The story behind this photo of Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Saget, Jeff Ross, and Norm Macdonald

In February, just a month after Bob Saget passed unexpectedly, Gilbert Gottfried eulogized two of his close friends, Saget and Norm Macdonald, who had died last September after an undisclosed battle with cancer at age 61.

Gottfried had originally posted a photo of him with Saget, Macdonald, and fellow comic Jeff Ross following Macdonald's death, writing, "This photo was taken after I was a guest on Norm's show. At dinner the laughs just continued nonstop. He will be missed."

Then a few months later, after Saget died, Gottfried recalled that photo and that night and the friends he'd lost. "I put that photo up a few times, it's one of my favorite photos," Gottfried said. 'It was just so much fun."

"He cared about people a lot. And he felt the human condition [so] deeply that it affected him in different ways," Saget said at the time of Macdonald's death. "Norm Macdonald was a gift to all of us. And I will miss him always, and I will always love him."

Speaking of Saget, Gottfried made reference to their famous turns in the 2005 documentary The Aristocrats about the retelling of the world's filthiest joke.

"I had just spoken to Bob like a few days before he died. We were on the phone and, as always, the minute anything turned at all sincere or serious, we'd turn it to just complete filth and make it perverse. It was always fun. I always remember, when The Aristocrats came out, people were saying, 'Can you believe Bob Saget talks like that?' And to people who knew him, we couldn't believe he could speak any other way."

Gottfried was so accustomed to Saget's morbid sense of humor, he mistook news of him dying as just another bit.

"I remember I got a call from Jeff Ross who said, 'Oh sad news, Bob Saget died.' And I swear, I thought, Oh this is going to be a funny, sick joke, and I said, 'Oh, okay ... ' And I was waiting for the punchline. And then he said, 'No, seriously, he died.' I still have a hard time grasping that," Gottfried said.

"I think if you could communicate with the dead and get in touch with Bob Saget, he would make completely bad taste jokes about his own death. He was that kind."

Related content:

• Bob Saget remembers Norm Macdonald: He 'was a gift to all of us, and I will miss him always'
• Bob Saget fondly remembered by famous friends and costars: 'Just the funniest and nicest'
• Jason Alexander, Jon Stewart, Jennifer Tilly, and more remember Gilbert Gottfried: 'What a gift'