Gilbert Gottfried made irritation funny with a shrill voice and precise comic timing. We value him most as a supporting player: Aladdin puts his abrasive squawk beside smoother voices and makes the contrast count.
Fi1m perspective
In Aladdin (1992), Iago's voice cuts through the cheerful commotion almost as soon as Gilbert Gottfried speaks. There is no softening that squawk, and the film is sensible enough not to try. We laughed at its sheer disagreeableness in a musical so ready to please. The pleasure comes from how quickly Gottfried establishes himself without needing the space Robin Williams's Genie occupies. He makes a supporting character register in a film already crowded with comic business.
The early film work found uses for that irritability in small parts, including Sidney Bernstein in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). More prominent supporting appearances followed in Problem Child (1990) and Look Who's Talking Too (1990). The fit was no accident: for Aladdin, Iago was reshaped around his voice and improvisation. It became his signature role, continuing in The Return of Jafar (1994) and television.
His partnership with Jonathan Freeman in Aladdin shows why the casting works. Freeman's Jafar is controlled and nasty, leaving Gottfried free to supply the harsher comic sound without making both characters sound alike. Williams carries the largest share of the comedy, but these two establish themselves quickly enough to keep it from becoming his solo performance. We like Gottfried best when the voices around him give his abrasiveness a contrast; sustained at the same pitch, it can become wearing.
His presence alone is little reason to recommend Look Who's Talking Too, in which he plays Joey. Amy Heckerling's sequel has a few amiable moments, helped by John Travolta's warmth, but its extra baby voices prolong a joke already too small for the story. The toilet humour makes matters worse. Our problem here is with the writing, and it would be unfair to turn a weak film into a verdict on one supporting actor.
The Aristocrats (2005) offers a different setting for his timing, with an extended, graphic telling of its dirty joke. His stand-up could sustain deliberately offensive material through delivery, though that abrasiveness plainly limits the audience. For a first encounter, we would choose Aladdin, where Freeman's restraint gives the squawk something to work against. Save the dirty jokes for company whose patience with him has already been established.
Biography
Gilbert Gottfried was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He began performing stand-up at the age of 15 in New York City and joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for its 1980–1981 season.
Gottfried voiced the parrot Iago in the Disney film Aladdin (1992) and its sequels The Return of Jafar (1994) and Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996). He appeared in films including Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Problem Child (1990) and A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014), and provided voices for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) and episodes of Family Guy and SpongeBob SquarePants. He died in 2022.
