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Bobcat Goldthwait, reporting for duty!

"Quit everything until you find something that you just cannot quit."

Robert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait (born May 26, 1962) is an American comedian and director who rose to fame in the The '80s for two things: his role of Zed in the Police Academy series and his stand-up act, both of which had him acting batshit insane.

The first film he directed was Shakes the Clown in 1992, which was not a box-office success, but developed a cult following. Subsequent guest appearances on The Arsenio Hall Show (the imminent cancellation of which he protested by trashing the set and spray-painting "Paramount sucks" on a wall) and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (in which he lit the guest chair on fire) led to some viewers wondering if the crazy persona was entirely an act.

Goldthwait's next notable return to directing came over a decade after Shakes, when he directed episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! During a break from that show, he directed his next feature film Sleeping Dogs Lie, which was about an... interesting piece of subject matter to say the least. His next film, arguably his best-received, was World's Greatest Dad starring Robin Williams. His latest film, Willow Creek, was released in 2014.

He acts much calmer in person now and still does stand-up occasionally. He's also on Instagram and now Twitter.


Some of Bobcat Goldthwait's acting roles include:


Some of Goldthwait's directing credits include:


Tropes Associated With Bobcat Goldthwait:

  • Black Comedy: In both his stand-up and his films.
  • Celebrity Is Overrated: He seems to have this attitude, based on recent interviews and has stated he doesn't miss being in front of the camera.
  • Childhood Friends: With Tom Kenny.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: In his stand-up.
  • The Cuckoolander Was Right: If you listen to his stand-up, he's very smart and insightful.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: A lot of his stand-up and quite often in his films.
  • Funny Character, Boring Actor
  • Intergenerational Friendship: With Charlyne Yi.
  • Implausible Deniability: According to a standup bit, when he was charged with arson for the incident on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, his attorney advised him to plead not guilty, despite the fact that the act was filmed in front of an audience and broadcast on live television - the punchline being "Uh, I saw the footage, I'm pretty sure it's me!"
  • Kindhearted Cat Lover: Possibly. He posts a lot of photos of his own on Instagram and has talked about them quite a bit in his stand-up and interviews.
  • Money, Dear Boy: Reportedly, when he was given a script of the movie Hot to Trot, he wrote "Why would I do this?" on the cover. His agent responded by drawing a dollar sign over it.
  • Never Live It Down: Setting fire to Jay Leno's set on-air.
  • Nerds Are Virgins: He did a bit in his stand-up where he said he didn't see the 2 (at the time) Star Wars prequels because "I'm 40 years old and I've been laid." He mentioned going to the re-release where after listening to "uber-nerds" heckle the film he yelled at them "Have you nerds ever seen a vagina?"
  • No Indoor Voice: In parts of his stand-up. In fact, his shouting quavers, giving it an edge of madness perfect for... unhinged... characters.
  • Production Posse: Has one of these, although with the exception of Robin Williams, most of them are only slightly famous. This includes Geoff Pierson (the actor who played Al Bundy expy, Jack, on Unhappily Ever After), Tom Kenny, Toby Huss, Dan Spencer, Morgan Murphy, Joel Murray, Tony V, Alexie Gilmore, and Bryce Johnson among others.
  • Referenced by...: In the episode of Family Guy where Peter talks about his ancestors, his great grandpa Willie was a silent film actor. When they switched to talkies, he had to quit because "His voice wasn't suitable for the talking picture." Cue the Griffin's Identical Ancestors discussing why the boy doesn't want to go to school, with Willie busting out "It's important to get an edjucation" in Bobcat's top-of-the-lungs quaver.
  • Self-Deprecation: Quite a bit...
    "That movie looks so bad I can't believe I wasn't in it..."
    • During one of his Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me guest spots, Peter Sagal was teasing him about his directorial success:
      "Listen, Peter, I have made literally ... TENS of ... dollars from my films."
    • One of his stand up comedy albums bears the title I Don't Mean to Insult You, But You Look Like Bobcat Goldthwait (on the album, he says a stranger once approached him in public and said that) .
  • Stupid Sexy Flanders: He admits this about actor Rob Lowe in his standup routine, and provided the page quote for the A Pretty Boy Index page. He said something similar about Johnny Depp in his recent special.
  • The Teetotaler
  • Theme Naming: He got his nickname as part of a comedy duo with Tom Kenny (of Mr. Show and SpongeBob SquarePants) called "Bobcat and Tomcat".
  • Visual Pun: On a couple of occasions, he's displayed a tattoo on his buttocks of a cymbal with slanted eyes and a mustache, which he got as a play on westerners getting tattoos in gratuitous Chinese — it's a "Chinese cymbal" instead of a "Chinese symbol".
  • Younger Than They Look: More in the 80s than now. He was about 22-25 during his involvement in the Police Academy films and sure doesn't look it.
  • Your Costume Needs Work: He hasn't used his stage-persona's distinctive speaking pattern in years and has admitted in interviews that he's since forgotten how to do it properly.

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