Jimmy Kimmel tearfully remembers Bob Saget in emotional monologue: 'Bob was the sweetest'

Bob Saget's reputation for being "the sweetest man" among Hollywood comics earned an emotional tribute Monday night from the late actor's longtime friend Jimmy Kimmel.

Before his studio audience showed up to tape Monday's episode of ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, the talk show host directly addressed viewers in a five-minute monologue honoring Saget's life.

"A word that came up a lot was 'the sweetest,'" Kimmel recalled of reading the outpouring of celebrity remembrances — shared after the Full House star died Sunday at age 65 — from those who knew Saget. "The reason people wrote that is it's true. If you had to pick one word to describe him, that was it: sweetest."

Kimmel said he'd regularly get messages from Saget, with the actor contacting him "just to tell me he loved me," he said. He went on to call Saget "funny for real," beyond his well-known roles on Full House or America's Funniest Home Videos.

"When you walked into a party, you saw Bob and his wife Kelly in the corner, you go straight to them and stay for as long as you could because he had something funny to say about everything and nothing bad to say about anyone, never," he said. "There were people he didn't like, he kept it to himself. Unlike me, he was a good person."

He also said he'd been sifting through old emails from Saget in the aftermath of his death, calling some "very serious about life and the well-being of our children," before reading one recent note that he had difficulty getting through without pausing to collect himself: "'One night soon, let's go out and have some meat and some good damn drinks and talk about how lucky we are that we have them,'" Kimmel read. "We did do that many times. When my son was in the hospital, Bob checked in a lot, so I want to send love to his daughters, to his wife Kelly, and to his friends who loved him so much."

Kimmel concluded the segment with a clip from a 2017 interview in which Saget and his Full House costar John Stamos appeared on the late-night show to remember their mutual friend Don Rickles.

"We never imagined that four and a half years later we'd be talking about [Saget's death]," Kimmel said, his voice trailing off. "I'm sorry, I taped this like 14 times and I just, anyway, we had a beautiful conversation that night. You could see when John and Bob were talking about how much they loved Don, how much they love each other, so I thought it might be nice before we go on with the regular show to share just a bit of that one more time as we remember Bob."

Stamos, who worked with Saget on Full House from 1987 to 1995, honored his friend and former costar on Twitter after news of his death broke Sunday.

"I am broken," he tweeted. "I am gutted. I am in complete and utter shock. I will never ever have another friend like him. I love you so much Bobby."

Watch Kimmel's tribute to Saget in his opening monologue above.

Hear more on all of this week's must-see picks in EW's What to Watch podcast, hosted by Gerrad Hall.

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