Gilbert Gottfried
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Gilbert Gottfried (born February 28 1955, in Brooklyn, New York) is a Jewish American stand-up comedian and actor noted for his grating voice, his squint, his Brooklyn accent and his tendency to shout. Although he has a rather clean image on television and film, his stand up routines and appearances on The Howard Stern Show can be raunchy and racially explicit. He has played numerous roles in film and television, perhaps most notably voicing the parrot Iago in Disney's Aladdin (1992) and all sequels and spin-offs and co-starring in the Problem Child movies (1990 and 1991). 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 (The show's creator, Butch Hartman, took over his role.).
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 '. He also played a nasty wisecracking criminal genius named "Nick-Nack" who used toys to commit crimes on Superboy (TV Series). 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. He also is a notorious favorite of Howard Stern, appearing on his shock-radio show many times a year. 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 50's B movie stars. Gottfried also does an accurate impersonation of Jerry Seinfeld, which he has showcased on the Stern show as well as '.
While it has been said that Gottfried's re-telling of the venerable Aristocrats joke at a Friars Club roast of Hugh Hefner just three weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks inspired Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza to produce a film about the joke, Jillette and Provenza point out that they had already filmed Gottfried and that, in fact, it was their project that inspired him 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 at the roast joking that he had intended to catch a plane but couldn't 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.
Gottfried was a cast member of the NBC late night series Saturday Night Live during its nadir, the 1980-1981 season. Gottfried's persona as displayed in SNL sketches was very different; he spoke in a mellow, low voice. During his twelve episode stint, he was extremely 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.
Around 2002, Gilbert Gottfried appeared in an infamous McDonald's commercial parody. It featured a grossly obese woman dragging her child into a McDonald's restaurant while the child screamed and desperately tried to escape her clutches. Gilbert's voice could then be heard saying, "EVERYBODY'S SO FAT! AND IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF MCDONALD'S! I'M LOVIN' IT!!!"
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.
On April 18 2006, Gottfried was dubbed as the "unsexiest" man in the world in an article by two guys named Bill and Ryan from the Boston [Phoenix]'s website.
He also appeared on the television show Gameshow Marathon in June 2006, on the Let's Make a Deal episode.
In 2006, Gottfried will be providing the voice of "greatest Kids Next Door operative who ever lived" Numbuh ZERO in .
Notable Filmography
- : the voice of Number Zero
- Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events: Duck
- : the voice of Jerry Seinfeld and Patrick Swayze
- Doctor Dolittle: Compulsive Dog
- Ren & Stimpy: Jerry the BellyButton Elf
- Thumbelina: Mr. Beetle
- The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: various sketches
- Aladdin: Iago
- Look Who's Talking Too: Joey
- Problem Child: Mr. Peabody
- The Adventures of Ford Fairlane: Johnny Crunch
- Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat: Additional Characters
- Beverly Hills Cop II: Sidney Bernstein
- Saturday Night Live: various sketches
- Back By Midnight: Security Guard
- Cyberchase: Digit
- Def Jam's How to Be a Player
External links
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