The Tragic Reason Bob Saget Said He Had 'A Fascination With Death'
Bob Saget's easy-going personality, family-man television persona, and raunchy standup comic vibe all present a balanced look at the star. Saget's heartbreaking death at the age of 65 has brought much attention to his legacy, the people who loved him throughout his career, and the reflection of the many tragedies that filled his life.
Saget, in any genre of performance, has a comedic ease about him. His tender role as the patriarch on "Full House" is often riddled in funny moments and conversations with his daughters, per USA Today. His standup featured more adult-friendly content, and after so many years laughing with audiences, he was still doing what he loved leading up to his death.
Saget was on a comedy tour, per TMZ, with dates filling out the next few months in Florida, when he was discovered at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando. His personal experience with tragedy informed his take on making people laugh, and it will surely carry through to the next generation of those who admired him.
Bob Saget's family knew tragedy intimately
In Bob Saget's 2014 memoir, "Dirty Daddy: The Chronicles of a Family Man Turned Filthy Comedian," he reflects on many moments of loss. "I've always had a fascination with death, being surrounded by so much of it growing up." Three of his uncles died from heart attacks in an alarming succession, the losses occurring when Saget was 8, 9, and 15, per Page Six. The "Full House" star's two sisters also died young, one of a brain aneurysm and the other of scleroderma.
This amount of family grief is understandably overwhelming, but Saget went on in his memoir to explain that his parents were going through it before he was even born. The comedian's mother gave birth to twins on the same day as Saget's birth date, only two years earlier. Unfortunately, due to a dysentery infestation at the Philadelphia hospital, a situation that was not shared with patients at the time, the healthy twins died along with seven other babies within roughly a week.
Family trauma, particularly the trauma felt in his childhood, would be a major motivator to Saget's career. He even acted as a board member for the Scleroderma Research Foundation, dedicated to helping fund research and progress for treating the disease, while hosting benefits and performing standup for years, per CNN. His positive attitude through so much darkness will certainly be remembered, especially as he found that, "When tragedy strikes, it's more important than ever to look for anything that can bring humor and joy to every moment."