Gilbert Gottfried

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Gilbert Gottfried

Gilbert Gottfried at the 1991 Emmy Awards
Born February 28, 1955 (1955-02-28) (age 52)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

Gilbert Gottfried (born February 28, 1955 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American stand-up comedian whose most salient feature is a distinctive, squeaky, grating voice that is often loud and obnoxious. He has played numerous roles in film and television, perhaps most notably voicing the parrot Iago in Disney's Aladdin (1992), as well as co-starring in the Problem Child movies (1990 and 1991).

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At the young age of 15, Gilbert Gottfried began doing stand-up at open mike nights in New York City and, after a few short years, became known around town as "the comedian's comedian." After spending several years mastering the art of stand-up comedy, producers of the legendary NBC late night comedy show Saturday Night Live noticed Gottfried and hired him as a cast member in 1980. During the 1980–1981 season, Gottfried's persona in SNL sketches was very different; he spoke in a mellow, low voice. During his twelve episode stint, he was underused (with even the featured players garnering more airtime), leading to a deep depression that affected his performances. When Dick Ebersol took over as producer before the end of the season, there was an overhaul of both the cast and crew, and Gottfried was dismissed.

Although not a regular, he also appeared in the short-lived 1992 TV series The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys and voiced a crazed dentist "Dr. Bender" on the show The Fairly OddParents and the voice of Jerry the Belly Button Elf on Ren and Stimpy. He is notably known for his voice-overs as ducks or other birds. In 1993 he was interviewed by Chris Aable at the "B Minus Movie Awards" along with David Cassidy and Gary Coleman. Gottfried's interview aired on Chris Aable's cable TV show "Hollywood Today" in 1994 and is now part of his video "America's Craziest Home Videos". He also was the host of the Saturday edition of USA Up All Night.

Since 2000, he has also been the voice of the duck in the AFLAC commercials and Digit in the math-mystery cartoon Cyberchase on PBS Kids GO!, as well as the magical imp Mr. Mxyzptlk on Superman: The Animated Series. He also played a nasty wisecracking criminal genius named "Nick-Nack" who used toys to commit crimes on two episodes of the TV series Superboy (he also co-wrote an issue of the tie-in Superboy: The Comic Book which featured the origin of his character, Nick-Nack). Gottfried makes regular appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He shocked the audience in a Jeopardy! parody portraying Eminem repeating "biatch" many times as well as an enime on Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc. To this day, his most well-known phrase used on The Tonight Show is "Son of a bitch!" He also appeared as a semi-regular in the most recent version of Hollywood Squares, where he was best remembered for uttering the phrase "YOU FOOL!" during a second-season episode in 1999. (Because of the game's rules, the contestants alternated in having to tell whether Gilbert, who occupied the last square available in that round, was bluffing the answer or not -- and missed six consecutive tries. Five of those times he admonished the contestant with "YOU FOOL!" The seventh time he and the contestant agreed, and that contestant won the square and the game. This segment was featured on game show blooper programs.)

Gottfried also is a notorious favorite of Howard Stern, appearing on his radio show many times a year; Gottfried has made more appearances than any other celebrity guest. Most famous for his impersonation of "Dracula Gottfried" he is also well known for his numerous, and often raunchy/racial, parodies of public figures including 1950's B-movie stars and a particularly accurate impersonation of the aged Groucho Marx. Gottfried also does an impersonation of Jerry Seinfeld, which he has showcased on the Stern show as well as Clerks: The Animated Series. He frequently parodies Jewish rabbis and cantors, making up atonal gibberish prayers and compositions on the spot. Gilbert also is notorious for his impression of Andrew Dice Clay... or Dice Gottfried. When doing this impression he often used the phrases that Andrew Dice Clay uses while on stage (such as: "Hickory, Dickory, Dock...", "OOOoooo" and "What are you a homo? ooooooo").

Gottfried famously told the venerable Aristocrats joke at a Friars Club roast of Hugh Hefner just three weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks. It's been suggested that this performance inspired Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza to produce a film about the joke. However, Jillette and Provenza point out that they had already filmed Gottfried. In fact, it was their project that inspired Gottfried to choose that joke as his response to the audience's claim that there are certain unspoken limits in comedy. Gottfried initially began his performance joking that he had intended to catch a plane but could not get a direct flight because "they said they have to stop at the Empire State Building first." As audience members responded with gasps and cries of "Too soon!", he launched into the Aristocrats joke, effectively winning back the audience and having roastmaster Rob Schneider literally falling out of his chair laughing. When the laughter and applause had subsided, Gottfried commented, "They might have to clean this up for TV," to more laughter and applause.

Gilbert Gottfried at the Writer's Guild of America East Solidarity Rally in Washington Square (2007)
Gilbert Gottfried at the Writer's Guild of America East Solidarity Rally in Washington Square (2007)

Gottfried was part of an online advertising campaign for Microsoft's Office XP software, showing, in a series of Flash-animated cartoons, that the Clippy office assistant would be removed. In 2006, Gottfried topped the Boston Phoenix 's tongue-in-cheek list of the world's 100 Unsexiest Men. [1] The following year, with Gottfried's blessing, the Phoenix renamed the award the "Golden Gilbert" in his honor. [2] In April 2006, Gottfried performed with the University of Pennsylvania's Mask and Wig Club in their annual Intercollegiate Comedy Festival. Also in 2006, he made an appearance on the Let's Make a Deal portion of Gameshow Marathon as part of a Zonk (as a baby in a large highchair, he says "Hey Ricki, I think I need my diaper changed!"), and in the Dodge Viper in the big deal (where he tells the contestants "What were you thinking?!" because neither one picked it). He also guest starred in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy as Santa Claus in the 1-hour Christmas Special. He also voiced Rick Platypus in an episode of My Gym Partner's a Monkey entitled "That Darn Platypus". Furthermore, Gottfried appeared as Peter's horse in an episode of Family Guy entitled "Boys Do Cry".

During Bill Maher's tenure at ABC (1997-2002), Gottfried was a frequent guest on Politically Incorrect.

He was also a guest floor reporter on G4's E3 06' Live. At one point during the show, Adam Sessler asked the question, "What does Gilbert Gottfried have to do with gaming?" To which Gilbert said, "absolutely nothing!"

On December 6, 2006, Gottfried announced on The Howard Stern Show that he was engaged and that his fiancée was pregnant. Gottfried and Dara (née Kravitz), 36, were married under a chuppah on February 3, 2007, having been together for 10 years. Lily Aster Gottfried was born on June 12, 2007.

  • Leo Waxman, Pinky Waxman's husband and co-host of What's It All About.

http://www.scottmix.blogspot.com/ (Mentions Gottfried's interview)

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