As 2016 rolls on, it’s time to bid farewell to yet another iconic figure in pop culture. With the death of Gene Wilder, many fans were heartbroken over the loss of such a pillar of pop culture and comedy. Already tributes have poured in from figures like Mel Brooks and Matthew Broderick, and fans have started making their own ways of remembering the comic giant on the internet. A new video highlights one of the many tools in Wilder’s acting arsenal: his ability to derive a lot of hilarity from saying very little. In this tribute, it’s Wilder’s ability to pause in his delivery that gets the well-deserved spotlight.
Gene Wilder: Master Of The Comedic Pause from Rishi Kaneria on Vimeo.
Assembled by Rishi Kaneria, this video tribute shows just how adept Wilder was as an actor at inserting just the right cadence to his delivery to milk the most laughs out of an audience. It was a gentle voice with a soothing speed that belied some of his sharpest punchlines and made them land so deftly. From Willy Wonka to the Waco Kid, Young Frankenstein to Haunted Honeymoon, Wilder always found a way to find the hilarious note even without saying a word. Or, as Edgar Wright put it so beautifully on Twitter: