Remembering Gilbert Gottfried

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gilbert Gottfried died last month. The standup comedian and actor was 67. To millennials of a certain age, he was an iconic voice actor: Iago in Aladdin, Kraang Subprime in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the voice of Aflac Duck commercials. We're taking a moment to remember Gilbert's life by revisiting our conversation from 2017. At the time, he joined us to talk about the documentary Gilbert, which profiled the life and work of the comic. In this conversation, Gilbert talked about what it was like to star in a documentary about his life, and why he struggled watching parts of the film. Plus, we dive into some of the Twitter jokes that got him into trouble over the years. This conversation also features segments that were previously unaired including Gilbert's thoughts on his early career, and he expands on finding jokes from the worst possible situations.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:14.3	It's Bullseye.
0:15.3	I'm Jesse Thorn.
0:16.6	Gilbert Gottfried died last month.
0:18.7	He was 67.
0:20.5	To millennials of a certain age, he was an iconic voice actor, Iago in Aladdin, Crang,
0:26.9	subprime and teenage mutant Ninja Turtles, the duck from the Aflac commercials.
0:33.2	He was also a beloved boundary-pushing stand-up comic.
0:37.3	When he hit the stage, he'd become a character.
0:40.2	He'd squint his eyes, scream at the top of his lungs and tell jokes that, frankly, only
0:45.3	Gilbert Gottfried could get away with.
0:48.6	When I talked to Gottfried in 2017, he was the subject of an excellent documentary that
0:53.1	had just come out called Gilbert.
0:56.0	The film showed Gottfried for who he really was, a complex guy who, of course, doesn't
1:01.4	shout all the time, who loves his family, who walks to the end of the block to get paper
1:06.5	towels.
1:07.7	That kind of stuff.
1:09.9	The director, Neil Berkeley, tags along with Gottfried to gigs, he goes to his house,
1:15.2	he interviews his wife, his children, and what it shows you is a portrait of a brilliant
1:21.2	complex comedian.
1:23.7	A comedian whose work has gotten him into trouble plenty of times.
1:28.8	Here's a little bit from the documentary towards the beginning.
	...

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