Remembering Robin Williams

Photo via Wikipedia Creative Commons

Robin Williams, who died today from an apparent suicide, was a strange, furry ball of energy with a scrunchy, Santa Claus face. If you were born between 1980 and 1990, he was, for some reason, critical to your budding understanding of the world. Millennials like me were too young to have even really known about the arch, bawdy Robin Williams from his coke-addled standup days, or from Mork & Mindy. Instead he was the movie stand-in for ourselves.

His presence on a poster was the signal from Hollywood that we were supposed to take an interest in a movie. After Hook in 1991, we obediently lined up a couple times every year to see what the movies had cooked up for us to laugh at, and then usually get kind of sad at, and then laugh at some more.

The hit streak that followed Hook included Aladdin in 1992, Mrs. Doubtfire in 1993, Jumanji in 1995, Flubber for the kids in 1997, and his Oscar-winning role in Good Will Hunting for the grown-ups in 1997, Patch Adams in 1998, and Bicentennial Man in 1999, all of which you and your family went to unless you're some kind of freak. During that time, you also might have opted in for some of the weird or unfortunate ones: Toys in 1992, Jack in 1996, and Father's Day in 1997.

But Williams had a long career, bouncing from character to character on standup specials, popping up in an ever grimmer streak of thrillers and dark comedies over the past few years, and being a consistently fascinating interview subject for TV hosts and podcasters.

We don't even know how to deal with this one, other than to just watch a bunch of clips to remember him and maybe dig up a few bits of trivia.

1. "What year is it?!" from Jumanji

This is internet shorthand for feeling groggy because you just took a nap. In Jumanji, it was the secret sauce: It was yet another movie in which little kid Robin Williams was thrust into the world and forced to suddenly cope with being an adult. The whole Robin Williams thing worked because he was only a grown-up on the outside. See also: Hook, Jack, Toys, and, in a way, Bicentennial Man.

2. The food fight from Hook

Similar to the above scene from Jumanji, here we have Robin Williams performing the photo negative of the same phenomenon: By accepting that imaginary food can be just as good as—if not better than—real food, he's reverting to a childhood state after being a shitty adult, who insists on food being made of actual food.

It seems fun, but in my entire life, I've honestly never been involved in an actual food fight, and I bet if you're actually in one, it's only fun for a few seconds before one of the kids starts crying.

3. One of the many monologues from Good Will Hunting

He won an Oscar for this movie, and for good reason: Instead of being in yet another state of arrested development, he was suddenly tasked with beating the realities of adulthood into Matt Damon's stubborn, permanently adolescent protagonist. Say what you will about this movie, Williams was solid in it.

4. "Friend Like Me" from Aladdin

If you're around my age, you can sing this song note for note. You can probably redraw this sequence frame by frame. I credit Robin Williams and this big, bombastic swing number with the trend that led to the music from The Mask two years later, and the popularity of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies three years after that.

5. The "Carpe Diem" bit from Dead Poets Society

I learned to be a contrarian by hating this movie from the first time I watched it in ninth grade. At the time, I thought it was a cynical machine, designed to deliver a phony-baloney sense of nostalgia for a "pure" childhood love of poetry no viewer actually ever experienced.

Now look at me tearing up watching this scene. Well, what am I supposed to feel, you fucking monsters?

"We are food for worms, lads," indeed.

Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter.