This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Bob Saget knows the public perception of him is pretty well split these days between two extremes.
On the one hand, he's Danny Tanner of "Full House" (and now "Fuller House"), a clean-cut, slightly nerdy single dad with a heart of gold teaching important life lessons to his daughters.
On the other, he's that lewd, crude, dirty, raunchy, foul, vile, McFilthy and McNasty stand-up comedian.
The version of Bob Saget who'll be returning to Salt Lake City to do a new stand-up set this Sunday and Monday at the downtown location of Wiseguys comedy club is actually somewhere in between, he said, even if the pendulum of perception has been swinging more toward that latter reputation.
"This stand-up is a new hour, it's different than the show I did at Wiseguys last time, and I'm really enjoying it," Saget said in a phone interview. "It's more like talking to people. And it's got plenty of jokes below my waist, but I'm not X-rated like people think — that's the thing that really bothers me the most. I'm like a soft R — I'm like 'South Park.' People just get shocked 'cause it's from a 'Full House' character, you know?"
The issue, he said, is one of expectation.
His first public comedic performance, as a 17-year-old, involved "a song about bondage … on a radio contest in Philadelphia." At 30, he got his first acting role "of consequence" — the Richard Pryor movie "Critical Condition" — and "that was R-rated, and I was cursing in that," he noted.
But once he became associated with "Full House" and "America's Funniest Home Videos," he said, people forgot he wasn't actually indefatigably wholesome, and so his dirty side seemed dirtier still as a result.
"I had an old lady in Vancouver once, I'm up onstage and she just started to walk out. I go, 'Where you going?! Have I offended you?' And she gave me that expression like my grandmother would give me, like she ate bad fish, she just put up her hands, pushed me away, walked past and wobbled out the door. And it did make me take note that there's a certain responsibility when you're doing what you do to do it right," he said. "I think I've learned that a lot along the way. … I don't want to offend anybody. Nobody walks out 'cause of my language or anything now. I'm not even that blue. … I have literally turned into Liza Minnelli — I just want to entertain people."
Now 60 years old, Saget entertains in a variety of ways.
"Fuller House" is in its second season and was just picked up for a third. "The damn thing's No. 1," he joked. "It's basically the No. 1 show on TV — on all TV around the world — because of how Netflix is set up. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what I'm telling people!" (Netflix doesn't actually release viewership numbers.)
He remains surprised that the show and its characters are as ingrained in the fabric of American pop culture as they are, but said the current cultural climate probably has something to do with it.
"I liken it to what 'Leave It to Beaver' was during the Cold War, or 'Happy Days' was — I don't know if it was Vietnam. But if you think about when you go to war, when you think about when the world is tense, when you think things are at their harshest, people really need to escape," he said. "And that's why sci-fis do so well, why superhero movies do so well. When you think about it, they're all saving the world from the destruction of a crazy tyrant. We're in a crazy time in general, and this [show] is the fluffiest."
He's also set to film another stand-up special in April or May, then will move on to directing and starring in a movie called "Jake," a dark comedy in which "I'm playing a father who thinks his son's on crystal meth, and my girlfriend calls an intervention on Facebook."
As for his stand-up, the cat is — mostly — out of the bag and the initial shock value has — mostly — worn off. He still has the occasional Twitter exchange in which "some guy said something like, 'Don't talk like that, Bob! Don't use bad words! You're not supposed to!' " and Saget is forced to respond, "Dude! I've been doing this since I was 17! 'Full House' is acting. … It's actually a job."
Mostly, though, people who see him have developed enough nuance to realize he is neither Danny Tanner nor Satan himself, and that "I haven't blown up the image!
"I didn't do it intentionally. I just have a bawdy and a wicked sense of humor. I just find things funny that make me laugh. I'd rather not hear about the world news events onstage from me, if I was an audience, and so I just talk about my crotch and nobody gets hurt," Saget said.
"I get older people that come 'cause they watch the shows, and they get me — they know what's going on," he continued. "And I talk about it from the moment I come out. 'Cause I'm a walking disclaimer!"
Consider yourselves warned.
Twitter: @esotericwalden —
With Mike Young
When • Sunday and Monday, 6:30 and 9 both nights
Where • Wiseguys, 194 S. 400 West, Salt Lake City
Tickets • $35; http://www.wiseguyscomedy.com/event/586/bob-saget (Sunday's 6:30 show is sold out)