Oh captain, my captain

Robin Williams died.

Apparent suicide.

...someone say something funny.

First words upon hitting any afterlife: "What am I doing here? I have a career."

Comments

[howard035]

I guess now he gets to find out what dreams may come?

[Abecedarian]

He sat down and watched "RV"all the way through. Sober.

[Estee]

So I wanted to do something involving him, because I'm pretty much going to be creatively useless for the rest of the night. (Yes, same as every other night.) I have a few things on my movie shelf which feature him. But I decided to check my Kindle and see if I could watch something I hadn't seen before through the Amazon Prime offerings.

First two things on the list:

A movie about a man with ninety minutes to live.
A comedy concert from 2009 entitled Weapons Of Self-Destruction.

{Sokka}Thank you, The Universe.{/Sokka}

[TheMessenger]

Did you know, in one of his more recent movies, World's Greatest Dad, Williams plays a father who covers his son's death from autoerotic asphyxia as a suicide?

What do the police believe was the cause of Robin Williams' death? Asphyxia, from apparent suicide.

[Blackbriar]

We'll never have a friend like him.

[Estee]

2362438

Also available through Amazon Prime.

So now the universe is trying for the running gag.

[djthomp]

Oh hell no.

[Voba]

Well, I guess he won't be hanging around anymore.

[Seether00]

Looks like someone took the wrong message from Dead Poets Society

[PresentPerfect]

Thank you for posting that video (though oddly it does not include the line you're referencing).

A celebrity death hasn't hit me this hard since Michael Jackson. :(

[Georg]

So it seems Mork's call to Orson is now a local call.

Hey, it's all I got.

[onomiyaki]

Whenever I hear about a celebrity dying due to asphyxiation I can't help but wonder if it was auto-erotic asphyxiation, because I am a terrible person.

[Estee]

2362593

I was going on memory, and so used the first YouTube link with Scenes From A Hat which came up -- without watching the actual clip. I'm going to fix it now -- and done. (Well, I was close on the line...)

I'm cascading through reactions right now. Some of them were site-related. I wished someone would post a Robin In Equestria fic. Seriously. It's Robin around ponies: he'd have a good laugh. Surely someone could make a locally-proper tribute... except that who among us could be funny enough?

There was a brief consideration of a list. Asking various authors to contribute and create Robin Williams' Top Ten Reactions To Finding Himself In A HiE Fic.

"Based on the visual evidence, this is either the best or the worst stuff I've ever taken."
"Pardon me, ma'am, but you seem to have a sun on your butt."
"All right... those marks represent the thing you're best at. What if you're really good at having no idea who the hell you are?"'
"So, just asking here, only curious, exactly where are you all keeping your genitals?"

A wandering soul is snagged on its way out. Gawds, there's a cliche.

But -- it all comes back to the same thing, doesn't it? Trying to keep him alive. Every bit of the above is attempting to craft the illusion of laughter unfaded. And no matter how sweet it could somehow become in the right hands... illusion is all there is.

[Soge]

More than the fact he has died, it is the way. I never had a strong connection to his work, but a comedian committing suicide is just about the most depressing thing possible.

[conantheimp]

2362709

But -- it all comes back to the same thing, doesn't it? Trying to keep him alive. Every bit of the above is attempting to craft the illusion of laughter unfaded. And no matter how sweet it could somehow become in the right hands... illusion is all there is.

Nah, he left one hell of a legacy behind. The body of his works dramatic and comedic is going to remain. Everything he's touched is a classic, and an early, bad end doesn't change that. Let's remember him for his best.

That said, there are some pretty good authors on this site who could probably do him justice.

[Georg]

One of my favorite quotes (that I can't find a youtube video of) is from a very early album (Paraphrased)
(Robin is doing some improv with suggestions from the audience. The audience starts chanting "Mork! Mork!" In irritated response, he says he's not doing the Mork thing, and then breaks out in--)
"A*holes doth vex me!"
(he then goes on to explain he's doing standup to get away from Mork.

[Daedalus Aegle]

[FanOfMostEverything]

When my dad and I found out, the discussion somehow drifted to the Amish before we reached the conclusion that North Korea uses basketballs instead of wheels.

We agreed that the rambling chain of non sequiturs was the best way to honor Mr. Williams.

[PresentPerfect]

2362709
We were actually deriding the idea of Robin in Equestria last night, but oh my god, those lines are all perfect. Obviously, we need someone talented to tackle the subject.

[FashionablyHospitable]

The sad thing is that many comedians suffer from depression. It's oddly akin to Pinkie's portrayal in the show; we use our ability to make other laugh as a shield against their rejection. Laughter is the means by which we connect to our fellow human beings, staving off the creeping gloom and disconnection that descends when we find ourselves without distraction. Making people smile is just how we fill that yawning void which whispers how meaningless life is. And when we're alone and have nothing to distract us, no people to amuse and our ponies and our books and the imagined worlds we use to escape from an empty reality turn out to be even more contrived than the "life" we lead outside: when all our distractions come apart, we look at ourselves clearly, and we feel that coldness descend. It's not a sadness, so much as an emptiness that makes it hard to care or feel anything. And when we can't go into our fictional worlds or wrap the laughter and smiles of other people around us like an insulating blanket against the dark part of our minds, we're left with nothing between us and the abyss.

Or maybe I'm just projecting.

[Estee]

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And then... you ask for help.

[Crack-Fic Casey]

First words upon hitting any afterlife: "What am I doing here? I have a career."

Thank You. I've been trying to find a way to tell a joke about the guy ever since I heard the news.