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For his friends and fellow comedians, the word that most often comes up when talking aboutGilbert Gottfriedisunique.
To him, if something was funny, it was just funny.
And he loved being funny.
He believed in that old Tim Conway philosophy, saysPatton Oswalt.
One time, its funny.
Three times, its not funny.
Nineteen times, its hilarious.
What Gottfried didnt believe was that there were any lines you couldnt cross.
Susie Essman
In 1984, I had been in the business for about two minutes.
Richard Belzer asked me to open for him at the original Carolines, and that was a headline room.
Then they asked me to come back and open for Gilbert.
We became really great friends.
I had never seen anything like him.
I mean, who ever saw anything like Gilbert?
To this day, no one has made me laugh as much as Gilbert.
Offstage, we would just laugh together for hours.
I always wondered if Gilbert thought that I was funny or if he just enjoyed me laughing at him.
Gilbert had this sweetness to him.
He was a big puppy.
I remember in 1992, we both were shooting ourOne Night Standspecials for HBO in Florida.
I had no money in those days, but I bought an outfit and expensive shoes.
I remember saying to him, You knew exactly what you were doing!
He would not have been able to go to a store by himself and buy a suit.
He was a manchild.
Comedians, we love to talk about Gilberts cheapness.
We all have Gilbert-cheap stories.
Gilberts got his head in the Goodwill box, and hes pulling clothes out.
Larry walks over and says, Gilly, what are you doing?
and Gilbert looks up and says, Shopping.
Nothing was sacred to him.
Even his children he would tell jokes about them.
Gilbert knew what he was doing onstage.
He knew where the funny was in any given situation, and he knew how good he was.
Otherwise you cant put yourself through that and get up and do it all the time.
He was a comics comic.
He had a very fertile mind.
I just loved him so much.
Seeing him as a husband and a father was one of the most touching things Ive ever experienced.
He loved his kids, and he loved Dara tremendously.
They made his life beautiful.
He was such a deeply original voice that will never be repeated.
No one else is going to come along thats going to fill in for Gilbert.
That voice is gone.
He was completely original.
Its just such a huge loss when somebody that unique dies.
It was just screaming these old jokes.
Id never seen anyone talk that way.
Then on the roasts, I really got to see him take it to another level.
I am just laughing so hard that its impossible to catch my breath.
And no one made me laugh on those roasts.
He was the best.
He was my absolute favorite, and you couldnt tell someone why.
It wasnt like, Oh, let me repeat this joke to you.
It was just the way he screamed it out with such confidence that just completely blew me away.
It wasnt coming from a mean place.
He was never like, Oh, arent I edgy?
And comics love to hate each other.
Especially with success, you love to hate the older people, but everyone loved Gilbert.
He was just such a sweet guy and so funny that no one ever talked trash on him.
He was doing things that people found unfunny, and they were the funniest things in the world.
Nobody was laughing, including the people I was with, and I was just guffawing.
I couldnt believe it, and the more the people left the more he went after them.
It was just a memorable set and a memorable night.
Hes nothing like his caustic persona; quite the opposite.
I cant say that hes a gentleman, but hes a gentle man.
A gentleman goes out of their way: Here, can I get this for you?
Can I bring you anything?
But he would sit and be gentle.
He was a lovely man who cared deeply about other people.
That fascinated me and scared me a little.
That was part of his charm.
Probably his most famous appearances were in the face of tragedy.
He was defiant to our feelings and said, Let us go on.
Let us laugh not at what happened, but because its the only way to protect ourselves.
He would never say, The only way to get around it is to laugh at it.
He would never say that because that shows a thinking, philosophical, caring morality.
All he wants to do is get the laugh.
Get the laugh thats whats important.
That will pull us through.
I loved doing his podcast.
That would make him laugh so hard, like a little child.
So often, youd want to say Shut up, Gilbert.
He was very free with his laughter.
There was a generosity about it.
He enjoyed the humor of others.
I dont know that he loved making people laugh as much as he loved being funny.
He thought he was funny and he shared it.
I liked making him laugh.
That hes gone … Im taking it hard, because the world should take it hard.
I was nervous for him.
Just because hes a great stand-up didnt necessarily mean he was a good improviser.
Well, he absolutely killed.
I first met him on the set ofProblem Child 2.
I was struck by how soft-spoken he was.
Naturally, I didnt expect him to sound like his stand-up persona, just something in between.
We both did Bela Lugosi impressions and conducted conversations as Lugosi.
Im so fucking sad about this.
Thats what makes you truly unique and dangerous.
Its not Ooh, look at the lines Im crossing.
Its I dont see a line.
I think this is all great.
Thats why Gilbert was so startling.
I dont think he was defiantly going, Im going to do 9/11 jokes at the Hugh Hefner roast.
I think he just thought of those jokes naturally.
He thinks that thats all part of the fun, which made him more dangerous.
Hes truly having fun.
Its not that his humor was unique.
It was his approach to the form that was unique.
It was the fact that he wasnt being needy and desperate and wanting to be loved at any cost.
It wasIm enjoying myself first.
And you either come along or you dont.Theres something so freeing about that.
That really puts the audience and the performer in such a pleasant position to actually have more fun.
A lot of my favorite things were just Gilbert telling old jokes onstage.
The way he would tell them was so perfect.
Its nothing but bloodshed and hatred.
If you could kindly bring peace to this area, it would mean so much to me.
The genie is like, Even with all my powers, I cant do this.
Ask me for anything else.
The guy goes, Well, you know, Ive been married for 40 years.
My wife has never given me a blowjob.
Can you get her to give me a blowjob?
And the genie goes, Let me look at that map again.
Its a tribute to how amazing Gilbert is that I cant encapsulate him in one bit.
They inspired people and they helped people.
You see their inspiration, and thats how theyre immortal.
Then, at the Improv, we would go on every night together.
The audience would be hysterical.
I remember being there with Robin Williams the first time he saw it.
He would speak in a regular voice and then go into that voice for certain things.
Hed be splashing stuff going, This is nice, this is good, yes.
He was great with props, too.
And Gilbert would crack Robin up.
He loved dirty jokes, as I do, and he was a great joke teller.
Like most great comics, there was an element of fearlessness.
So he walked up to her and said, Do you remember where you were on … ?
You know, when … ?
He never analyzed jokes.
It was just, This is funny.
Theres an old joke that if he had to pay to take a shit, hed vomit.
Maybe its because we came from a generation where our parents were from the Depression.
Gilbert took it to an extreme.
He was also very gentle offstage, not unlike Robin.
Robin, contrary to popular belief, was not on all the time.
He could turn it on in a flash, and Gilbert was like that too.
I dont remember anyone who disliked him.
He was a great laugher.
A lot of comics arent, but he was.
He was not a negative person in any way, shape, or form.
He was a great spirit.
He was so unique.
Thats the word for Gilbert: unique.
And Id just sit back and enjoy the hell out of it.
I loved making him laugh, and I loved the way he made me laugh.
What I witnessed in real life is how big his heart was, how vulnerable he was.
He was very funny but more soft-spoken than the guy you saw onstage or heard onHoward Stern.
He was a good father, a terrific husband.
You saw that in the documentaryGilbert.
And it was legendary how cheap he was.
Under his bed, he kept boxes and boxes and boxes of little shampoos, Listerines, soaps.
But his heart was really generous.
I enjoyed every minute of knowing him, and thats the Gods honest truth.
I was on his podcast four or five times and looked forward to it every single time.
I loved the way his mind would wander.
He would make that leap and youd go, How did that remind you of Milton Berles dick?
It was like a third person on the show.
He had a sixth sense of what was funny.
It wasnt cerebral, but it was smart.
And he was fearless.
He didnt care who the audience was.
We expected it and we accepted it.
Theres not another Gilbert whos warming up in the bullpen to take his place.
He was a small guy.
But when he was onstage, he was like anything he wanted to be but couldnt be.
He was a giant.
You just sat back and said, Look at what this guy just did.
There was something about him …
He was his own formula.
Responses have been edited for clarity and length.
