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    Clowns’ Sorrow

    Synopsis

    In retrospect, actor Robin Williams’ death seems to fit this predictable pattern — but it also seems doubly tragic that the man who so spectacularly enhanced the lives of so many could not fix his own life.

    Vithal C Nadkarni

    In Mera Naam Joker, Raj Kapoor sings about life being a circus. In this ring, everybody from hero to zero has to play their parts. The Joker voices the clown’s sadness that cannot be fixed. All this is a proverbial part of showbiz as much as the clichés such as the vamp with a golden heart or our hero who can never be out numbered.

    In retrospect, actor Robin Williams’ death seems to fit this predictable pattern — but it also seems doubly tragic that the man who so spectacularly enhanced the lives of so many could not fix his own life. However, the timing of the announcement of his demise — minutes after a cartoon episode of Family Life, featuring the actor’s fictitious suicide attempt, was aired on the same channel — is quite another matter. Viewers were understandably creeped out.

    On its part, BBC clarified that the timing wasn’t intentional at all, and that the episode had been aired more than once in the past. Of course, it’s no more than “quirky coincidence”. To believe in more potent cosmic connections or sinister conspiracy theories would lead us to a logical pitfall, what psychologists describe as “attribution error”.

    Sceptics warn that such coincidences keep happening. Did you know, for instance, that Seth MacFarlane, who created Family Life, also had a seemingly miraculous escape from American Airlines flight 11 (terrorists crashed it into the North Tower of the World Trade Center)? As MacFarlane said, “It was sobering (but) after the fact: people do get lots of close calls. I can’t let it affect me because I’m a comedy writer.”

    If only Williams had heeded that....
    The Economic Times

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