![]() ![]() ![]() I became a Robin Williams fan on that day. When a loony young comedian in a Hawaiian shirt joined him on the guest panel, I had the feeling of a torch being passed. I remember my dad watching Jonathan Winters on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,” and laughing so hard I thought he was going to pass out. ![]() I don’t give a (rhino) shit! It’s Robin for me! But when all is said and done, Williams may have a more impressive cinematic resume, but Carrey makes me laugh and makes me think more than Williams does. Even the darkly comic The Cable Guy, released at the height of Carrey’s slapstick ‘90s fame (and a risk to his career at the time), plays with the notion of perspectives that aberrate from our agreed-upon notion of what constitutes “normal.” Williams nearly makes up the gap with his own darkly comic performances, such as in Bobcat Goldthwait’s World’s Greatest Dad, or in his villainous turns, which are admittedly far more chilling (think Insomnia) than any similar role Carrey has attempted. Whether it’s through the comedy-drama hybrid The Truman Show or his embodiment of the ultimate authenticity-challenging performance artist, Andy Kaufman, in Man on the Moon, there are often more layers to Jim Carrey’s most compelling dramatic performances. But as Jim Carrey began to shift toward more serious fare, his dramatic performances were often more nuanced than Williams’ overt sentimentalism, most notably in his downtrodden role of Joel Barish in Michel Gondry’s masterful Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.Ĭarrey’s filmography demonstrates a greater commitment to exploring human consciousness and questioning human perception and reality as a fabrication that the majority of us simply agree upon. But when Robin Williams flipped the switch to poignancy, he was difficult to top, his hangdog expressions and welling eyes tugging at those heartstrings with both hands. Robin Williams’ comedy at its most manic never fully appealed to me, his motor-mouthed stream of consciousness seeming perhaps a bit too aimless and not nearly as funny as Jim Carrey’s rubber-faced buffoonery and more focused (if equally absurd) kinetic physical comedy. ![]()
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