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Who really said it

I wonder what chairs think about all day: 'Oh, here comes another asshole.'

Attributed to Robin Williams 1951–2014 · American stand-up comedian & actor
Attributed In copyright

Wikiquote files the line in its sourced section under Williams’s 1979 album Reality…What a Concept, and the quote sites that carry it are copying that entry. But the Wikiquote bullet gives no track, timestamp or transcript, and no recording or published text confirming this exact wording could be located — so it is credited, not confirmed.

Last verified 7 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Unconfirmed quote & credit

“I wonder what chairs think about all day: 'Oh, here comes another asshole.'” Attributed to Robin Williams (1951–2014). Wikiquote lists this line under his 1979 album "Reality…What a Concept" (recorded live at the Copacabana, New York; Casablanca Records, 1979), but with no track, timestamp or transcript citation, and no recording confirming the exact wording could be located. Attributed, not verified. — Quotle.info

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The Estate of Robin Williams; the credited album was issued by Casablanca Records). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Robin Williams — American stand-up comedian & actor. Theme: "I wonder what chairs think about all day: 'Oh, here comes another asshole.'". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "I wonder what chairs think about all day: 'Oh, here comes another asshole.'". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source, as far as it actually goes

Credited work
Reality…What a Concept
Recorded
Williams’s 1979 live show at the Copacabana, New York City
Label
Casablanca Records, 1979
Line citation
None — the Wikiquote bullet gives no track, timestamp or transcript

I wonder what chairs think about all day: “Oh, here comes another asshole.”

There is no fuller context to give. The line is reproduced here exactly as Wikiquote carries it; no transcript of the surrounding routine, and no audio of the credited album, could be located to show what came before or after it.

Robin Williams on Wikiquote

How far the paper trail actually runs

  • Wikiquote carries the line in its sourced quotes section, under the heading Reality…What a Concept (1979) — Robin Williams, Wikiquote ↗. Its neighbours in that list are a Mister Rogers parody and a Shakespeare send-up, both very much Williams’s territory.
  • Read the page’s underlying wikitext ↗ and the problem shows: not one bullet in that album section has a footnote, track number or timestamp. The album title is the citation.
  • Downstream quote sites reproduce the wording identically and cite the same 1979 album — and QuotePark ↗ says plainly that its entry was adopted from Wikiquote. That is one source wearing several hats, not independent corroboration.
  • Quote Investigator ↗, the usual court of last resort for lines like this, has no article on it — so there is no specialist finding to defer to, in either direction.
In copyright

Whatever performance this line came from, it is a 20th-century stand-up routine by a performer who died in 2014 — nowhere near the public domain, which in the United States currently reaches only works first published before 1931. The credited album, Reality…What a Concept, was recorded at a 1979 live show and issued by Casablanca Records that year; rights sit with Williams’s estate and the label. Treat the text as protected.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Not a wrong name — a citation that eats its own tail

Nobody else is claiming this joke. The trouble is subtler and more common: a confident-looking source citation that, followed backwards, arrives at a single unsourced line and stops.

“Reality…What a Concept (1979)” circular

Every quote page that offers a source offers that album — and QuotePark ↗ states outright that its entry was adopted from Wikiquote. The wording is byte-identical across sites, which is what copying looks like, not what independent attestation looks like.

An uncited bullet no footnote

The raw wikitext ↗ shows the album heading carries the whole section: no track, no timestamp, no reference tag on this line or any other line under it. A work heading is a claim about a source, not a source.

Quote Investigator no entry

A search of QI for “chairs” ↗ turns up nothing on this joke. That is not evidence against Williams — it simply means no one has done the archival work, so there is no earliest-attestation date to hand anyone.

Robin Williams magnet

Williams is one of the internet’s great quote magnets, and an improviser by trade — Wikipedia ↗ notes he improvised much of his material, including his Mork & Mindy dialogue. That cuts both ways: it makes the line entirely in character, and it makes a fixed, quotable text harder to pin down.

The honest position: no evidence contradicts Robin Williams, and the line sits in Wikiquote’s sourced section ↗ under his 1979 album — but until someone cites a track, a timestamp or a transcript, “attributed” is as far as the evidence reaches.

Context

Why this one is hard to nail down

1979 was the year the comedy world caught up with Robin Williams. He had come up through Bay Area clubs from 1976, starting at the Holy City Zoo, and by then was starring as Mork on Mork & Mindy, a role he largely improvised ↗. That same year he taped a live show at the Copacabana in New York; the resulting album, Reality…What a Concept, took the Grammy for Best Comedy Album among the 1980 winners ↗.

An improviser’s best throwaway lines are exactly the ones that resist citation. A novelist’s sentence sits on a numbered page forever; a comic’s aside exists in a particular room on a particular night, and may or may not have survived onto the record. That is the gap this quote lives in — utterly plausible as Williams, and stubbornly unsourced.

A work heading is a claim about a source. It is not a source.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Creativity Happiness

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Robin Williams — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

The sourced-quotes page that files this line under the heading “Reality…What a Concept (1979)” — the origin of every citation you will see elsewhere.
Wikiquote page source (wikitext)en.wikiquote.org

The raw markup, where you can see for yourself that no bullet in that album section carries a footnote or track reference.
Robin Williams — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Biography: born 1951 in Chicago, Bay Area stand-up from 1976, Mork & Mindy 1978–1982, the Grammy-winning 1979 Copacabana live show, died 2014.
Grammy Award for Best Comedy Albumen.wikipedia.org

Winners list showing Reality…What a Concept for Robin Williams among the 1980 recipients.
Quote Investigator — search for “chairs”quoteinvestigator.com

Confirms the specialists have never investigated this line: no QI article on chairs and what they think of us.
QuotePark entry for the quotequotepark.com

A typical aggregator listing — useful because it openly states the entry was adopted from Wikiquote, exposing the circular sourcing.

The credited voice

About Robin Williams

Robin Williams

1951–2014 · American stand-up comedian & actor

Born in Chicago on 21 July 1951, Robin Williams began performing stand-up in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976, working his way up from tending bar at the Holy City Zoo before moving to Los Angeles and the Comedy Store. National fame arrived with the alien Mork in ABC’s Mork & Mindy (1978–1982), a part he improvised heavily — and in the same stretch he won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album for the recording of his 1979 live show at the Copacabana in New York, Reality…What a Concept. He died on 11 August 2014 in Paradise Cay, California.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Best available citation

No primary source located. Best available: Wikiquote, “Robin Williams,” section “Reality…What a Concept (1979),” which lists the line with no track, timestamp or transcript citation. The credited album was recorded at Williams’s 1979 live show at the Copacabana, New York City, and issued by Casablanca Records, 1979.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I wonder what chairs think about all day: 'Oh, here comes another asshole.'’?” Last verified 7 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-wonder-what-chairs-think-about-all-day-oh-here-comes/

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