AVC: Some people think that your version of the joke is the best.
GG: Well, I'm certainly not gonna argue. If someone says that I'm the best at anything, I always just agree with them. Because of the movie, there's been a lot of press, but it's the kind of compliments that say, "No one in the movie is as hilarious or disgusting as Gilbert Gottfried." I suppose that's a compliment.
AVC: You were on the "lost season" of Saturday Night Live. What was that like?
GG: It was really weird, because it was right after the original cast was gone and Lorne Michaels was gone. It became a news event. "How dare they think they can continue Saturday Night Live without the faces we are used to?" And nowadays, it seems like the cast changes in between commercial breaks. In a way, I felt like we were the sacrificial lambs to make it okay. We were kind of on a suicide mission. There were constantly articles about it saying, "Oh, its just a disaster waiting to happen." Granted, I'll never hide the fact that the show was awful. All of the sides of the press said that the show sucked. But I always felt the press never knew what to say, because they were saying, "Well, we don't know who these people are." And I felt like, "Did anybody know who any of the Saturday Night Live cast members were before they became Saturday Night Live cast members?" They were already saying it was bad before it even aired. That was the strangest part. For a year, just preparing, putting the show together, there were constantly articles about it. I have always said that now Saturday Night Live is beyond funny or unfunny—it's just a restaurant in a good location.
AVC: The show has a reputation for reining people in. Did you feel like that was true?
GG: What I found odd there was the censorship thing. But I guess that's changed a lot over the years all over. When I watch the show now, I'm amazed at what they are able to get away with. I remember being on that show where everything was being censored left and right. Stuff that was nowhere near dirty. Now they are doing everything. I remember when saying "ass" on TV was the worst thing possible. It was like the worst, the most pornographic. I'm starting to sound like Lucille Ball now. [Laughs.]
AVC: A little. You can say "ass" on TV now.
GG: You can say "ass," but you can't say "asshole." That's why I always cringe when a character in a TV show refers to someone as an "ass." Unless you're British, calling someone an ass really doesn't work. But those are the rules of television. You can be a dirtbag, but not a scumbag.
AVC: You can't be a scumbag?
GG: No. Maybe now you can be. I've certainly been enough times. But I do see them say "dirtbag" a lot. My favorite one that they use when they dub over movies for TV is "Forget you!" instead of "Fuck you!" I always think, "Yeah, a lot of times I've lost my temper and yelled 'Forget you!'" I've been sorry afterward for going so far, but in the heat of passion I would yell, "Forget you!"
AVC: It's great when they do that, because you can clearly see the actor's mouth saying "Fuck."
GG: I've seen some movies that I've been in re-dubbed for TV, and they don't even use me.
AVC: They don't? Where do they get the voice?
GG: God only knows. The way it sounds, from people who have never even seen me before, because the voice is so different. I have seen that in a lot of movies, where it is so obviously somebody else doing the voice to clean up the words. That always throws you out of the picture.
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