Which movie was it? Was it Popeye? Mrs. Doubtfire? (That movie was the most loathesome piece of ... oh, something. Only Kymm can use the worm "loathesome" with any authority, and I know she would use it to describe Mrs. D., too.) Good Morning Vietnam?

Was it giving up the drugs? Was it marrying the nanny? He used to be funny! He used to be a scream! (Or maybe I was just nine years old and had lower standards.)

Anyway, I want to know your opinion. Please. When did he start to suck?

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2000

Answers

When he started to let people write his dialog for him. Compare Aladdin and Fern Gully. He improvised much more in Aladdin, and didn't suck anywhere near as bad.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2000

It's sad to say, but it's the drugs that made him funny. Aren't the best comedians cokeheads at heart?

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2000

I've been wondering the same thing for years, I'm glad others are finally starting to catch up. His movies are dull, sappy overemotional made-for-tv drama fare, but they are ALWAYS advertised as wacky comedies because he was a really funny cokehead when he used to do standup in the early eighties.

I think he had kids or something, because his movies seem to always revolve around kids and always suck and be preachy and moralistic. The only good thing he ever did was The Fisher King.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2000

He's always been uneven, with a tendency to grandiosity, if you ask me. Mork from Ork was so awful that there are no words for it. Or at least, it had some episodes that curl my eyeteeth (if that's the phrase). Sure, Williams had some great moments in Fisher King, Aladdin etc. But then he got enough clout that he could choose his own scripts, and pffsht -- respectful directors ruined him. here's what I'm glad about: Now we can all agree that he sucks.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2000

Okay, I loved Mork and Mindy ... but I was nine. It's highly possible that I was young and stupid.

Then again, I don't think even nine year olds find Robin Williams amusing anymore.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2000

And by the way, I thought he ruined Alladin. Well, okay, he and the crappy story ruined Alladin.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2000

I have to say, I loved him on "Mork and Mindy" also, but I've not been much of a fan since then.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2000

I kind of liked Popeye, actually - he was so weird in it. Walking around mumbling.

He started to suck when he stopped doing weird things and went for the conventional, heart warming laughs.

Really, he was way funnier when he was on drugs.

The same thing's happened to Bette Midler. I mean she used to tell filty Sophie Tucker jokes. Now she's the kooky aunt in a Disney movie.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2000

When he started doing all mushy, all the time flicks. I want ones in which he's going insane, thankyouverymuch. (Though I actually was pretty fine with him in GWH, the rest are pretty bleech) I guess Aladdin was the last crazy flick he did? Ai yi yi. Though I enjoyed his Oscar singing, complete with the dirty words =)

Now I think I'll just go find my Robin Williams at the Met tape and listen to him talking like Dr. Roof about penises with Barbie clothes on.

Btw, anyone heard his stuff at audible.com? While I'm perverse nad don't like paying for net-based stuff, the sound samples sounded, dare I say it, more crazy-riff-type? Not his best, but of late an improvement.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2000

He has been an annoyance since a million years ago when he and my husband were at junior college together (College of Marion, Kentfield, CA 1969-1970 for my husband--these are years Robin doesn't always acknowledge...). My husband worked in the technical side of the theatre and on those looonnnnggg nights when doing tech rehearsals to make sure all the details fit together, Robin would become particularly wearing as the night dragged on and on, him doing the same little bits we are all so tired of now over and over and over instead of being helpful and just doing his actual cueing lines. To this day we can't watch him without wondering what poor techie had to put up with extra weeks of "cute shit" as R showed off and everyone else had to sit and wait 'til he finished. It's often painfully obvious that the directors can't control him--when they do, he can be funny but the rest is the same old runoff.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2000

I have been waiting for some place where I could hold forth publicly on this one!

He started making that giant sucking sound when he passed into that living dead state that is, unfortunately the goal of most entertainers and especially the agents and managers and theater owners and vampires and parasites and leeches that suck on to anybody with even a smidgen of talent--Beloved Comedian.

When he stopped being insane and dangerous it was over. Why don't they learn from what they did to Richard Pryor?

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2000

I actually never thought he was funny. However, I still kind of like him - I liked him in Good Will Hunting.

I will truly post about anything today, because I'm avoiding two overdue assignments. If somebody wants to start a thread about watching paint dry I'll be in there with something to something to share.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2000