In the most recent episode of the PBS animated series “Blank on Blank,“ the greatly missed Robin Williams opens up about how he sees the world around him in a compilation of a couple of radio interviews conducted in 1991 by author Lawrence Grobel for his 1992 Playboy Magazine article. The interviews are particularly poignant, in that the first question that Lawrence asks Robin is about what he thinks the world will be like in the year 2020.
It’ll be one giant film corporation. There’ll be no longer any government. It will be one nation, under God, indivisible, with circuits and VCRs for everyone. I don’t know. 2020. There’ll be cold fusion. We’ll actually be able to power our cars with our own feces. That’s right. The emissions problem will be a little intense, but just light a match. Things that I see in the future. I see… it could be quite incredible if we can master a few problems, like the air and the water thing might be nice. I see governments dissolving these barriers are all falling down for economic reasons. They’re all so interbound. That’s why when one market crashes it’s almost like a world stock market. And this a very long economic explanation… something I haven’t got a fucking clue about.
The interview goes on to talk about the artist’s role in society.
Yeah. For a comic especially, to constantly never let it take itself seriously, to play with, to fuck with the parameters. The premise that comedy is there to basically show us we fart, we laugh. to make us realize we still are part animal. As intellectual as we think we are, you still trip, we still have human foibles, sexuality, all the different things to still make you aware of your humanity.
When Lawrence asked if he worried about running out of material, Robin simply responded, “No, there’s a world out there. Open a window, and it’s there.”
