Jimmy Kimmel honored the late Bob Saget, whose death at 65 was announced on Sunday, in a teary-eyed segment Monday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“If you read anything about Bob online last night. If you saw any of the many thoughts from people who knew him personally, a word that came up a lot was the ‘sweetest,'” Kimmel said at one point in his emotional tribute. “And Bob was the sweetest. He was the sweetest man … If you had to pick one word to describe him, that was it, ‘sweetest.'”
In a monologue that was recorded ahead of the in-person audience arriving for the day’s taping, the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host spoke to the various facets of Saget, including his supportive friendship and charity work — particularly the Full House star’s fundraising efforts around the rare autoimmune disease scleroderma, which his sister Gay was diagnosed with and passed away from.
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“I have so many wonderfully kind and supportive texts and emails and calls from Bob,” Kimmel recalled. “He’d write sometimes just to tell me he loved me and I know he did that for many people.”
“He had something funny to say about everything and nothing bad to say about anyone. Never,” he added.
In addition to detailing how the two comedians commiserated about their shared experiences as fathers over food and drinks — thanks in part to an email Saget sent Kimmel, the late night host also spoke to how the actor-comedian supported him when his son was diagnosed with a congenital heart condition. He also sent his own support to Saget’s family.
“When my son was in the hospital, Bob checked in a lot,” Kimmel noted. “So I want to send love to his daughters, to his wife Kelly and to his friends who loved him so much. He was very kind to everyone and he had no problem telling you that he loved you and what you meant to him.”
Kimmel ended his eulogy with a clip of Saget’s appearance on the show several years ago alongside Full House co-star John Stamos, as the two paid tribute to another late comedian, Don Rickles, who died in April 2017.
Beyond Kimmel’s personal remembrance, during Monday’s show, fellow comedian Steve Harvey appeared as a guest and spoke to his own experiences with Saget.
“We were in shows together on television. We used to do press junkets, man. It’s crazy because the dude that you see on TV, that’s not who that was. The father on Full House? Now, this is a different dude offstage. We both were,” Harvey recalled, laughing with Kimmel. “You know, we would see each other offstage we would just cuss each other out. He was an interesting guy.”
Harvey also spoke to an email he received from Saget, just two days prior, but that Harvey had only been informed about that Monday morning.
“He wanted me to come do this new podcast he had. He really respected the moral stances that I’ve taken,” Harvey said. “He was just talking about all the good times we had, and they read the email to me so it was a little hard, man, today. He was a great dude, man. A great dude.”
Elsewhere on late night, The Tonight Show‘s Jimmy Fallon also offered a brief nod to Saget near the top of his show on Monday. “He was a great guest on our show. Funny, funny, funny guy, and one of the nicest people you could ever meet. Our thoughts go out to his family. We’re gonna miss you.”
