Joe Rogan has accused the late Robin Williams of “material theft”, or stealing jokes from other comedians.
The comic and UFC commentator made the comments on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience to fellow comic Harland Williams, where he said that while he is a fan of the Good Will Hunting actor, he does believe that he deliberately took other comedians’ material.
“I think (Robin) wanted to kill more than he wanted to be ethical at any cost,” Rogan said. “Part of that manic sort of style is this constant need to have a bit about anything that you’re talking about ever. Killing was more important; filling that hole inside of him was more important than anything.”
He went on to say that he thinks other comedians were also conscious of the behaviour. “If you ask any of those comics from back then, there’s always instances of Robin going on a talk show and doing your bit,” he continued.
He went on to describe the practice as “material theft”, which he explained was when a comic “tries to pawn off other people’s bits as their own”.
Williams took his own life in 2014 aged 63 after struggling with a misdiagnosed neurodegenerative disorder. Following his death, an autopsy revealed that he had advanced stages of Lewy body dementia.
In other Williams news, it recently emerged that he wrote a letter to the school of one of the child stars of Mrs. Doubtfire to try to get her expulsion overturned.
Lisa Jakub, who played the elder daughter Lydia in the 1993 comedy-drama, had been informed by her high school that she was no longer welcome after taking time off to star in the film, when Williams took it upon himself to try to help.
“I got thrown out of high school on Doubtfire,” Jakub said. “I’m Canadian. I was attending high school in Canada, then I left for four months to film the movie. We were going to set up this system, pre-internet, where I’d mail my schoolwork back and forth to the school. We did that for a while.”
“We were a couple of months into filming, and my school in Canada sent a note saying: ‘This isn’t working for us anymore, don’t come back.’ Yeah, 9th grade. I was devastated. It was just so heartbreaking, because I had this life that was very unusual, and that was the one normal thing.”
“The amazing thing was Robin saw that I was upset — he asked me what was going on,” she continued. “He wrote a letter to my principal saying that he wanted them to rethink this decision and that I was just trying to pursue my education and career at the same time, and could they please support me in this. The principal got the letter, framed the letter, put it up in the office, and didn’t ask me to come back. Amazing.”
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