Danny Tanner: Good Lord was he ever gay.
My colleague Jared penned
this simple-minded review of the Bob Saget's recent performance in Cleveland. But my colleague Jared also counts
Police Academy 3 as his favorite film, followed closely by
Police Academy 1 and
Meet Joe Black. My colleague Jared is not a close friend of funny.
He suggests that Saget isn't the genuine perv he portrays onstage and in cameos -- that he's actually closer to his dust-busting TV alter-ego,
Full House's Danny Tanner. But that's the fun of it all. Saget trades shamelessly in jokes about Uncle Joey (he apparently shaves his balls), Kimmy Gibler, and the rest. His entire act is built on its bizarre contrast with
Full House and
America's Funniest Home Videos. If there weren't enough of that dorky dad left in him, and if he didn't anchor his act with lots of John Stamos anecdotes, his act wouldn't be funny at all. Some comics comment on the world at large; some make fun of their own pathetic lives. Saget does the latter -- and does it well.
It's actually an amazing thing to watch. Saget jumps from joke to joke at a breathtaking pace; I swear he must need an extra trailer to carry all his uppers. In fact, he often abandons a joke midway, sparked by a drunken spectator's
Danny Tanner rules! or his recollection of an even stranger story. But he always makes his way back to the joke, and leaves no story unfinished, no matter how long ago he started it. And throughout the show, he expertly dredges up earlier jokes. At this show, they concerned his desire to murder Schmiegal, the friendly hobbit from Lord of the Rings, and the notion of his really old parents getting down. They got funnier every time.
He ties it all together with some competent guitar playing and a funny song about the sexuality of Danny Tanner, entitled
"Danny Tanner Was Not Gay," and set to the tune of the Backstreet Boys.
"Sometimes the show/Wasn't that funny," he croons. "But fuck you/Made lots of money."
So is his comedy act: He sold out the Ohio Theatre at 30 bucks a pop. If you ask me, it was thirty dollars well spent.
-- Joe P. Tone
