When The A.V. Club first saw “Full House Without Michelle,” the concept was amusing enough. It elicits the same type of laughs as Garfield Minus Garfield, but goes a bit more macabre by framing it with Danny Tanner inventing Michelle as a way of coping with his pregnant wife’s death (along the same vein as that dark Rugrats conspiracy).
Now the darkness continues as Danny tries to potty train “Michelle” in the clip below. Without one of the Olsens in the shot, Danny is just a grown man playing with a tiny pink toilet and a baby doll. The sadness only expands with the rest of the Tanners’ pitied laughter at a man doing all he can to hold on to the rapidly waning memory of a lost love. Stephanie’s last line of the clip is also a bleakly funny bonus.