Deep, I know.  

[munchmemory]

"Gilbert Gottfried's cause of death has been revealed. In a statement shared with ET, Gottfried's longtime friend and publicist, Glenn Schwartz, shared that the comedian died from "Recurrent Ventricular Tachycardia due to Myotonic Dystrophy type II." He was 67.

According to the Rare Diseases website, Myotonic Dystrophy type II is "an inherited muscular dystrophy that affects the muscles and other body systems (e.g., heart, eyes, and pancreas). It is characterized by prolonged muscle tensing (myotonia) as well as muscle weakness, pain, and stiffness."

https://www.etonline.com/gilbert-gottfrieds-cause-of-death-revealed-182488

 

[Maynard13]

?

[munchmemory]

So smart. So hilarious.

 

[TuscanyTile2]

1 hour ago, Sperm Edwards said:

I remember seeing him around this time, or really a little earlier, in this ****hole in/around Suffern-ish that I think young bands used to play, too (can't recall the name). I think it was before he was on Arsenio (the clip posted above) but can't be sure. Definitely when he was a semi-regular on Howard. A couple of my buddies and I were standup fanatics then (it was, or it seemed like it was, just a bigger thing then): HBO used to have its annual Young Comedian's special, which was the start for so many household names, and Comedy Central back then was (or seemed like) 90% of the airtime was just snippets of different standup routines, from nobodies to the well-known.

Then HBO had their Comedy Half Hour specials and Gilbert had one, closing with his Dice bit with that g-g-g-g-OWH! punchline, waving a make-believe cigarette all over in uncontrolled arm movements. Jack & Jill go up the hill she's says wah-wah-wah-way-jack-goes-g-g-g-g-OH! It's nothing without him doing it, but the gist was it reduced the most famous part of Dice's routine down to a big nothing. Made you feel stupid for ever laughing at Dice in the past.

Anyway we saw him back then & he had this weird routine with some reference to Carl Sagan and moist turtles (dead turtles are said to have lost their moisture so a good one to have is a moist one, or something, but being him he just went on about this nonsense for 10-15 min and you could see in the audience you either loved it like we did or the rest couldn't understand why anyone thought he was funny). The hammed-up Seinfeld and Dice impersonations were classic. IIRC Seinfeld ****ed with Gilbert's career a lot, just as he was about to take off, because he didn't think much of the impression (nor subject material), and Seinfeld had so much power back then. Howard couldn't care less - that was also when he had Janis Ian do that hilarious At Seventeen parody referencing Jerry's underage then-girlfriend - so he let Gilbert do whatever he wanted back then, on the radio and then on that TV show he had for a while. 

He was such a favorite of ours from so long ago, but a lot of my memory of his earlier standup was that half (or more than half) his laughs were the delivery as much as the material back then. His material got so much stronger as time went on, like his roast stuff. Went from just quirky-weird and pretty funny to not as quirky-weird (since we'd all experienced his voice/squinting plenty by then) to heart-stopping funny material where you need to pause the video to catch your breath. A rare few are just that funny, when they really hone their acts to go from funny to brilliant, and he was one of them. 

Sad that this funny little man is gone. People of the world need to laugh & now there'll be less of it without him. That's about as philosophical as I get. Deep, I know.  

I read (and enjoy) all of your long sports posts.  Very glad to read a long post from you about Gilbert.  Apparently Gilbert did the Seinfeld routine before Seinfeld was even famous.  Gilbert was nuts (but in a wonderful way).  He went after Jerry when he wasn't well known.  He went after Dice when Dice was gigantic.  And he completely took over Arsenio's show (which was a Howard Stern thing to do but he dominated even more than Howard could have).

His delivery was unlike anyone else.  I remember during one of the roasts someone (I think Jeff Ross) said "Thank you for shouting your act at us".  Being the loud guy was his move but it never got old to me.   He had many appearances where he absolutely killed.  He even had other comedians (Greg Giraldo and Anthony Jeselnik come to mind) who probably wouldn't normally laugh, laughing heartily.

And he could make the smallest thing into a full set of material.  Like his reacting to the audience cheering him when he walked on stage and going "stop it.  stop it".  I remember one appearance where he just riffed off that for a surprisingly long amount of time.  It led to something about "it'll take an eye out".  I'll have to try to find and post it.  Had me in tears.  The Arsenio appearance (posted in this thread) was remarkable.  It went on for ~12 minutes and he never even gave Arsenio a chance to start the interview.   I remember he also pulled off a routine about Kurt Waldheim where the gist of it was about getting confused about if a person named Kurt Waldheim was really "that Kurt Waldheim?!"  Such an unusual comedy premise but he did it brilliantly.

A few other thoughts:

He loved to bring up Norman Fell's name, which always made me laugh. 

His impersonations were hilarious. 

He was absolutely fearless.  But I think people still felt like he was a nice guy

I definitely knew people who thought he was annoying but there were many who thought he was brilliant.

 

His podcast is worth checking out if you haven't already done so.  In many episodes he interviewed people who were stars (or writers) a long time ago.  He'd ask them what their favorite TV shows were growing up.  And they'd talk about funny stories.  His co-host (Frank Santopadre) was terrific too.  

 

 

[munchmemory]

@TuscanyTile2 I agree that the "impressions" were really, really funny.   But all Gilbert ever had to do was start up with his crazy laugh and "yesh" and I was lost in gales of laughter.  They discuss Seinfeld at approx. 3:15.

 

[TuscanyTile2]

1 hour ago, munchmemory said:

@TuscanyTile2 I agree that the "impressions" were really, really funny.   But all Gilbert ever had to do was start up with his crazy laugh and "yesh" and I was lost in gales of laughter.  They discuss Seinfeld at approx. 3:15.

 

I think this was the interview I heard that comment about him impersonating Jerry before he was ultra-famous.  Hilarious!

[TuscanyTile2]

 

[Sperm Edwards]

14 hours ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

I read (and enjoy) all of your long sports posts.  Very glad to read a long post from you about Gilbert.  Apparently Gilbert did the Seinfeld routine before Seinfeld was even famous.  Gilbert was nuts (but in a wonderful way).  He went after Jerry when he wasn't well known.  He went after Dice when Dice was gigantic.  And he completely took over Arsenio's show (which was a Howard Stern thing to do but he dominated even more than Howard could have).

His delivery was unlike anyone else.  I remember during one of the roasts someone (I think Jeff Ross) said "Thank you for shouting your act at us".  Being the loud guy was his move but it never got old to me.   He had many appearances where he absolutely killed.  He even had other comedians (Greg Giraldo and Anthony Jeselnik come to mind) who probably wouldn't normally laugh, laughing heartily.

And he could make the smallest thing into a full set of material.  Like his reacting to the audience cheering him when he walked on stage and going "stop it.  stop it".  I remember one appearance where he just riffed off that for a surprisingly long amount of time.  It led to something about "it'll take an eye out".  I'll have to try to find and post it.  Had me in tears.  The Arsenio appearance (posted in this thread) was remarkable.  It went on for ~12 minutes and he never even gave Arsenio a chance to start the interview.   I remember he also pulled off a routine about Kurt Waldheim where the gist of it was about getting confused about if a person named Kurt Waldheim was really "that Kurt Waldheim?!"  Such an unusual comedy premise but he did it brilliantly.

A few other thoughts:

He loved to bring up Norman Fell's name, which always made me laugh. 

His impersonations were hilarious. 

He was absolutely fearless.  But I think people still felt like he was a nice guy

I definitely knew people who thought he was annoying but there were many who thought he was brilliant.

 

His podcast is worth checking out if you haven't already done so.  In many episodes he interviewed people who were stars (or writers) a long time ago.  He'd ask them what their favorite TV shows were growing up.  And they'd talk about funny stories.  His co-host (Frank Santopadre) was terrific too.  

 

 

I listened to a few of those podcasts but the entertainment value was too dependent on the person being interviewed. The one where he interviewed Jeff Ross was hilarious, though, from start to finish. Think I played it twice, but the next 2-3 I listened to didn’t nearly match that in terms of laughs & I just didn’t return for more.

DIdn’t realize his Jerry bit went back that far & was more of an inside thing among comics, who I think all rip on each others’ bits behind the scenes anyway when they all get into their kind of fraternity, but my understanding was Seinfeld never got over it & had the clout/power to **** him. David Brenner, whom he also did frequently, not so much lol.

Last time I saw him live was at Governor’s probably 5-10 years ago (covid’s messed up my sense of how long ago things were). The dirty jokes thing, where all he did was tell a bunch of old jokes - dirty ones, of course - at least one of which I remembered from when I was elementary school age, but they became his when he told them. I thought I was going to leave in an ambulance from laughing so hard.

[TuscanyTile2]

 

[TuscanyTile2]

4 hours ago, Sperm Edwards said:

I listened to a few of those podcasts but the entertainment value was too dependent on the person being interviewed. The one where he interviewed Jeff Ross was hilarious, though, from start to finish. Think I played it twice, but the next 2-3 I listened to didn’t nearly match that in terms of laughs & I just didn’t return for more.

I felt the same way.  But if you picked and chose the ones you liked, there was plenty to be entertained by.

[TuscanyTile2]

https://pagesix.com/2022/04/12/jeff-ross-pays-tribute-to-longtime-pal-gilbert-gottfried/

Jeff Ross pays tribute to Gilbert Gottfried: Nobody made me laugh so hard

 

[munchmemory]

Nice interview with The Belz.  Gilbert explains doing the first 9/11 joke after the tragedy at approx 6:15 in the video.  Also an explanation of the infamous "Aristocrats Joke" which is NSFW.

 

[munchmemory]

Too long to post.  Here's the coverage of Gilbert's funeral with images.

https://pagesix.com/2022/04/14/inside-gilbert-gottfrieds-emotional-and-comedy-filled-funeral/

[TuscanyTile2]

 

[munchmemory]