Gene Wilder’s comedic timing was beyond compare

Gene Wilder is gone, and he will be sorely missed. He was an icon. As a fan, I always admired the air of whimsy and gentle weirdness he brought to his roles. The obvious example will forever be his defining performance in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, where he plays a kind, if gleefully unhinged, candy baron. But you saw it throughout his oeuvre, from his Mel Brooks days down to his work with Richard Pryor.

A central part of those performances, as wonderfully idiosyncratic as they are, is definitely in his timing. Videographer Rishi Kaneria captures that beautifully here. As Edgar Wright put it on Twitter the other day in the wake of the actor’s death, Gene Wilder was a master of the comedic pause.

And wasn’t he? He had a way of filling a moment of silence with a kind of nervous, neurotic energy, waiting a few too many beats, and either letting it explode in a burst or deflating with a word. It always gave you a glimpse into what the character was really thinking or feeling, and it always got a laugh. That’s not a skill every comic actor has, and it’s part of why, as Wesley Morris wrote for The New York Times, Wilder doesn’t have many comedy descendants.

So when thinking about Gene Wilder makes you sing “Pure Imagination,” also think about what he did with silence. And be glad that he could make you laugh even without saying or singing a word.