Brendan opened up to Ryan on the Late Late Show about the emotional moments he faced as he wrote his new autobiographical book, Call Me Mrs Brown, and how it stirred up some memories
Brendan O'Carroll is renowned for being a funny man, as the massive fanbase around Mrs Brown's Boys shows.
However, he said that one of the questions he's most often asked is when he realised he was funny - and it has a surprisingly emotional answer.
He appeared on the Late Late Show this evening and opened up to host Ryan Tubridy about the reason he "decided to be funny".
"It's usually a standard question - when did you realise you were funny?" said Brendan. "I'd give loads of different answers.
"But I remembered when I was writing the book, that about three weeks after my dad died, I was 10. We lived in a corporation house in Finglas and the toilet was downstairs. I got up and went downstairs to go to the toilet and I was coming back up the stairs.
"As I got to the top of the stairs, I heard my ma and she was sobbing. I remember sitting on the stairs and I cried. Not for the loss of my dad, because I hadn't seen my dad for so long. He had been in and out of hospital; he hadn't been a constant presence in the house. But for her, I was feeling really sad for her."
He continued: "I remember making a promise then: my job is to make her laugh everyday. And that's when I started being funny. I think I kept that promise. She died laughing!"
It was writing his new book, Call Me Mrs Brown, that Brendan remembered this memory. Another emotional moment for him was writing about his late son, Brendan.
"That was tough," he told Ryan. "Losing a child for anybody ... Well if you look at Donegal right now, you can see it's dreadful for people.
"Especially your first child. I had everything in my mind; a white picket fence, a swing in the garden. And then you lose a child, and it never leaves you.
"I don't like talking about it."
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