The Bob Saget Controversy You Never Knew Existed

Bob Saget is best known for his role as Danny Tanner in "Full House." The obsessively clean, slightly overbearing yet loveable father of three held together the popular sitcom for eight seasons of growing pains, family drama, and "You got it, dude"s. If it's hard to imagine "Full House" without Bob Saget (which actually almost was the case), it's even harder to fathom the actor-comedian ever landing himself in hot water — he just plays the wholesome dad so effortlessly. But Saget's comedy career after "Full House" was in fact extremely vulgar, and it was later revealed that he always had a crude streak — he was just good at hiding it on screen.

Of course, the obscenities of his past would not prevent him from being cast as a recurring character on Netflix's "Full House" reboot, "Fuller House," which wrapped in 2020 (with a triple wedding in the finale!) after a 5 season run. But questions remain about Saget's behavior during the filming of the original show, particularly regarding his relationship with the Olsen twins.

Roasts are often irreverent, but the 2008 Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget went well beyond just featuring the occasional politically incorrect remark. With each new comedian taking the stage, the jokes, questions, and even allegations (albeit lighthearted) of Bob Saget's sexual misconduct mounted. Comedian Brian Posehn joked that, "Bob has done a lot for this country. For eight seasons, half an hour a week, 'Full House' kept pedophiles off the street. In fact, three of them were on the show!" 

Where Posehn's comments stayed vague on details, comedian Jeff Ross got much more specific, asking Saget about his interactions with Mary-Kate Olson. Even Saget's beloved "Full House" co-star John Stamos piled on, bringing up Mary-Kate again, and Stamos insinuated that Saget had very specific fantasies that directly contradicted his clean image from the show.

Clearly, Bob Saget's intimate preferences were the running jokes of the evening. The theme carried throughout the event, with some even more disturbing "jokes" involving drugs and murder. It's important to note, however, that this style of "humor" was totally on brand for the late 2000s Comedy Central roasts. Being as offensive as possible — not being truthful — was the goal.

In his 2014 memoir, "Dirty Daddy: The Chronicles of a Family Man Turned Filthy Comedian," Bob Saget revealed that the actors on "Full House" would sometimes use a Michelle-sized doll to prepare for scenes when neither Mary-Kate nor Ashley Olsen were available to practice. Sounds reasonable, right? The child actresses did share the role so that they could stand in for each other when one became tired or cranky, after all, so it's not unimaginable that there might be times when both twins would be unavailable to run through scenes. But the practice doll wasn't always treated appropriately, specifically when Saget was around.

The actor shared details in his memoir: "I couldn't help it. The whole show for me was like a beautiful Jekyll and Hyde experience. Being silly helped us survive a super-clean-cut show that at first mostly got panned but then in retrospect became part of family-television humor" (via Elite Daily). With this Jekyll/Hyde remark, Saget acknowledged the impropriety of his actions with a doll that stands in for two real-life toddlers whom he worked closely alongside, but he also chillingly admitted that these actions fit in with his general approach to comedy.

When Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen declined to reprise their role of Michelle Tanner for "Fuller House," some fans speculated that the past comments alleging sexual misconduct from Saget were true (via HITC). But in a 2016 interview with "People Magazine," "Fuller House" producer Bob Boyett reported that when he had approached the twins about returning to the role of Michelle, "Ashley said, 'I have not been in front of a camera since I was 17, and I don't feel comfortable acting,' [and] Mary-Kate said, 'It would have to be me because Ash doesn't want to do it. But the timing is so bad for us'" (via Newsweek).

It's also hard to believe that "Fuller House" would have allowed Saget onto the show without looking into the actor's past. "Fuller House" premiered in February 2016 — two years after the actor's memoir was published and eight years after the Comedy Central Roast first aired. "Fuller House" also had to shake up its showrunners in the middle of production after it came out that Jeff Franklin allegedly established a pattern of giving small roles to women with whom he was romantically or sexually involved. If that was reason enough to get fired, "Fuller House" producers would not have allowed Saget onto the show.

For Saget's part, despite the comedian's disturbing past gestures, he recently stated that he had a positive relationship with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. In a 2021 interview with Michael Rosenbaum for the podcast "Inside of You," Saget said, "Ashley and Mary-Kate... I love so much. When I'm in New York or when they're here, when we can, we see each other."

Ultimately, there is no evidence of any actual assaults, just (wholly unfunny) jokes. But, as Devon Godhe noted in his article for The Ramapo News, these jokes and gestures will definitely become more important if serious allegations of sexual misconduct ever do arise.