I'm Not As Down On Robin As Everyone Else, But...*KC Breakdown Related*....

[Famous]

Fast forward to the 10:10 mark. Watch from there. Is it just me, or was this Robin at her most annoying EVER?!?! I don't usually hate her like you guys do, but I wanted her to be rendered permanently mute after this.

I remember listening to this in real-time, and feeling the same way. I think that's the first time I ever turned the channel in disgust.

The problem is, she wasn't remotely funny when going on her tirade, and it seemed to be coming from a real place of venom.

For some reason when KC & Artie were displaying their illnesses at their absolute worst, Robin went at them with a special kind of zeal. I think in some way it's a mixture of projection and superiority. Robin herself is as crazy as they are, but she prides herself in the fact that she was still able to outwardly perform (unlike them). It's the only thing she can cling to for superiority, the same way that Howard is a wretched mess aside from being skinny, so being skinny is the thing he clings to.

[srricks]

Yea I remember this, she a tear (not a Howard banging chicks tear) and was vicious!

[Famous]

Also, this stands out to me as the time where KC seemed the most "dangerous." Everyone, including Howard, points to the time he snapped at Howard, which happened two years after this. But here is where he really seemed like he could snap all of their necks at any second.

I'd really like to revisit the whole topic of KC's breakdown, and him getting kicked off of the show. I think what did him in was that he was too honest. If he never openly admitted that he had violent thoughts, he'd probably still be there today. Fred has actually had more angry, crazy, reactions than KC has. It's just that everyone gets scared of KC and not Fred, because of KC's own admissions about his thoughts.

I also love how when shit goes down (like AJ hitting John), they act like things are not acceptable in the work place. Yeah, because this is a normal work place and all. You have the whole room ragging on someone who they know is mentally ill (in this video I posted, Howard references the fact that KC can't even go into a club without getting paranoid, and thinking that he's gonna get poisoned by gas).

For a guy that crazy, he actually kept it together, because even I wanted to kill Robin when I heard this.

I also think that Stuttering John was going at KC so hard because he was jealous that KC ascended higher than him in such a short time. KC went from intern to associate producer in one year.

Robin's venom is just crazy, though. Never seen someone take such humorless joy in going at someone like that, for such an overall meaningless reason.

And it's funny that Tom later proclaimed to be like a father figure to KC. He was in there putting KC down too. Why give him the option of going home, then? It's funny, though, that years later, KC still seemed to think that it was Tom who fired him, not Howard.

[srricks]

[Famous]

Yeah, I love how Howard later tried to downplay it as him simply giving KC constructive criticism about his work. KC didn't lose it until Howard basically demoted him. He also quickly regained control. Really, it wouldn't have seemed all that crazy to me, it it weren't for them playing it up, and if it weren't for KC's mental history.

As for the first Robin video, another sign that he actually was able to maintain some control was the fact that he didn't verbally annihilate her the way that he could have, and the way that I'm sure that he wanted to. Even Fred once started calling her fat and stuff (I think that this was the time when Robin said that he'd make a horrible father...right after he announced that his wife was pregnant). Despite Robin being able to use this against KC, there are about a billion things that KC could have thrown at Robin, that would have had her crying in about two seconds. He didn't go there, which suggests to me that he still had a very good sense of self-preservation.

It's funny that in that first video, Ronnie went in there pretty quickly, and had a grim face the whole time. I think he could see how bad the whole thing was getting, but Howard, ever the user, didn't put a stop to it.

[tv910]

Robin is and always has been a total bitch. She says terrible insensitive hateful things about people she doesn't even know and seems to take a special delight in verbally attacking other staff members. She only started being involved in charity work when she was trying to sell her failed TV pilot and promote herself and her boy-toy, who clearly was only interested in her for the publicity. Howard will miss his substitute mommy when she's gone but most people won't. It was a relief to have her gone Friday and not constantly butting in.

[srricks]

It wouldn't take much to eviscerate Robin, she can't take being ragged on. The slightest insult and she loses it!

[Famous]

It wouldn't take much to eviscerate Robin, she can't take being ragged on. The slightest insult and she loses it!

That's part of the reason why this was so fascinating to me. If you know that that is the case, why would you go this far with someone? Why leave yourself open?

The amount of hostility was just insane to me.

That "mommy, mommy" bit....ugh!

[srricks]

She went that far because she knows hat Howig would protect (so to speak) and would back her up. She is the only one on that show that has carte blanche to rampant. Even Tom C. knew as much, he scolded John for doing the same thing that Robin doing, but worse!

[Famous]

Watching that video that srricks posted of KC blowing up at Howard, I'm starting to see more and more that Illumanti Jones was dead on here:

Howard wanted to hurt Artie......................probably more than he wanted to put on a good show.

Ever notice how flippin' easy it is for people to self-destruct in the Stern universe?!? You think that's an accident, a by-product of the environment, or Howard only being about "for the good of the show"?!?

I don't.

I think Howard wants it easy for people to self-destruct because he gets off on the misery of others..........................especially those that had the nerve to help him build his empire.

He resents needing others...................and even more, resents the credit others get "off his back", when the truth is actually the reverse of that........................so much that he actively, if passive-aggressively, facilitates and encourages their destruction.

I think he's at the point in his life where he gets off more on preventing someone getting paid than getting paid himself. I think he'd rather make somebody else miserable than try to make himself happy.

Howard really does get off on the misery of others, and it goes far beyond the excuse of a "bit" for a show. That's his cover. The way he piles on when KC is clearly upset...he goes out of his way to make a snide "Jason, you're doing a good job, btw" comment, when Howard knows he specifically hired him to take KC's job and make him feel on edge (same stunt Howard pulled when he had Benji sitting over Jackie's shoulder writing). So here you have a guy starting to blow up over Howard saying that he's doing a bad job, and then he brings in the guy who's taking his job, and specifically praises him at the same time.

Mind you, Howard also knew that KC was crazy & on medication when he was doing all of this (he mentions KC's medication at the beginning of the clip).

But most telling of all is Howard's slow-spreading smirk as he gives that little praise to Jason. If it were said just for an authentic, non knife-driving reason, he wouldn't start to smirk as he said that.

Then we're supposed to think that KC is crazy for finally really reacting.

Which brings me to this point Illuminati Jones made, that soooo sums it up:

Ever notice how flippin' easy it is for people to self-destruct in the Stern universe?!? You think that's an accident, a by-product of the environment, or Howard only being about "for the good of the show"?!?

It's so true! People are made much worse by this show, I really believe that. And Stern happily cashes in.

[Wangold]

Robin looks like she was on Chemo then too!

[ZeroZed]

I'll do the unpopular and defend Robin a little bit here. Most of us loved the show when it had this kind of conflict. For me, at least, it was this type of raw, vicious, interaction that I found riveting. In that regard, I can't fault Robin for taunting anyone. Shit, Stuttering John was going well out of his way to demean and belittle KC--far worse than what Robin said. So I credit her for not being a shrinking violet and jumping into the fray to attack. And I don't think you can really fault her because KC knew better than to lay into her. She's one of the show's principles...of course there is going to be a known hierarchy where the top dogs don't have to take the same level of shit as the underlings. If she behaved like Fred, the show really wouldn't have been that good. Fred is just a fucking bump on a log most of the time.

Howard was/is definitely a user and exploiter. I never really had a problem with that until I started noticing that once he had used a person completely up, he just disposed of them. It is sad to see how he did that to various wack-packers, but I could almost forgive him for that since a bunch of them didn't give a damn about their own condition. I also remember how he used to exploit Joe Walsh--an obvious out-of-control alcoholic for many many years. Joe was/is a legend, but he was really possessed by demons and Howard just turned it into an ongoing bit that seemed to do more damage to him.

I guess the straw that broke the camels back for me was when I finally noticed the way Howard really behaved towards his coworkers when he was done with them--people whom he portrayed on-air as friends and a quasi (dysfunctional) family. Billy West, Jackie, KC, Stuttering John, Jon Lieberman, Artie were all disrespected in a disturbing way. When you're sitting on half-a-billion dollars, there's no legitimate reason to go out of your way to behave like Howard does unless you are fundamentally a shitty human being.

[bigkitty]

This is a perfect example of why so many of us can't stand Robin. (My heart does go out to her for her illness.) She is insane, shrill, and completely unfunny. The latter is the biggest problem. I don't know why Howard kept her for so many years. If it's not because he needed a black person to make his racial humor defenseable, then I don't know what it is. She's so awkward and bitchy. And by the way, she looks horrible here. It isn't just weight, it's her weird eyes. It's like she has no eyelashes or brows. It's funny how bad she's been for all of these years.

[HorsetoothBeth]

She needs to worry about drawing her eyebrows on and her stupid one-liners that only she laughs at.

This was the first moment I realized I hated Robin. Before then, I was mildly annoyed with the bitch. Another moment was her reaction to the AJ/Stuttering John slap and this one:

[Goods]

Haha, Jason at 3:30 - 4:30 is a completely different guy than he is now.

[Goods]

Robin looks like she was on Chemo then too!

Man she looks terrible.

[1Vegasgirl]

Wow - no wonder Robin can't maintain a relationship and never married. I can't imagine a woman speaking to a man that way. KC did not speak to her in an equivalent way or with equivalent venom.

[1Vegasgirl]

Isn't this when she was too fat to get down the stairs?

[puggysgal]

I think John was a lot harsher than Robin. I do miss this kind of radio as well. Robin didn't pencil in her eyebrows or do eyeliner and mascara yet hence looking different.

[whatsit]

The 911 show and ones to follow were the greatest ever. After that, maybe the OJ shows?