Robin Williams: Magical negro

I don't think it's a secret that I have something of an obsession with Robin Williams. He's been part of my cultural landscape since his bit on Happy Days where he was Gazoo to Richie Cunningham's Fred Flintstone. 

I recently described the manic dwarf in a letter to the editor of The Age as 'comedy's equivalent of Rod Stewart -- a raging fire sadly harnessed only to warm old turds.' But I have noticed another pattern to his career. I have noticed that he plays a lot of roles that would otherwise go to Morgan Freeman.

That's right. Robin Williams is the white Magical Negro.  In fact he's the Magical Negro you have when you don't want to cast a black guy in your film at all.

Don't believe me? Look at the trailer for August Rush and listen to the blithering nonsense that he's spouting in it. Put him in overalls and on death row and he could be played by Michael Clark Duncan. Look at Dead Poet's Society and tell me that isn't just To Sir, With Love, set in a rich kids school where you kill yourself because daddy didn't see your stirring rendition of 'Mister Tumnus as a young rump-stumper'. Also, with no black people. 

It's long been my opinion that Morgan Freeman must have business cards with 'Have gravitas, will peddle' on them. Well I hope Morgan has plenty of cash in the bank , because when central casting realises Williams can play God, Freeman is fucked.

Coda: I have been thinking about this a lot and have realised that in What Dreams May Come, he plays up against an ACTUAL Magical Negro in the form of Cuba Gooding Junior as God. I may have to rewatch this technicolor shitstorm just to get a handle on what happens when matter and antimatter collide.