Jimmy Kimmel Pays Tribute to Bob Saget in Emotional Opening Monologue (VIDEO)
Jimmy Kimmel got choked up on Monday’s edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live! as he paid tribute to his friend Bob Saget, the actor and comedian who tragically passed away on Sunday at the age of 65.
“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,'” said an emotional Kimmel. “And Bob was the sweetest. He was the sweetest man… If you had to pick one word to describe him, that was it, ‘sweetest.'”
The late-night host went on to share his memories of the Full House star, their friendship, and Saget’s charity work. “I have so many wonderfully kind and supportive texts and emails and calls from Bob,” Kimmel stated. “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.”
Kimmel spoke of Saget’s fundraising efforts to fight against the rare autoimmune disease scleroderma. As he explained, Saget had been supporting the cause for three years before his sister, Gay, was diagnosed and later lost her life to the disease. Saget later joined the board of directors for the Scleroderma Research Foundation — Kimmel shared the group’s official website for viewers to donate in Saget’s memory.
The host also shared an email exchange he had with Saget where the comedians talked about their kids. “He wrote, ‘One night soon, let’s go out and have some meat and some good damn drinks and talk about how lucky we are that we have them.'” Kimmel added that they did do that many times.
“When my son was in the hospital, Bob checked in a lot,” Kimmel continued. “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 and his Full House co-star John Stamos on an old episode of the ABC talk show, where the pair paid tribute to the comedian Don Rickles, who died in April 2017.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Weeknights, 11:35/10:35c, ABC
