Zelda Williams is sharing her thoughts on how her dad’s words are used on social media.
The Dead of Summer actress, who is the daughter of the late comedian Robin Williams, took to Twitter on Feb. 16 to retweet a photo of her father alongside an inspirational quote — one that he never said. She jokingly captioned the tweet with a quote of her own, writing, “‘Everyone who tweets this are actually quoting someone else. Pork rind. Hallways.’ – Abraham Lincoln, probably.”
She followed the tweet by sharing several other examples of how her dad is used in these kinds of inspiring memes, writing, “To the dudes in my mentions saying ‘he was being used as an example, not the person who said the quote!’, nice try, but I’ve seen this so often, I’m pretty sure someone’s Granny has it needlepointed on a pillow by now.”
Williams later tweeted, “I get that the ‘I take other people’s random memes and jokes from the internet and post them for retweets’ guy isn’t worth the battle. Hell, I’m a sarcastic nihilist, none of this is — but man, it really does annoy me to see Dad repeatedly turned into a shitty yearbook quote.”
I get that the ‘I take other people’s random memes and jokes from the internet and post them for retweets’ guy isn’t worth the battle. Hell, I’m a sarcastic nihilist, none of this is – but man, it really does annoy me to see Dad repeatedly turned into a shitty yearbook quote.
— Zelda Williams (@zeldawilliams) February 17, 2022
She acknowledged in a follow-up message that the situation was a “unique, wholly rarefied and unrelatable experience,” and that “very few people on this earth know what it’s like to see their loved one turned into other people’s ventriloquist dummies after they’re gone, and I know most of them.”
“Still,” she concluded, “it’s annoying as hell.”
Williams previously spoke out about how her father’s fanbase interacts with her on Twitter after a video of actor Jamie Costa performing as her father in a scene from a mock Robin Williams biopic went viral in October 2021. The scene featured Robin learning of the death of his good friend, John Belushi.
“Guys, I’m only saying this because I don’t think it’ll stop until I acknowledge it … please, stop sending me the ‘test footage’. I’ve seen it,” she tweeted. “Jamie is SUPER talented, this isn’t against him, but y’all spamming me an impression of my late Dad on one of his saddest days is weird.”
In August 2020, Williams shared a message about how it was difficult to see tributes to her father on the anniversary of her death.
“As I’ve said in the past, while I am constantly touched by all of your boundless continued love for him, some days it can feel a bit like being seen as a roadside memorial — a place, not a person — where people drive past and leave their sentiments to then go about their days comforted their love for him was witnessed,” she wrote on Twitter at the time. “But sometimes that leaves me emotionally buried under a pile of other’s memories instead of my own. After all, even roses by the truckload still weigh a ton.”
That same month, she also slammed Eric Trump, who posted a video of Robin joking about then-VP Joe Biden. Williams wrote, “While we’re ‘reminiscing’ (to further your political agenda), you should look up what he said about your Dad. I did. Promise you, it’s much more ‘savage’. Gentle reminder that the dead can’t vote, but the living can.”
