R.I.P. Gilbert Gottfried
The iconic comedian died at 67 years old after a long illness, according to a statement released by his family
Aux News Gilbert Gottfried
Gilbert Gottfried, comedian and actor with one of Hollywood’s most distinct voices, has died at 67 years old. The news was announced on his official social media page with a statement from his family that reads:
We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved Gilbert Gottfried after a long illness. In addition to being the most iconic voice in comedy, Gilbert was a wonderful husband, brother, friend and father to his two young children. Although today is a sad day for all of us, please keep laughing as loud as possible in Gilbert’s honor.
Gottfried was a rare comedian who managed to make a career telling some of the most memorable dirty jokes while also having a prolific run in some of the biggest family-friendly films and TV shows.
Born in Brooklyn in 1955, Gottfried began doing standup at 15 years old in New York City. After years of being known locally for his talents, Saturday Night Live producers took notice of him, and hired him as a cast member. He appeared in the sixth season for twelve episodes. At the time, he didn’t use his distinct, shrill voice, and though SNL underutilized him, Gottfried got the last laugh.
His career onscreen post-SNL began with small roles on TV shows like Alan Thicke’s talk show Thicke Of The Night and The Cosby Show, and movies like Bad Medicine and Beverly Hills Cop II. He also regularly appeared on The Howard Stern Show—but years later was rumored to be banned for allegedly spitting on food that was for guests and employees.
After his film career took off, Gottfried began doing voiceover work, using the exaggerated, shrill voice he became known for. His biggest voice acting role was Iago, the villain Jafar’s parrot in Disney’s Aladdin (a role he reprised in many sequels and video games, including Kingdom Hearts). He also voiced Berkleley Beetle in Thumbelina and Dr. Bender and Wendel in the Nickelodeon series The Fairly OddParents.
But even while getting steady work in Hollywood, Gottfried never neglected his career as a comedian. He appeared on countless roasts, including the ones for Bob Saget, Joan Rivers, and Donald Trump. One of the biggest legacies he leaves behind in comedy is popularizing the time-honored comedy tradition of the “Aristocrats” joke (don’t click that if you’re in public). He famously told his version of it at the roast for Hugh Hefner, which occurred less than a month after 9/11.
Everyone was in low spirits, especially after Gottfried made a controversial joke about the attacks, but he managed to make the room laugh uncontrollably with his delivery of the famously filthy comedy routine. “The Aristocrats” became the subject of the 2005 documentary of the same name, explaining Gottfried’s impact on giving new life to the dark, incestuous joke.
Gottfried’s final role was as a voice actor on Adult Swim show Smiling Friends, where he voiced God. How appropriate.
178 Comments
Crap.
The Aristocrats!/I’m sure Gilbert wouldn’t have minded this joke.
Right on time!
Dammit, made the same one.
Hopefully he and Bob Saget are competing with each other on who can tell the most depraved version of The Aristocrats in the afterlife!
Bob was just waiting for Gilbert to show up and present that joke to God.
Is this one of those trick debates like “Lemmy or God?”
Never did find him or his shtick appealing, but condolences to his family nevertheless.
If there’s anything I know about Gilbert Gottfried, it’s that he would want nothing more than to have us make tasteless jokes about his death less than a week afterwards. Afraid I can’t think of any right now, but RIP regardless.
At least he died doing what he loved, eating Hitler’s asshole.
There it is.
Whoomp
He’s finger-fucking his mother’s empty eye socket in heaven now… 😢
Something, something….AFLAC!!!
“When I die, I hope that Donald Trump himself shows up at the funeral and starts giving my corpse a blowjob. Just going to town on that rigor mortis pecker like his life depends on it. Up and down, in and out, all the live long day. And if I wasn’t dead, I’d be sure to coat the back of his throat in liquid Gottfried to show my appreciation.” -Gilbert Gottfried’s will, probably
*slow clap* I hope they read this at his funeral.
If there isn’t a “too soon” response, we haven’t done our work properly.
In that spirit:His last words? “The Aristocrats!”
I’d be very disappointed if that wasn’t on his headstone.
Gilbert Gottfried’s reaction when he arrives in Hell
He died of a heart attack of not surprise.
That’s it. We’re done here.Good night, everybody.
edit: goddammit Kinja won’t format my post right so I’m just gonna link my favorite roast bit
Norm, Bob, and Gilbert all gone in seven months. Fuck.
And Louie
That Leachman joke gets me very time. RIP to them both. And Saget. And Nipsey Russell. And Greg Giraldo.
Do you realize that four people in that video are now dead? And yet John Stamos keeps getting younger and younger every time we see him?Has anyone looked into whether or not he’s a succubus? Or on the health of everyone else left on that stage?
He and Paul Rudd stumbled into the Fountain of Youth and they refuse to share their secrets with the world.
Incubus, succubi are female.
His death is like a western.
a Best Western
I wonder if he died from a HEART AFLAC?
I wonder if his wife’s already thrown out all the hotel soap and shampoo.
He didn’t have time to die memorably like crashing a plane or overdose on drugs. He leaves us with just the sound of bunnies being run over by a lawnmower of a voice.
When I read that he had died, my first thought was of a joke he told…I think at one roast or another: “A guy gets called to the hospital because his wife was taken in. When he gets there, the doctor tells him, ‘I’m afraid she’s comatose, and has lost all powers of sight, hearing and speech. And she has no muscle control, so she has no control over her bladder or bowels.’“The guy goes, ‘Oh, my God,’ and the doctor says, ‘Nah, I’m just messin’ with you–she’s dead.’”
My thought went to an old bit of his too. George C. Scott, Michael J. Fox, et al, finally got their wish for death to the boy without the pretentious middle initial.
In a coupla months, he’s gonna be as dusty as Joan Rivers’ FAAAA-GIIIII-NA.
The running joke on Twitter is editing his wikiepdia page to say worse ways of dying. The last one I saw was he died by choking on an alligator’s penis during an attempted 69.
Speechless.
RIP, Iago
Shit, man, what a legend. RIP.
Shit, semen, blood, piss…
I remember him not just as Iago, but also as the headmaster of the orphanage in Problem Child. And he joked about Hogan’s Heroes on the Tonight Show, and I wondered if he was talking about a real series (oh, for the blissful ignorance of the time before the misinformation age).
That bit showed up in an episode of Dr. Katz, too. “It’s about a group of soldiers in a Nazi prison camp. IT’S A COMEDY!”
I’m still kind of floored it was a real thing, let alone that it lasted about twice as long as America’s involvement in the war.
Also it was hilarious.
Back in college I was taking German and I had a lot of issues with the accent. My professor’s advice was to watch lot of Hogan’s Heroes and try to talk like Colonel Klink
Your professor desperately wanted you to bumble around a bunch and make his day more interesting.
HOGAN!My family still references Sgt. Schultz ‘I know nothing!’
I think what made it acceptable was that both the production staff and the actors portraying Klink and Schultz were from Jewish families. Some of them were even refugees from Nazi Europe. It’s the same way The Producers is made more acceptable by the fact Mel Brooks was behind it.
My high school superintendent, who spent time in a Nazi prison camp, was none-too-thrilled about the show & prohibited his daughter from watching.
So, you’re saying she saw NOTHING?
My favorite detail about the show was how many of the actors were Jewish and had fled the Nazis, and one of the stars was a survivor of a concentration camp.
I’m not surprised, and I don’t blame him. Part of the reason I’m glad we live in the era we do is that if I think something is in bad taste, I can just watch something else. I’m not limited to maybe seven channels.
Gilbert Gottfried was never my cup of tea aside from enjoying him as Iago (I did appreciate that he was one of the original VA’s who always reprised his role whenever Disney asked, even in video games). I know some people are complaining that they felt like he should have told everyone he was sick, but I don’t think celebrities (or anyone else) should feel indebted to tell everyone everything on social media.
SEVEN channels? When I was a kid, we had THREE.
While I certainly understand the man’s sentiment, there was a deeper message to Hogan’s Heroes than just being a silly show about Nazis. The whole point of the show was to make the Nazis look like fools. Many of the actors in the cast were Jews who either fled when the Nazis came to power, stayed and survived the camps, and/or lost family in them. This was their way of sticking it to the bastards.Werner Klemperer – Family fled when Nazis came to power. Cousin Victor Klemperer stayed and documented the Nazi atrocities.John Banner – Fled when the Nazis annexed Austria. He lost family in the Holocaust.Robert Clary – Sent to Buchenwald after the Nazis invaded France. He lost a dozen members of his immediate family at Auschwitz.Leon Askin – Fled Austria after being beaten by the Nazis. Lost his parents at Treblinka.
“If they try to leave they’ll be SHOT!”
Okay, now it’s undeniable. Someone is murdering all of my favorite comedians.His murder weapon of choice is terminal illness. The bastard is smart. He covers his tracks.But he’s getting sloppy.He should never have left Andy Dick alive.Because Andy Dick sucks.Also, because he probably saw his face.Maybe.Anyway, I am vengeance. RIP.
Death continues to be our nation’s number one killer.
Andy Dick is one of your favorite comedians?
Kind of buried the lede, didn’t he?
He didn’t murder Andy Dick. He’s murdering my favorite comedians and simply maiming the ones who were just kind of funny on The Ben Stiller Show.
He had to be somebody’s. What shocks me is that Andy Dick wasn’t Andy Dick’s favorite comedian.
Not even Andy Dick has done enough coke to think Andy Dick is funny.
Maybe ever since he discovered the existence of the Funny Killer?
Reading comprehension isn’t a strong suit, is it?
The call was coming from inside Andy Dick all along.
Are you sure the murderer isn’t Andy Dick? After what he did to Phil Hartman, maybe Andy decided to take a more direct role in his murders?
Why didn’t that stupid bastard take Joe Rogan instead?
If someone is murdering the funniest people in America, you are extremely safe.
im still down from mitch hedberg, its been a while, but man he was funny…and good grief are a lot of modern comics not funny.
Do you want a frozen banana? No, but I might want a regular banana later…
I saw a wino eating a bunch of grapes, i said “hey, you need to wait” he was kind of the heir to the stephen wright/emo phillips form of brain ticking smart/surrealist comedy. and outside of occasionally hannibal burress, I cannot think of another successor.
Yeah….Time.Gets us all, eventually.
Gottfried and Norm MacDonald are two of the top five funniest people of my lifetime. Don’t know who the other three would be just yet, but I’m sure at least one of them will die in the next 6 months.
I think it was Bob Saget
I read the entire announcement in his voice. Basically whenever I see his face, any text around or near it is read in his voice. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I doubt Gilbert would have, either.
Dammit Kinja
It’s really weird watching the 1980 season of SNL which was when he still used his real voice. He didn’t adopt the fake voice he’s known for until a few years later.
Yes! I went back and watched parts of that season on Peacock and I hadn’t realized it was before he started using that voice. It was almost like they ADR’d him.
His five minutes in Beverley Hills Cop II always come to mind when someone does something out of my control that I have to deal with.“BITCH!”
HE SAID “FUCK YOU” WHEN I ASKED HIM IF I WAS TOO SOON. BUT HE WAS SMILING AS HE SAID IT.
Disney had better not bring back the godawful late 90’s version of The Enchanted Tiki Room to honor Gilbert Gottfried.
There it is. YOU FOOL!
The faces on those humorless pricks on that shitty Trump show were priceless.I love how Gilbert would read a room and then really make them squirm. One of the funniest people ever!!!
They had no one to blame but themselves. It’s not like Gottfried wasn’t a known quantity at that point. I mean, how could he not eventually go off the rails? Some of the stuff he said directly to Trump was spot on, especially in hindsight—“Thank you Mein Führer!”And like the true professional he was he played it to the hilt all the way through, including feigning surprise when he was finally shown the door. Awesome!
Legendary, burned his Aflac contract to the ground making tsunami jokes when he didn’t realize most of their business came from Japan.“I was talking to my Japanese real estate agent. I said ‘is there a school in this area.’ She said ‘not now, but just wait.’”
Oh, I always thought he lost that job due to 9/11 jokes…Dude stayed busy.
This is absolutely one of my favorite bits. Rest in peace, man.
cliTORRRRis is the correct pronunciation.
Bob Saget, Norm MacDonald, Gilbert Gottfried…The Roast of God is gonna be lit.
“I’ve roasted a lot of vile assholes in my time but this guy is the worst. This fucker invented fathom, pestilence, war, hunger, cancer, rape and celebrity apprentice”
Norm: “I don’t much care for this God fellow. I mean, how vain does one have to be to name thyself ‘God’?”Bob: “Wouldn’t it suck if you got a blowjob from God and it was just fine?”Gilbert: “GOD SAID TO MOSES THAT HE WOULD APPEAR TO HIM IN THE FORM OF A BURNING BUSH. WHEN ASKED HOW HE WOULD KNOW WHICH BUSH TO LOOK FOR, GOD SAID TO MOSES: “JUST GO LOOK IN BETWEEN JOAN RIVER’S LEGS”. TO WHICH MOSES REPLIED: “WHY HATH THOU FORSAKEN ME, OH LORD? WHY MUST I SUBMIT MY HOLY EYES TO SUCH A VILE, DESPICABLE, WRETCH-INDUCING SIGHT?!” TO WHICH GOD REPLIED, “HEY, YOU WANNA GET OUT OF EGYPT OR WHAT??”
While I assume you were going for “famine”, I prefer to think that you believe Gottfried had something against Fathom Events (the organization that books “premium” showings of things like opera to movie theaters).
Maybe Fathom can arrange a special showing of The Aristocrats. I was fortunate enough to see it in a fully packed theater the night it was released. Sharing the Aristocrats experience with an audience today would be very cathartic.
Or he hated bodies of water that are six feet deep.
Even sadder now. Waaaaaaay sadder.It’s like Final Destination.
Nah, some bonds can be so strong that it can affect one’s health when it’s torn asunder…suddenly.
I mean, Carrie Fisher and her mom were pretty close, and Carrie’s health started spiraling down toward the drain after Debbie Reynolds died if I remember correctly.
She told her son something like “I want to be with Carrie”.Seems like that’d be an awkward moment for her son, sitting right there.
“I’m here for you Mom!”“Whatever”
Other way around, but same idea: Debbie died one day after Carrie.
Carrie died first. Debbie died a day after.
Nah, some bonds can be so strong that it can affect one’s health when it’s torn asunder…suddenly.
I mean, Carrie Fisher and her mom were pretty close, and Carrie’s health started spiraling down toward the drain after Debbie Reynolds died if I remember correctly.
65, 68, and 67.
I read something elsewhere that described this picture as being of Bob Saget, Gilbert, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I thought that sounded like an odd trio. Louie Anderson makes more sense.
If you’re looking for Dead Pool picks, check Gilbert’s twitter.
I don’t get the impression the guy has a sense of humor. So, “lit” like all of us are on fire, sure.
“Intelligent Design my ass! What kind of deity puts an amusement park right next to a garbage dump?”
Okay, is there a curse on guests of the Norm MacDonald show?
I was going to say Carl Reiner’s still going, but he croaked in 2020!
To borrow from his also deceased pal Norm: “…I didn’t even know he was sick!”
Again the wrong people are dying.
I guess he did have a heart attack and died from not-surprise. 🙁
Only appropriate that Gilbert walks off with an offended audience (while sitting next to his wife). Untimely death like his friend Bob Saget’s, he will be missed…
Gilbert was cancelled before it was…a thing? I don’t know when that bullshit started.
Fired from Aflac for jokes about the 2011 Tsunami. And was banned from clubs and shit for saying a terribly timed joke about 9-11 back in 2001.
Used to love listening to him when he would visit Howard Stern. I cackled at his impressions of Andrew Dice Clay and Jerry Seinfeld. Also when he would go in and was Dracula Gottfried. He just had a documentary about him in the past few years I believe. Going to have to look that up and watch it. Found it.
Hell yes, his visits to the Stern show are what came to my mind immediately. He’d be there for the entire show and just wouldn’t quit. Loved it when he’d do Seinfeld. “Whyyy do they call it . . .”
And Gilbert would do that laugh of his because he was cracking himself up.
Oh crap, I just posted that somewhere else. My bad.
Ha, he did that on one of the later episodes of Married With Children, the one where they go on the cruise and they’re stuck in the life raft with Gilbert.“Why do people ride buses? Who ARE these people?”Warning—-this is later MWC where the jokes and acting took a nosedive.
Georgie Jessel, Old Groucho and Pope/Dracula, a twist on Dracula Gottfried, were my favorites..
Yes! – they better be playing the living shit outta that on Sternthology the rest of this week.Someone needs to get Stern to explain why Gilbert had been off the show for so long.
supposedly Gilbert spit on cupcakes in the hall, off air, that was supposed to be for the staff. Obviously Gilbert thought it was a funny joke, but not Howard.
It’s free to watch on PlutoTv. No signup necessary.
As a kid I used to watch USA Up All Night with him om Saturdays after watching some Norm on SNL and even earlier in the day watching some Life With Louie from Louie Anderson.The last couple months fucking suck.
Gilbert on Dr. Katz, starts at 12:00:
(also a section at 3:35)
I don’t know if a corpse can be fucked back to life, but I’m going to find out!
I didn’t know “being a fucking asshole” was considered a fatal illness. Genuinely shocked and heartbroken at this. The man was an institution. Norm, Bob, and now Gilbert? I feel a bit lost.
May his coarse voice pierce all the realms of the afterlife so much so that the decision makers of said realms really don’t know where he truly belongs. RIP Gilbert.
Death…by Ugu!!
R.I.P. He had a first-rate podcast also. https://www.gilbertpodcast.com
Love you, Gilbert!
Video clip aside, just the image of deaf woman plugging her ears around Gilbert is funny by itself.
She can’t hear it but she can feel the nasally vibrations.
He’s in heaven now, offending the angels.
The very first celebrity encounter I ever had in New York City was Gilbert Gottfried. I had just moved to New York after college and I was walking into a CVS in Chelsea and he was walking out talking on a flip phone with his head down and he ran right into me. He looked up, smiled at me, and in that iconic voice we all know so well said “oh my god I’m so sorry, I’m on the phone with my BITCH of a wife!”One of the funniest people to ever live. Rest in Power.
The very first celebrity encounter I ever had in New York City was Gilbert Gottfried. I had just moved to New York after college and I was walking into a CVS in Chelsea and he was walking out talking on a flip phone with his head down and he ran right into me. He looked up, smiled at me, and in that iconic voice we all know so well said “oh my god I’m so sorry, I’m on the phone with my BITCH of a wife!”One of the funniest people to ever live. Rest in Power.
Well he got the duck outta here!
My favorite memory of Gilbert was from the Howard Stern show. Howard was doing a ‘live-read’ commercial for 7-11 and Gilbert ended up doing his impression of old Groucho Marx explaining how they used to make tea. “In my day…” It was basically the same way it’s made now. Stern thought it was so funny he just let it go on and on. It was just loose, absurdist, free form, improv gold — and it was all during a 7-11 commercial.
RIP. It’s been a bad couple months for famous comedians – Bob Saget, Norm MacDonald, Louis Anderson, and now Gilbert Gottfried. It’s a bummer they didn’t let him do any voice-over stuff for that meh live-action Aladdin movie. I really liked Iago.
RIP Sweet Prince
For those who haven’t heard his Amazing Colossal Podcast, you’re in for a real treat. So many great episodes.
Apparently his Twitter has been hacked by “@ yeatarchive on IG” according to the message left there.
R.I.P. Gilbert GottfriedThe iconic comedian died at 67 years old after a long illness, according to a statement released by his family—INSERT TASTELESS, INAPPROPRIATE AND FILTHY JOKE HERE—R.I.P. Gilbert
It’s true what they say: the worst part of fucking Gilbert Gottfried is hitting your head on the coffin. RIP you goddamn aristocrat.
Bob Saget RAPED AND KILLED A GIRL IN 1990!!
There are thousands of podcasts out there, and most aren’t worth your time. “Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast”, though, is definitely worth your time.
Ah GilbertI will never forget that time we met when I was a kid. That drink he gave me was so the tasty but man did it make me tired. Was shame that when I woke up he were gone and for some reason my ass really hurt too. RIP You Fucker
One of my favorite recurring gags on John Oliver’s show was footage of Jared Kushner re-dubbed with Gottfried’s voice. It got me every time.
I am so glad I saw him live. It was one of the funniest nights of my life. I wish I could do it again.This sucks.
Now my dearest wish will never come true…to have Gilbert Gottfried’s voice on my WAZE.
I cant believe it. There are very few more iconic voices. Iconic of course, even he’d say he sounds like a rabbit being cooked alive. But oh how unique and memorable he was.
Picks up phone, screams “BITCH!!” into the handset, and slams it down again.RIP you weird and funny man.
How come no article or post I’ve read so far today has mentioned Gilbert’s podcast?!! For years it’s been in my top three and I don’t think I’ve missed an episode. It’s funny as hell while illuminating the strange goings on of old Hollywood.
His podcast was incredible, agreed.
First Sean Lock then Norm McDonald then Bob Saget now Gilbert Gottfried, fuck off death.
I’ll never forget seeing his debut HBO standup special back in the late 80s. He started the set with a 5 minute rant about “having some water.” So random, so weird, and my brother and I LMAO’d over it. A true original.
I was not really a fan because I remember him too well from that disastrous half-season of SNL, and a not-especially-enjoyable run on USA UP ALL NIGHT. Full disclosure – after writing bumpers for a handful of episodes of COMMANDER USA’S GROOVIE MOVIES, I submitted some comedy samples to USAUAN hoping to continue writing for them, and never even heard back. Given my style of humor and Gottfried’s weren’t remotely close, it’s probably just as well….I did like him in the Aladdin movies as Iago because he was a great sarcastic counterpoint to Jaffar, and he made the transition to “Good Guy — But Not Too Good!” with aplomb. While I didn’t love a lot of his comedy it was clear even to me that he was a “Comedian’s Comedian”, which was one reason why his career had such longevity. It just occurred to me that he’s the second member of that SNL’s horrendous Season 6 who’s died after Charles Rocket. While realistically it’s just age, illness, and depression, I won’t deny I thought “Yep, yet another casualty of Jean Doumanian’s reign on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE….”I’m not kidding — Season 6 was eye-bleedingly, ear-scrapingly bad.
A voice I could wrap my legs around!
I swear to fuck, I was DIEING at Gilbert reading the Provisional Agreement to the UK exiting the EU before, as you so often do in these situations, switching to reading Bigfoot Porn.
For whatever reason, his joke about Pam Anderson finding a genie in a bottle and wishing for VIP to be a hit has stuck with me years later.
I just rewatched The Aristocrats about 3 weeks ago and my favorite part of it is watching all his fellow comedians laugh and are in awe of the telling of the joke he did at the Hef roast.Heck the last roast he did was the Roseanne roast? And him having Wayne Brady and Seth Greene crying was so great and he always did that. He always topped whoever else was on those shows.God bless Gilbert as he use to make me cry laugh when he was on Stern and I was in College.
He appeared regularly and recently on Anthony Cumia’s show, which doesn’t bother me, but should trigger some commenters.
As someone who tries to be kind and caring, I have a huge soft spot for transgressive types. To so precisely nail insensitivity and mockery requires (I think) a shocking amount of empathy and craft. People like Gottfried, Carlin, and even Larry Flynt were gifted at that. The 9/11 joke I think is one of the best examples of this – in these moments, we need catharsis. And being the clownish asshole who says it is a really great thing. I’ll miss that SOB, the degenerate pervert that he was.
I loved him roasting the KKK Guy on Stern.
(don’t click that if you’re in public)or maybe just use headphones every time you play audio from your phone?
I’m sure he was annoying to the last. RIP Gilbert!
As much as I’ve appreciated the outpouring of appreciation for Gilbert, I feel everybody has overlooked, perhaps, of his greatest contributions: His elevation to an art form the voicing/playing a cartoon/CGI bird :IagoAflac DuckDigit AND Widget, from PBS’s CyberchaseFreezing Nuts Penguin, in Farce of the PenguinsDuck, in A Series of Unfortunate EventsTonko the Parrot, in Home MoviesWoodpecker, in Timon and Puumba
Of course, I was away from the Kinja device when this happened. For me, this one hit the closest, of all the recent comedian deaths (Norm and Sean Lock are close seconds, but not that I didn’t love Louie and Bob too). I remembered Gilbert from his season on SNL, which was the first one I was allowed to stay up and watch (10 years old and staying up late like a big boy!). I do have an affinity for that season, even if it was almost completely awful. I saw him perform live. I saw him walking around in NYC, going about his life. The best parts of the Gilbert doc for me were the ones which showed his relationship with his sisters. He saw them every day he wasn’t on the road (especially Arlene). I love the scene when Arlene is getting chemo (okay, that sounds weird to say, but you know what I mean), and she looks at the camera and says, “He makes me laugh.” And there’s Gilbert next to her making odd faces that are cracking her up. And hearing him cry on his podcast as he memorialized her was heartbreaking and beautiful, especially for a man who gave so little of his true emotions and inner self to the public, and even those he knew. Bill Maher recently said that he knew Gilbert for 40 years and while they had spent hours together cracking each other up, Bill said he didn’t know the first thing about Gilbert. I noticed (along with others) that he seemed to be declining lately. He wasn’t looking or sounding as strong as he used to. I figured it was probably age, but it seemed a bit drastic for someone who was “only” 67. In hindsight, maybe it makes sense that he moved to Boca Raton. I mean, who wants to die in Chelsea, when you can at least be warm year-round? Gilbert, I hope you’re up in heaven with your family, and occasionally throwing orange wedges at Caesar Romero, singing “you’ve simply got to fuck that chicken” to whoever that was, and please for the love of god, don’t eat anything off of Danny Thomas’ coffee table. God bless you.