10 years since Robin Williams' suicide

Even his suicide was overdone and tacky.

Ewww. Why is he on Broadway now?

Not funny then, not funny now. He had no act, just a persona.

Suicide? I thought it was, uhhh... something else (more accidental, if you know what I mean).

I’m sorry for his family but I never got how he was supposed to be a comedic genius

He was great in Good Will Hunting (his only serious role).

Just over the top too much and too often.

Everyone hated this guy. Then he died and suddenly Robin was a beloved comedic genius.🙄

This thread is the epitome of try hard edginess. Dear lord.

Robin was the best. One of the few celebrity deaths to make me cry. He was loved and is to this day.

I loved Mork and Mindy when I was a kid

Robin Williams was clearly manic and nuts, but he wrapped himself in his mania as a career move, but I always found him very unsettling. Imagine him high on coke, which he often was.

No one hated Robin Williams. What utter nonsense this thread is. The contrarian bots on this site are exhausting. Go to bed in Vladivostok or wherever the fuck you are. Jesus.

I can’t believe it’s been ten years.

Those are some of the hairiest arms I've ever seen.

He wasn't beloved. I hated his Mork Character.

^^ Billy Crystal called him "Opera Gloves"

When his death is brought up it makes me think of Joan Rivers. He and Joan died within a month of each other. Both great losses as far as I'm concerned. I thought they were both comedic geniuses each in their own unique way.

[quote] Good Will Hunting (his only serious role). Yes R6, Awakenings, One Hour Photo and The World According to Garp were uproarious comedies.

[quote] Good Will Hunting (his only serious role).

Yes [R6], Awakenings, One Hour Photo and The World According to Garp were uproarious comedies

^^fixed fornatting^^

I miss both Robin Williams and George Carlin 😢

I've hated Robin Williams my whole life, R12. Obnoxious. Unfunny. Makes me physically cringe. Except for Mrs. Doubtfire. And his Genie was the worst part of Aladdin. (Broadway Genie is so much better.)

I admit that most people claim to like him tho.

I thought his stream of consciousness type of humor was good and he was entertaining, but I felt his dramatic work was underwhelming and frankly not that good. It consisted of him doing A weird thing with his lips where they almost disappeared. That being said, by all accounts he was generous and contrary to upthread he was beloved in his prime. His death was shocking to many, including me.

Robin was known to steal jokes from other comics for years.

Some comedy clubs would have a "red light" (or some other color) come on when another joke stealing comic (a.k.a. lazy &/or unimaginative) came into the room/theatre.

This allowed the comedian on stage to change to some older jokes so the fresh material wouldn't be stolen & used for the thief's own personal gain or worse their own comedy special on tv. They could then take their fresh material on the road & make money off of their OWN material without worrying about the thieves.

The "red light" came on all the time for Robin Williams. When comics confronted him later he'd just throw a $20 or a $50 & at them & just walk off.

I always liked this line about him:

He had the hairiest hands, and the warmest heart.

I saw him live back in the 80s and was not a fan of his very manic comedy, at that time at least. But I loved his film performances (especially America's Greatest Dad, which is a kind of yin to Dead Poet Society's yang ) and he struck me as a genuinely kind soul.

It is possible to dislike a comedian’s persona. It’s a matter of taste and the more extreme the persona, the greater the divide between those who appreciate it and those who detest it. Robin Williams falls into that group, along with Jim Carrey, Jack Black, Jonathan Winters and many more. They might be great people, but their manic performances can grate on the nerves.

R11- That is just how I would describe Jim Carrey.

I visited Sausalito on a potted tour when I was once in San Fran with my niece. The tour guide was an old stoner who lived there and in SF for decades.

He told us a bittersweet tale of being a young guy running a boat back and forth between SF and Sausalito, and having a bunch of friends who would hang out on his boat and get high, including Robin Williams. He was very close with Willians by his account.

He said once Robin got famous he was cheering him on, but he saw Williams in Sausalito and approached him smiling to shake his hand, but after making eye contact and registering the face, Williams turned away and ignored him. That story altered my opinion of Williams forever.

I loved Robin Williams too. Die haters.

He supported (financially) Christopher Reeve after he was paralyzed. They were roommates in college and remained close friends until Reeve's death.

Jim Carrey is much more talented than Robin. He is a better actor and his comedic roles are much funnier. Robin was actually quite limited in what he could do comedically and dramatically. Carrey's range is unlimited.

^ Robin Williams carried a hit movie in old lady drag. That takes a bit of talent

He could be over the top sometimes, but I’ve enjoyed a lot of his film work. But his personal life was a tad messy. But then whose isn’t?

I hated Robin Williams and his whole gamut of playing cards from simpering to manic to sympathy whore. His improvisational stuff was torture to endure, and his serious roles no less.

R8 got it right.

I forget who twisted my arm enough to see 'One Hour Photo" against all my better judgment, but If I could remember who, I wouldn't forgive him.

I think he was on fairly decent career path in the movies. Garp through Good Will Hunting were perfect fits for his skill set. Or maybe he actually listened to his directors. The universally reviled panned Patch Adams, where he essentially played the role as himself as a doctor, started a bit of a decline for him, where viewers saw Robin Williams as himself and not the character. Critics bitched about that. Maybe he needed to dress in drag to get away from that.

No mention of Bicentennial man that was good.

He makes me incredibly anxious, especially when he is manic on talk shows trying really hard to make everyone laugh.

Robin Williams was a stupid person’s idea of a manic comedian.

R35. Me too. And the cocaine sweat made it worse. On him. Not me.

Always found him unendurable. He was always "ON".

This is about as good as it gets. You either get it or you don't. I'm glad I do 😂

Sad to know that all his hyper-on "happy" was really a cover for a very unhappy, depressed man😢 I read somewhere that most comedians are unhappy people and some of the best actors of all.

The sort of depression he dealt with at the end of his life was different than 'regular' depression; he had a complex, devastating neurological condition and his family later said even experts were taken aback by how ravaged his brain was by Lewy bodies.

His death wasn't a tears behind the laughter scenario, he was being robbed of his sanity and physical health by a disease that would've otherwise killed him quite painfully within just a few short years.

R41, he suffered major depression for years before his Lewy diagnosis.

[quote]he suffered major depression for years before his Lewy diagnosis.

Yes, and his LBD symptoms were markedly different (and worse) than the depression that came before it. His wife wrote about it for a neurology journal several years ago, but it's a familiar story to anyone who has dealt with the disease.

I believe it was a combination of the two. To say it was all Lewy, given his long emotional/mental history, is to be in denial.

Remind me of the Oscar Jim Carrey won or the nominations he got R29? Oh, that’s right he doesn’t have any.

Robin had four, including lead actor nominations, and won an Oscar for supporting in Good Will Hunting. Jim Carrey will never get an Oscar.

Remind me where Jim Carrey went to school? It wasn’t Juilliard- one of the hardest arts institutes in the world to be accepted to -that’s for sure. But Robin was accepted and went there.

I mean, I could go on, but I won’t. There is no equivalence between Robin and Jim Carrey, certainly not in terms of talent or range or ability.

His 2002 Live On Broadway Show was hilarious.

Don't forget his role in "Insomnia."

He wasn't PC and I loved that about him.

R45, The Mask alone washes anything Robin ever did and you know that. Ace Ventura and Dumb & Dumber are also funnier than any of Robin's movies. Eternal Sunshine and The Truman Show are better dramatic performances than Robin's.

Unlike Robin, Carrey was never well-liked in Hollywood and refused to play the award show game. He should have gotten nominations for Truman and The Mask, but was snubbed.

Birdcage was a great ensemble movie and Robin was great

Loved him in the Birdcage. His best role IMO.

I hated BIRDCAGE, but not because of Robin, it was Nathan Lane.

[quote]The Mask alone washes anything Robin ever did and you know that. Ace Ventura and Dumb & Dumber are also funnier than any of Robin's movies.

The fact that you liked those movies tells me everything I need to know about you, R48.

I would never waste my beautiful mind on such dreck.

R52, You are loud and wrong!

We lost three really troubled comedic souls in 2014.

While I wasn’t Robin’s biggest fan, he was such a constant presence from my childhood.

Joan Rivers made me laugh so hard. She had such a wonderful twinkle in her eyes.

Jan Hooks. Still upsets me to this day.

Why the weird competition between Carrey and Williams? Does it have to be one or the other? You can love both/ hate both or like one over the other, but this is not Bette Davis/Joan Crawford...

Oh, wait 😂

This is so wonderful 😂

Poor Robin.

I wonder if Adderall will be a risk factor for these types of diseases like coke and that Rx speed of of the 50s-70s is?

I've always liked Robin Williams but they were times I found him a bit obnoxious and tired. But I can watch a lot of movies he's in over and over like I've seen this doubtfire I don't know how many times not just because of him but also just because Sally Field is just such a lovely person to watch. But there was a minute where I was just over Robin Williams and his need for attention but it was a passing feeling.

He was great in Awakenings.

[quote]This is about as good as it gets.

[quote]You either get it or you don't.

It just occurred to me that I can't recall ever agreeing with the words that followed either of these observations.

The clip at R39 was excruciating.

And The Birdcage?. Fucking hell, everything about that film was cringe-inducingly bad.

r61

^ You can't recall anything except where you keep the vodka you drunken old queen

r63

^ Hi, you pathetic stalker... Have another drink fatboy

R63 and R65 - You're both drunks and it's OK - live and letsh livsh!🍸🍸

R65 r66

@r66, Fuck you, cumstain

The man was brilliant.

I thought he was great in Good Morning Vietnam.

I think he had a hard life because he had to live in his own head and couldn't get away from it.

Matter of taste. Some people absolutely loathe Jim Carrey's work. I've always enjoyed both of them, though comment by R22 about Robin Williams stealing other comedians' jokes is apparently true. I remember an old SF radio show that featured local comedians where they talked about Robin stealing other comedians' jokes.

I'd be interested in how taste in comedians changes by generation. I always liked Robin Williams' humor, ever since his first guest appearance on Happy Days, then on Mork. His early work was brilliant. But I never could tolerate Jim Carrey's slapstick mugging and Joan falls into that camp of female comedians who feel they must to be loud to be funny.

Robin made people more aware of LBD, albeit after he passed. When my older brother was diagnosed with LBD, no one knew what it was until you said "It's what Robin Williams had". My brother feels it's one of the slowest, cruelest ways to die as there's not much to be done to prevent the disease from progressing. (So cut Robin some slack for taking matters into his own hands.)

Adderall is speed. Dextroamphetamine. I’ve been on it for years.

I hate about half his body of work but love the other half. Liked him a lot playing Oliver Sacks in Awakenings. And it seemed to open the door for gay icon Oliver Sacks to open up more.

R17/18....don't forget that knee-slapper, Dead Poets Society.

Much hotter with a mustache.

He seemed to have a lot of hang ups, especially that last one……..

^ Joan, can you hold perfectly still while I take a selfie?... Joan?... JOAN!

R77 is brilliant! I laughed for nearly two minutes straight. This is the type of irreverence that keeps me coming back to DL.

Well, in way.....Joan committed suicide, too, with her stupid (dare I say, "retarded") need for more & more plastic surgery.

R80 She died from gross malpractice during a medical procedure related to her vocal cords, not plastic surgery. Perhaps before you share any more bon mots, you should do research to make sure they are both factual and funny.

lol at R48. No, to everything you said. Not even close.

R9 spent seven hours punching the W&W for herself.

Here's to her achieving her own Lewy body dementia.

.

I saw a filming of M & M in the early ‘80s with my friend who was a massive fan of his, and a guy on the crew introduced us to him. He was warm and friendly, and during one of his takes, he incorporated a cringy pun about the obscure little town my friend was living in at the time. I’m not sure if It was a shout-out to her, or an example of his sponge-like brain in action. Regardless, the joke was too obscure and ended up on the cutting room floor.

R83 Haha! I was thinking that myself. I KNOW there’s not that much of a RW fan base on DL.

He (and Sally Field) was one of my pet peeves. He was both horribly earnest and fake, cringe overacting. Now i realizw that he was infact faking and was truly unhappy and depressed and feel sorry for him.

Lol at R86. What exactly do you think actors do? He lied for a living because he’s ACTING.

Some of you are so disconnected from reality I wonder how you get through the day.

My bad - the obscure pun DID make it into the episode (“The Mork Report”) during a scene when he’s dressed as foliage and doing his evangelist preacher schtick. It was at the time of his peak cocaine use, so it all makes sense now.

He made me laugh many, many times. On Carson, Johnny would sit back and let him rip. I miss both those guys, they had quick wit.

I actually saw Mrs. Doubtfire being filmed in San Francisco. I was walking around the neighborhood and saw all the commotion and asked the crew what they were filming and they told me it was a Robin Williams and Sally Field movie. I got to watch Sally Field drive up to the house and do her scene during the birthday party.

I never liked him and thought I was the only one.

I like him as a dramatic actor in roles that reveal his dark side, but hate his frenetic comedy and its corny stereotypes of gay and Black people, among others. He lifted that style from Jonathan Winters who also portrayed swishy gays and gibberish-speaking Africans shooting blow-darts. Williams was also a mental hoarder, as I describe in R84, so I’m not surprised about the joke theft accusations.

Jonathan Winters, there's another whose "comic genius" was neither, R92.

Sometimes things are funny not for the inherent humor of message or a moment of realization or some sort of spark, but instead are funny only for the insane amount of effort invested in the delivery. It's the disparity between eagerness/effort and falling so short of delivering anything that generates a nervous sort of laughter. Williams and Winters were alike in that if I laughed at all, it was for their leaden and relentless eagerness, not for anything they said being funny.

I would have fucked him so passionately. I could have saved him 😩

Any bi rumours? I feel like that kind of zaniness is often a sign of biness

Sexy

b east

On the subject of Robin Williams. I've always wondered, how Robert Deniro and he felt about John Belushi’s overdose. Since they partied together on that night but left him.

R94 Sorry, but he was a total pussy hound who pursued porn actresses, cocktail waitresses, and even his kid’s nanny whom he ended up marrying. I never heard any rumors of him taking an interest in or hooking up with dudes.

R81 stretches the limits of sarcasm by referring to R80's statement as a bon mot.

And

[italic]bon mots[/italic]

Oh, dear.

R32- I never cared for Robin Williams SHTICK but I reserve my real venom for that closeted clown 🤡

Tom Hanks who’s humble about the talent he doesn’t even have.

I'm unloved and unfuckable and always will be!

[quote] Unlike Robin, Carrey was never well-liked in Hollywood and refused to play the award show game.

Jim Carrey was begging to be nominated for The Truman Show.

I think he eventually gave up on his Oscar dreams.

He should have been nominated for The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine.

Louie is such a nice friendly name, how bad could it be?

[quote] I miss both those guys, they had quick wit.

Yeah, R89, I know the feeling. I used to come to DL because many gay men also had a quick wit.

Alas, they seem to have flown the coop, which leaves only the true bitches doing their pointless bitchery.

Sad.