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Robin Williams doing his thing in a phone commercial from the 1970s is peak nostalgia

A blast from the past in so many ways.

robin williams, commercial, 1970s, nostalgia, actor, legend

@petermorely_sle/YouTube

Williams was great at everything he did.

We all know and love the late, great Robin Williams for his work in movies, television shows, Saturday Night Live, and standup. But let’s not forget he also has a slew of commercials under his belt as well. The talented Williams delighted in everything he did because, honestly, what medium wouldn’t benefit from his signature charm and humor?

With such a long and illustrious career, fans may be happy to know that there's still new (to us!) William's content to find and enjoy. The evidence? Even the biggest Robin Williams fans might be surprised to find this recently unearthed commercial he did for the Illinois Bell phone company (later known as AT&T) back in 1977.

In the clip, where Williams unsurprisingly plays a mischievous husband making voices while his wife shops around for the perfect landline phone, we see a delightful foreshadowing of his alien character Mork from the sitcom Mork & Mindy—it certainly helps that the woman playing his wife resembles Pam Dawber, who played Mindy in the show. (Not to mention the fact that he says "people of Earth” with that perfect alien voice.)

Watch:

- YouTubeyoutu.be

Of course, it wasn’t just nostalgia for Williams that people felt while watching this video, but also wistfulness for a bygone era, a simpler time when something like a landline was even a thing. Here’s a small smattering of comments from YouTube:

“You bought a phone and it sat on a desk or hung on the wall for decades and did its job, no updates, no 'starting it up', it was always on and always worked.”

“Miss the days when you could slam the phone.”

“The most surprising thing is that they repaired the broken phones rather than simply throwing them out and giving you a new one.”

“Oh, the times when we could make ourselves unavailable.”

“I remember having to go to the phone company. All the different color phones on display.”

“Our yellow kitchen wall phone had a cord like 12 ft long. It got knotted and tangled once and just stayed that way forever.”

“I remember being so excited about the new "pushbuttons" instead of the rotary dial.”

And last but not least, “I want to live in this time period.”

While we have two things to miss because of this video, it also, as one view put it, gave us “something to smile about,” and that’s never a bad thing.

If you're wanting more of Williams and his special brand of humor, you're in luck. Thanks to the Internet, we have a few more archived Robin William commercials at our disposal, arguably more chaotic than the one for Illinois Bell.

Here's one for the popular game, Legend of Zelda:

- YouTubeyoutu.be

And another for Snickers, because who portrays the unhinged quite like Williams?

- YouTubeyoutu.be

Especially this rather notorious one, in which Williams drives director Howard Storm insane with his shotgun style improv skills.

Williams’ comedic genius continues to be something we marvel at, and its inexplicable blend of zaniness, tragedy, and existentialism will always be a mystery we can never fully solve. That’s part of what made it so magical, and why we can watch even one of his most seemingly insignificant works and still be mesmerized. He was one of the greats, no doubt about it.

This article originally appeared in February.

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The one sign that someone is highly intelligent, according to literary genius Leo Tolstoy

He was a master of understanding the human condition.

en.m.wikipedia.org

Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian novelist known for epic works such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina. His life experiences—from witnessing war to spiritual quests—profoundly influenced his writings and gave him profound insights into the human soul. His understanding of emotions, motivations and moral dilemmas has made his work stand the test of time, and it still resonates with people today.

Julian de Medeiros, a TikToker who shares his thoughts on philosophy, recently shared how Tolstoy knew if someone was highly intelligent—and his observation says something extraordinary about humanity.

intelligence, thinking, thought process, humanity, humans An intelligent man's thought process.Canva Photos

“The more intelligent a person is, the more he discovers kindness in others,” Tolstoy once wrote. “For nothing enriches the world more than kindness. It makes mysterious things clear, difficult things easy, and dull things cheerful.”

@julianphilosophy
Intelligent people are kind #intelligent #intelligence #kindness #smart #tolstoy #men #women

De Medeiros boiled down Tolstoy’s thoughts into a simple statement: “Intelligent people are unafraid to be kind.” He then took things a step further by noting that Tolstoy believed in the power of emotional intelligence. "To have emotional intelligence is to see the good in other people, that is what Tolstoy meant, that to be intelligent is to be kind," he added.

It seems that, according to de Medeiros, Tolstoy understood that intelligent people are kind and perceptive of the kindness in others. The intelligent person is conscious of the kindness within themselves and in the world around them.

In a 2024 opinion piece for Inc., author and speaker Jeff Hayden cites organizational psychologist Adam Grant, who says, "Generosity isn't just a sign of virtue. It's also a mark of intelligence. Data: people with high IQs have more unselfish values, give more to charity, and negotiate better deals for others. They prioritize the long-term collective good over short-term self-interest. It's smarter to be a giver than a taker."

Hayden adds on to this statement, saying, "...You can also be smart enough to be generous, thoughtful, and kind. You can be smart enough to build people up instead of tearing them down. You can be smart enough to give before you receive (or better yet, with no expectation of reciprocation.) You can be smart enough to shift the credit from yourself to others."

kindness, intelligence, humanity, human condition, be kind Kids showing kindness through sharing. Canva Photos

In other words, these findings certainly line up with what Tolstoy's take on the correlation between kindness and intelligence.

Through Tolstoy's musings, de Medeiros (and Hayden and Grant) makes a point that is often overlooked when people talk about intelligence: truly smart people are as in touch with their hearts as they are with their minds.

This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.

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There's a fascinating reason European chocolate tastes better than the American version

"Is that why some chocolate burns?"

Canva

A woman enjoys a piece of chocolate. A man doesn't like it.

Here's the thing: even the worst chocolate, at least for a chocolate-lover, is usually tolerable. Obviously, taste is subjective and there are plenty of people who actually prefer American chocolate over its European counterpart.

That said, an American on Reddit posted a pretty heavy statement on the subreddit r/CasualEurope: "European Chocolate has ruined me." They write, "I always heard online that Europeans hated American chocolate, saying that it tastes of bile. I ignored such things, to me it always tasted fine. Then along came an opportunity, 6 months of working in Denmark. It just so happens that my work had a chocolate jar, every day after lunch I'd have two pieces, tasted good, never thought much of it."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

This takes a turn. They continue, "That was, until today. I'm back home for the holidays, my mom put out a candy dish of Hershey's kisses. Don't mind if I do. But as the chocolate melted on my tongue I knew something was off. The distinct taste of vomit. I had escaped the matrix; my eyes now open to the truth. Is this a blessing? A curse? I myself don't even know. The only truth I do know is that American chocolate will never taste the same."

The comment section is riddled with explanations, and they seem to know their chocolate. One explains, "European chocolates are required by law to have at least 14% dry milk solids while the US only requires 12%. European chocolate is also slightly richer because it's required to have at least 3.5% milk fat. In the US, the minimum is 3.39%. European chocolate ALSO has a higher requirement for cocoa content — aka the ingredient that gives bars their deep, chocolaty flavor. These differences might not seem so big, but taken together, they add up."

But they're not done. "Also worth noting? When it comes to the American chocolate standard-bearer (hi, Hershey's), some say the biggest perceived difference in chocolate quality might come from its use of butyric acid — which makes chocolate last longer on shelves but gives it a 'tangy' flavor that many Europeans find totally off-putting." One even asks, "Is that why some chocolate BURNS?"

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

"Tangy" is a nice way to put it. In a recent piece for The Takeout on Yahoo! Life, author Moriah House asks, "Why do so many Europeans hate Hershey's chocolate?" House notes, "By and large, the consensus among European (and generally non-American) Hershey's reviewers seems to be that it tastes more like sawdust than chocolate, or less generously, that it tastes like vomit. This might sound unnecessarily harsh, but there are some legitimate reasons that Hershey's bars may be an acquired taste."

While, obviously, Hershey's recipes are kept under lock and key, House insists there's evidence which "suggests that Hershey's chocolate contains butyric acid, a compound that is also found in, well, vomit. Before you get too grossed out, butyric acid is also found in parmesan cheese and many other things that many people find delicious."

Of fascinating note, it's also pointed out that perhaps Americans (and everyone worldwide) don't notice an off-putting taste or smell because of the nostalgia factor. In other words, we're just used to it. "The taste-memory connection should not be underestimated—studies have shown that comfort food is more related to memory than actual flavor. Considering that chocolate is a highly emotional and nostalgic food, the sweet memories associated with your childhood favorite chocolate probably have a not insignificant impact on how you perceive its flavor."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

There are, of course, other reasons the chocolate tastes different: sugar and fat content, and surprisingly, where the cocoa beans themselves are sourced. On GourmetBouquet.com, they explain, "American chocolatiers tend to use beans from South America, while Europeans, such as those in Great Britain, often use beans from West Africa instead."

While plenty of people have chimed in to say they in fact love American chocolate, the Europeans got a backup with this from this Redditor Down Under: "Mate, I'm here to tell you it's not just Europeans who don't like American chocolate. Us Aussies hate it too. And our chocolate (at least the mass-produced, supermarket stuff) isn't the greatest by a long shot!"

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The super interesting reason why people in the past looked so much older than people today

It isn't just the hairstyles.

via Nick Denner/Flickr and Canva/Photos

How are these both high schoolers?

Have you ever looked back at your parents’ high school yearbook and thought that all the 11th graders looked like they were in their early 30s? Whether they were in school in the ‘60s and the kids had horn-rimmed glasses or the ‘80s with feathered hair, they looked at least a decade older than today's high school kids. One wonders if in 30 years, kids look at a yearbook from 2025 and see boys with broccoli cuts and girls with nose rings and they think, “What are they, 35?”

The folks at Bright Side did a deep dive into the phenomenon and found a few reasons why people looked so much older in the past than they do now. It’s a mix of how our minds perceive older fashion and why people age more gracefully in modern times.

Why did people look older in the past?

“Specialists have looked into this phenomenon, and it does have some scientific facts to back it up,” the narrator states. “It's not necessarily that our ancestors looked older; it's more that we appear to look younger. And younger as generations go by, that's because over time humans have improved the way they live their lives in the us alone over the last 200 years.”

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

A big reason people looked a lot older when photography became common in the late 1800s is that it happened at a time when we were making tremendous advances in public health. The 1880s to the 1920s were a time of rapid advancement, when we began to understand infectious diseases and how they spread. “We gained access after safer types of foods, and we understand the importance of clean water. Our individual lifestyle choices can impact the way we look,” the video says.

The way we work has also drastically changed how people look. Working in an office for eight hours a day in air conditioning will keep you a lot younger-looking than working all day as a Victorian chimney sweep. Plus, for people who work outside, sunscreen has made it much easier to protect our skin and decrease wrinkles.

Let’s not forget the importance of a straight, white smile. Advances in dental care also help make people look younger.

1970s girls, high school girls, girls in uniforms, old high school photos, nostalgia A "girl gang" in 1976. via Earthworm/Flickr

Why do people wearing styles from the past appear older?

Finally, there’s the clothes issue, and, yes, this does have a big impact on how we view the age of people from the past. “Our brains are wired to associate old trends with being old,” the video says. “For example, your grandpa might still have the shirt he wore in that 1970s picture, and it's because of that shirt that you retroactively associate that trend with being old, despite the fact that your granddad does look younger in the picture than he looks today. “

girls in school, '60s high school girls, class room, old-school cool, GIrls in class in the 1960s.via Phillips Academy/Flickr

In the end, the fact that people look a lot younger today than they did in the past is a testament to how the quality of life has drastically improved since cameras were first invented. However, that doesn’t mean that fashion has improved at all. You have to admit that your dad with that fly butterfly collar in his 1977 graduation photo looks better than that multi-colored, Machine Gun Kelly-style hoodie you see guys wearing in high schools today.

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People are losing it over 'first-time mom' cats and their questionable maternal instincts

"Do the 9 lives start before or after parenting?" 😸

Photo credit: Canva

Maternal instinct in no way equals perfect parenting.

One thing you discover when you become a parent is that no parent is perfect. From the start, we are flying by the seat of our pants trying to figure out how to best care for the wee one in our care, and as the oh-so-true cliche goes, they don't come with a manual.

Apparently, the same is true for cats. A compilation of cat moms, purportedly on their first time around as mothers, is making the rounds, partly because it's hilarious and partly because it's painfully relatable. While we humans don't tend to suddenly thwap our babies for no apparent reason, we do accidentally hurt them, blame the wrong kid for a misdeed, overreact, and more on occasion. I mean, I never inadvertently dropped my baby into a garbage can, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that some mom has at some point.

Watch:

Thankfully, like kids, kittens are resilient and these moms and their questionable maternal instincts had people cackling. Naturally, the comments are gold:

"Call cps cat protective services."

"She just threw that baby away. 😂"

"Do the 9 lives start before or after parenting?"

"Okay that last one though…with the smothering & the eye-twitching…us mums can all empathize with that one."

cats, mama cat, kitten, maternal instincts, parenting Mama cats don't always have the gentlest instincts.Photo credit: Canva

"The poor kittens in the white box are clearly used to it. 'Yep that's my mom.'"

"They grew up in the 80s…they will be fine."

"Being raised by a cat is an experience."

"I'm not saying it's right. I'm not saying I do any of this. But I am saying I understand."

Another relatable cat mom video shows the opposing instinct that we all share: to protect our babies from anything that might harm them. I may have accidentally given my baby a black eye when I was carrying her and leaned over too close to the fireplace mantle corner once, but I would also wrestle an angry bear to protect her.

Check out these mama bear—or mama cat, rather—instincts in action:

@vandreleipioli
Mom is not playing ❤️‍🔥#funnyvideos #pet #fypツ #cutecat #catsoftiktok #kitty #funnyanimals #catlover #catmom

Again, the comments are spot on.

"That first one 'don't you fat shame my baby!'"

"Mama cats are either super sweet about their babies or absolutely vicious about them lmao there’s no in between."

"Cats do not play when it comes to their babies 🤣🤣🤣🤣."

"They say mama bear buuuut mama cat should be a thing too. them cats ain't playin when it comes to they kids js."

cats, mama cats, kitten, maternal instincts, cat moms Cat moms can get overwhelmed, too.Photo credit: Canva

On the other hand, some people shared that they had deadbeat—or at the very least exhausted—cat moms:

"Meanwhile my momma cat would drop her kids off with me and dip. She did NOT want to watch them kids all the time."

"When my cat had kittens every time I came back from school she was like 'finally... take these baby's PLEASE.'"

Another thing moms of various species share is the instinct to do something when our babies cry. Research shows that human mothers' brains have a specific, universal response to babies crying that those who aren't mothers don't, and it appears mama cats aren't much different.

Watch this mama cat come running from far away when she hears her kitten's mewing (and be sure to stay for the entertaining end):

- YouTubeyoutube.com

Priscilla wants us to know that mama cats may be mamas, but they're still cats and will not be told what to do.

"You're not for the streets Priscilla Had me dying. Backtalk meow. 😂"

"The amount of sass that Pricilla’s meow had was incredible."

"'You’re not for the streets Priscilla.' 'No, the streets are for me.'"

"😂 called her back like “You have a child at home maam."

"Their sense of hearing is amazing! It’s on the level of a superhero with superhero powers! She heard her baby’s squeal all the way down there! Goes to show you, when you call them and they don’t come, it’s because they don’t feel like it!"

Yup.

Here's to all the moms who would step in front of a train for their babies but who also fall far short of perfect parents every day. We see you, no matter your species.

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'SAHMs Listen up!': Texas UPS driver has blunt message about entitlement and stay-at-home moms

“I mean, how entitled could you be?”

via J.R. Minton (used with permission)

A Texas UPS driver has a strong opinion on stay-at-home moms.

J.R. Minton, a 33-year-old UPS driver from the Dallas, Texas, area, recently ruffled some feathers with a viral TikTok video titled “SAHMs Listen up!” that begins with him asking, “I mean, how entitled could you be?” At first, Minton appears to fail to appreciate the enormous amount of emotional, mental, and physical labor that stay-at-home moms provide.

“I truly cannot imagine the amount of arrogance you must have to sit there and complain when you are so privileged to have a person who is willing to provide such a carefree life for you,” Minton continues. “Let’s get real! What do you do all day? Your spouse is taking care of everything so you can take care of one thing. How complicated could it be: all you do is go to work?”

At this point, legions of stay-at-home mothers and those who love them considered trucking themselves to Dallas to find this unappreciative UPS driver. However, it was soon apparent that Minton was referring to himself.

@minton__jr
Grow tf up—You should be doing more. #sahm #sahmlife #momlife #mom #momsoftiktok #sahmsoftiktok #sahmtok #momtok

“For 10 hours a day, you get to live the life of a single, childless, carefree man because your wife was willing to take the financial risk of allowing you to be successful in your career while she takes care of everything else,” he continues. “She provides childcare services, home cleaning services, medical services, food services, scheduling services, and a list that goes on and on. And you provide... a paycheck? And you have the nerve to call yourself the provider! What is it going to take for you to realize that, bro, everything you have in your life is because of a stay-at-home mom.”

The commenters on the video breathed sighs of relief and then praised Minton, a father of 4, for publicly appreciating his wife’s work.

sigh of relief, relief, woman sighing, exhaustion, exasperation, joy A woman breathing a sigh of relief. via Canva/Photos

"My sleeves were rolled up, earrings were off, hair tied up.... I was so ready...." one commenter joked. "I thought I landed in enemy territory for a min..." another added. "You have just made me realize after all these years that *I* am the freaking provider and that feels amazing,” a stay-at-home mother wrote.

People appreciate Minton’s post because he praised stay-at-home mothers and placed his wife’s work above his, which he characterized as merely bringing home a paycheck. Minton has one job, delivering packages, but as he noted, his wife is an expert in over five different professions. In a world where stay-at-home moms are fighting to be seen as equals to their working spouses, Minton places them on a pedestal and owes his “carefree life” to them.

"Married life, with children, is bound to be chaotic," Minton told Upworthy. "It’s bound to have its ups and downs; It’s made me question myself a thousand times. However, the marriage my wife and I share has given me the space to find peace."

via Canva/Photos

Minton may be sharing an opinion we don't hear often enough, but he doesn't think he's the only one who thinks that way. "The last thing I am is rare or unique. There’s nothing special about the way that I feel or the things that I say. I have the same thoughts, feelings, frustrations and problems that any other husband or father might be struggling with," he told Upworthy. "The only difference that might be apparent is how I choose to react to the same situations any other man might encounter."

This post isn’t the first time Minton has pulled the bait and switch on his followers. Last year, he made a video where he appeared to take pride in the fact that he never “helps” his wife with chores.

@minton__jr

The twist in this video was that he doesn’t “help” his wife with chores because they are also his responsibility. "Because I do what I am supposed to do as a father and a husband. I cook. I clean. I do the laundry. I take care of the kids. I can't help my wife do those things because they are my job, too,” he reveals.

He then urged men to change their perspectives on how they view stay-at-home moms. “Change the way you speak, change the way you think, and grow the f*** up and be a man," he added.

Minton is an equal partner to his wife because he wants to treat his wife and family differently from how he was raised. “Pretty much everything about my parenting style is in spite of what I saw when I was growing up,” he told Today.com. It's wonderful to see someone like Minton breaking the generational cycles. What makes it even better is that he wants to teach others to do the same.

This article originally appeared in January 2025.

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stay at home moms