See John Stamos, Bob Saget Remember Don Rickles on ‘Kimmel’
John Stamos and Bob Saget traded stories about their close friend Don Rickles on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, remembering the advice he gave them about love and his unique approach to comedy. Rickles died last week at age 90.
Kimmel was also close to Rickles, so he joined Stamos and Saget for 12 minutes of rapid-fire, laugh-filled reminiscing. The segment was full of digressions and wisecracks, but all roads led back to Rickles and the affection that the three men shared for the legendary comedian. “He was the best,” Stamos said. “It’s just been the highlight of my life to spend time with him.”
Though Rickles was known for his insults, he served more of a paternal role in the lives of Stamos and Saget. “He was kind of obsessed with you guys settling down,” Kimmel remembered. “He would always bust your balls about that.” “He really wanted me to find a girl,” Stamos admitted. “You made him so happy,” Kimmel quipped in response. “You didn’t just find a woman, you found thousands of women!”
Stamos and Saget, who dined with Rickles a number of times over the years, also praised his special touch when it came to comic roasts. “His way of roasting was like nobody else’s,” Saget explained. “It was not done [in a] mean-spirited [way]. He did it out of love, but then when he was mean to you, it was like a privilege. It was like a gift.” “For every mean thing he said in his whole career, he said two nice things,” added Stamos.
Saget last spoke with Rickles five weeks ago, and his sense of humor remained intact. “I called him, I said, ‘how you feeling?’ And he said, ‘what do I have to do to get you out of my life?'”
Rickles died on April 6th from kidney failure. In the days since, he’s been the subject of tributes from Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, Kimmel and many more.
“Experiencing Don, and tuning into his mind, I witnessed the evolution of his comedy,” director Martin Scorsese wrote. “It was like listening to a great jazz musician wail. Nobody else did what he did.”
Don Rickles was known as the “Merchant of Venom,” and we remember the late comedian with his greatest insults and one-liners. Watch here.