Bob Saget (1956–2022)

Bob Saget is best known for his many years playing neat freak widower and dad Danny Tanner on TV's iconic sitcom Full House. Anyone who has children in the 20s has probably seen that show, but this memoir, Dirty Daddy, shows a much different side to Saget, one that fans of his standup will know better.

Saget likes scatological humor, which can be funny in small doses, but for me a little goes a long way. He got his love of this humor from his father, whom he clearly adores, and that shines show more through brightly in this book.

Death played a big part in the Saget family, with Bob losing three close uncles and a cousin at a young age. His parents lost twins when they got an infection in the hospital when they were born and died. His two older sisters died at age 34 and 41, respectively. Death followed the Saget family, and that is where their gallows humor came from; it helped them cope.

There are a lot of showbiz stories here, about famous people Saget knows, like Don Rickles, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, and some fun stories from his Full House and America's Funniest Home Video days. His story of visiting Larry Fine from the Three Stooges in a nursing home when he was teen was so sweet.

One day he forgot to take his microphone off when going to the restroom during a break of AFHV and he said something rude about the audience that was broadcast to everyone. When he returned, the audience was ice cold to him. Oops.

Saget's stream--of-consciousness writing and scatological (vulgar) language will turn off some, but overall I enjoyed his memoir. show less

Whether you're a fan of Bob Saget as Danny Tanner in "Full House" or of his adult comedy, you'll enjoy this one. I enjoyed his stream of consciousness style and insights into his childhood. He displays his parental sensibilities, despite his irreverent sometimes controversial humor. Also having a silly, sarcastic, immature, somewhat perverse sense of humor, I can relate to him. I only wish he'd included more specifics, defining his humor.

Dirty Daddy: The Chronicles of a Family Man Turned Filthy Comedian by Bob Saget
330 pages

★★ ½

I will admit, I’m a Full House fan – I grew up on the show, have the whole series on DVD, and watch it regularly. But be aware, Bob Saget is not the super wholesome, sweet man like his character, Danny Tanner, in the show but I was luckily quite aware of that. If you only know Saget for his roles on Full House and America’s Funniest Videos and are expecting those characters? Stop now and show more turn around.

I think this book had a lot of potential. Bob Saget has some interesting moments in his life – so of them sad, some of them funny. The problem is how he seems to deal with these stories. Whether it is a coping mechanism or his way of trying to be funnier than necessary, all of his great stories were constantly interrupted by his making rude and crude jokes that just didn’t belong. I get it Bob Saget, you aren’t those characters you once played (PS. He has whole chapters dedicated to those shows that made his famous) but not every other paragraph has to be interjected with a fart or penis joke. Unfortunately, his random jokes thrown throughout really detracted from what could have been a pretty good memoir. Thumbs up for the stories he did share, I doubt all of them were easy to write and he is very honest throughout. However, major points removed for the jokes – there’s ways to make a memoir funny without such methods, trust me, I’ve read them. show less

Whether you're a fan of Bob Saget as Danny Tanner in "Full House" or of his adult comedy, you'll enjoy this one. I enjoyed his stream of consciousness style and insights into his childhood. He displays his parental sensibilities, despite his irreverent sometimes controversial humor. Also having a silly, sarcastic, immature, somewhat perverse sense of humor, I can relate to him. I only wish he'd included more specifics, defining his humor.