1 vs. 100 Host Plays a Good Game
1 vs. 100 Host Plays a Good Game by Roxanne McDonald
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Forget the running jokes about Bob Saget. He is a seasoned comic who plays it smart when it comes to keeping gigs. |
That’s a lot more than we can say for other TV personalities. While Saget typically is made the butt of cheesy jokes or crass allusions, the comic has earned his right to be high profile in a respectable way, despite the venue. And you might be surprised to know this white-bread persona, the one TV-viewing old ladies might want to take by the cheeks and tweak a little, the one other mothers might love to have for a son-in-law, has a dark side that matches that of any long-standing comic.
In fact, because of this dark side, he makes himself a willing target for the picking and panning.
I have always loved Saget. I appreciated the perfect fit he made as the worrisome Tanner patriarch. I guffawed on occasion at his wise-cracking as host of America’s Funniest Home Videos. And I could easily imagine having a fling with this fawnish good looking guy.
Then I discovered another Saget, one who had me sitting bolt upright in bed in paroxysms of laughter. I had the joy of happening upon a film called The Aristocrats (which I write about at greater length elsewhere here). As you may know and as any comic knows, the variants of the aristocrats joke are as numerous as comic styles: a family goes to this talent agent’s office… [see the aristocrats.com for the rest]. So director Paul Provenza films some 100 comedians and comediennes discussing The Aristocrats. In there is Bob Saget, foul-mouthed, crass, and in mock disgust at his actually participating in the crudest and funniest of in-jokes.
Then there’s the Bob Saget of 1 vs. 100. He does his host shtick with a subtle sarcastic edge. He retains the conventional presence. And he—or somebody, slips in references to the comics alter ego that the common denominator, the mainstream public, are likely not privy to. Last night, for example, one of the questions on the show 1 vs. 100 required the contestant (and the mob) to define the aristocrats.
Now I am all for, actually really big on, synchronicity, but this went beyond just coincidence. This was an intended inside joke about the inside joke—and pointing to Bob Saget at his funniest…and sickest.
Love him.
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