Robin Williams as Patch Adams. Image source: graffitiwithpunctuation.net
Robin Williams’s death last week brought into tragic focus the complex relationship between comedy and depression. The paradox is that comedy brings joy to the lives of so many, and, in some cases, is the catalyst for well-being. In Patch Adams, Williams played the titular character modelled on the real-life doctor, Hunter ‘Patch’ Adams, who pioneered methods of bringing clowning techniques into hospitals for health and healing. (Adams released this statement on hearing of Williams’s death.) In Australia, the celebrated co-founder of the extraordinary Humour Foundation, who studied with Patch Adams, Dr Peter Spitzer, also died last week.
