--- description: I witnessed an impromptu and unscripted performance that showed exactly the breadth of his creativity--rhyming couplets and all. title: Richard Dawkins Remembers Robin Williams' Poetic Comic Genius image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb36aca5f6d61f3ac/69869f3b1eebf7f20537236c/robin-williams-pop-eye.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Culture](/tag/culture/) ## Culture Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Richard Dawkins Remembers Robin Williams' Poetic Comic Genius  by [Richard Dawkins](/author/richard-dawkins/)  ## Richard Dawkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 12, 2014 4:13 PM CUT  Actor Robin Williams, shown in character as Popeye in Dec., 1980. Actor Robin Williams, shown in character as Popeye in Dec., 1980.Paramount/AP  by [Richard Dawkins](/author/richard-dawkins/)  ## Richard Dawkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 12, 2014 4:13 PM CUT I met him only once. It was June 3, 2006, at the Academy of Achievement dinner in Los Angeles. After dinner, at the end of the conference, there was a loud band and dancing (Archbishop Desmond Tutu delightfully prominent among the dancers), and Sheryl Crow was the singer. Suddenly Robin Williams hurtled unannounced, unrehearsed onto the stage. Sheryl Crow graciously (and with good-natured surprise) gave up the microphone to him and stood by. He treated us to an exuberant impromptu performance, delivering verse reports on most, if not all, of the speeches we had been listening to during the conference. He deftly summarized each of the lectures in a rhyming couplet (sometimes in the special rap sense of rhyming). Then, after stepping back for a few seconds’ thought while the band played on, he would advance to the front of the stage with a new verse about the next lecture, and so on. Assuming it was genuinely unscripted – and that is certainly what we all thought at the time – it was a creative _tour de force_ of comic genius. In addition to his better known roles (_Mrs. Doubtfire_, _Good Will Hunting_, etc.), I especially liked him as _Popeye_ in the relatively little-known acted version, directed by Robert Altman, with Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl and an adorable baby debuting in the role of Swee’Pea. Robin got Popeye’s grating voice and strutting insouciance to surreal perfection. So sad. [_Richard Dawkins_](http://richarddawkins.net "undefined") _is an evolutionary biologist based in the U.K. and bestselling author of_ The Selfish Gene, The God Delusion _and_ The Blind Watchmaker_, among many other books. He is founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science based in the United States._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3103869/robin-williams-richard-dawkins/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3103869/robin-williams-richard-dawkins/"},"headline":"Richard Dawkins Remembers Robin Williams' Poetic Comic Genius","datePublished":"2014-08-12T16:13:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:54:33.446Z","description":"I witnessed an impromptu and unscripted performance that showed exactly the breadth of his creativity--rhyming couplets and all.","url":"https://time.com/3103869/robin-williams-richard-dawkins/","keywords":["Culture","robin williams"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb36aca5f6d61f3ac/69869f3b1eebf7f20537236c/robin-williams-pop-eye.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Richard Dawkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/richard-dawkins/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb36aca5f6d61f3ac/69869f3b1eebf7f20537236c/robin-williams-pop-eye.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Robin Williams Popeye 1980","caption":"Robin Williams Popeye 1980","creditText":"Paramount/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/culture/","name":"Culture"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3103869/robin-williams-richard-dawkins/","name":"Richard Dawkins Remembers Robin Williams' Poetic Comic Genius"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Remembering Robin WIlliams: Watch The Actor's Best Performances","description":"Remembering Robin Williams: Supercut","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/wrXgMxVS/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-08-12T14:12:59.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wrXgMxVS.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3103869/robin-williams-richard-dawkins/","duration":"PT4M11S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3103869/robin-williams-richard-dawkins/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```