Penn Jillette, Judy Gold and other comedians reveal the shocking jokes Gilbert Gottfried, who died April 12, 2022, at age 67 from recurrent ventricular tachycardia, made about his own mortality and…
, who met Gottfried decades ago when they appeared together on the Howard Stern show ranked among the last to speak with the comedian. “Being in the room with Gilbert equaled being in the room with Miles Davis,” said Jillette of his late friend’sJillette’s wife, Emily, was in the hospital room with Gottfried and his wife, Dara, and she held a phone to Gottfried’s ear so the two comedians could have one last conversation.
Jillette told The Post that, even while fighting a fatal illness, the comedian — who, “when he wasn’t working, [could be] incredibly soft-spoken and gentle and not mean” — maintained his comedic edge. Sharing, he told The Post’s reporter, “would end my career and yours and his memory in one fell swoop.”Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing, Colossal Podcast! With Frank Santopadre“I don’t think he thought his days were winding down,” Santopadre told The Post. “I think he thought he would get better and soldier on. Two weeks ago, he performed in Toronto and it was business as usual. Then we did our podcast on March 31 and he delivered. No way did Gilbert act like a person who was slowing.
as Al Pacino’s character in ‘Scent of a Woman,’ which he threw himself into, headlong, milking the French accent for all it was worth.”“In January, I texted Gilbert a totally inappropriate joke. He responded ‘LOL.’” But, she added, much as Gottfried tried to keep his maladies under wraps, sometimes it was impossible: “Right before Covid, I brought him onstage atand he needed my hand to get up there. If you knew Gilbert, you could tell he was sick.