By now, most have heard the sad news of the passing of Bob Saget at the relatively young age of 65. At that age he could've still had a few decades to continue to share his gift of comedy to the world. But, for some celestial reason, that was not to be. As a result, he is "for the ages" now.
I never had the pleasure of meeting him in real life. However............. I did get him angry on Twitter once. He was posting a string of jokes on Twitter presumably to test them with his followers. One of those jokes, to me, looked eerily familiar. It reminded me of a similar joke that Steve Martin had told. So, like a little shit, I responded to him saying, "Stolen from Steve Martin". Almost immediately, he gave me a quick follow and then sent this little DM:
After that, he blocked me. Needless to say, I'm still blocked by him. I guess it's up to the "estate of Bob Saget" to have me unblocked now, and what would be the point of that anyway? Going by his no holds barred stand up routine, I thought there was nothing in this world that could "push his buttons". But, it looks like I found that one thing that does. Sorry, Bob.
There has been, of course, so much outpouring of grief and sentiment about Bob from fans and coworkers alike. That's been the bulk of what I've seen anyway. I've also seen tiny little rumblings of various conspiracy theories surrounding his life and his death too, but that's best left ignored. The one bit of sentimental content I do want to address with this blog entry is any post that makes any statement like "...oh no, entertainment is going to suck now with him gone..." There is some objective truth to that statement, in that us being deprived of his comedic abilities will leave a big hole felt by many. But, at the same time, I consider that a defeatist attitude that helps nobody. In contrast, here's how I look at this.
Consider the time when Bob Saget first came to prominence. That happened when he was cast in the sitcom Full House. He had done other things on TV before, one example being a stand up comedian character on a short-lived show called Bosom Buddies. However, it was the Full House gig that put him in that spotlight and made him a house hold name. That happened in 1987. Well.......
....that happens to be the same year that Jackie Gleason died. You can bet that the same cries of mourning we see for Bob Saget now were all being cried for Mr. Gleason back then. Many people considered "entertainment to suck now" after the passing of such an entertainment talent and legend. But, as you can see by the dates here, it's more like one entertainment torch was passed on to another.
One could say the same thing about Betty White's passing. Her entertainment career first started back in the early 1950's about around 1952-ish. Well.....
...that's the year Curly Howard died. He was succumbing to the strain of his massive stroke while young Betty White was having her first screen test.
We've also lost another big titan in the movie industry, Sidney Poitier. He's been in many ground breaking movies throughout his career, but his big movie debut was in 1950. That is also the year....
...Al Jolson died.
We recently lost a great pioneering musician Mike Nesmith. Most people know him as one of The Monkees whose TV show debuted in 1966.
That's the year famed silent film star Buster Keaton died.
I could go on and on matching celebrity deaths in this way but I think you get the idea now.
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| Geez, Dave! Thanks for reminding me of all these deaths. Now I'm extra sad. |
Well, death is a part of life, kiddo. It comes for all of us, even the supposedly immortal celebrities we look up to. As much as I'd like all great talented people to live forever, I'd also be sad to see a 136 year old Al Jolson wandering around Hollywood desperately looking for a way to stay relevant.
The point of bringing all of this up is to show that the entertainment industry as a whole is bigger than one person. People have been coming to it and going from it since the beginning of human history and it continues unabated just so long as there are people out there wanting to be entertained. A good way to deal with Bob Saget's passing is look at what talented person is getting famous now. Who is carrying the torch that Bob dropped with his passing? Perhaps Mr. Saget's body of work has inspired this individual directly. Maybe, in 30 or 40 years, this young talented starlet receiving well deserved adulation and fame will "shed this mortal coil" which will have millions of people mourning. But, like now, some other young starlet will pick up the torch and continue on to entertain a whole other generation. Or hey, this new young starlet can also feel inspired by Bob Saget and/or any of the other celebrities I mentioned above. That's a distinct possibility too. Inspiration can come from anyone at any time.
I'll end this blogpost with, of course, a sample of Bob Saget's legendary stand up routine. What else would be appropriate here, really? Let Bob's shining example help you through troubled times or inspire you to be all you can be. Enjoy!
