According to choreographer Vince Paterson, Robin Williams pulled him aside as they were shooting this scene and said he was tired of playing "the straight man," and wanted something funnier to do. Paterson pitched the bit as The History of Dance in Thirty Seconds, and taught it to him behind the walls of the set. After seeing it for the first time, director Mike Nichols said the sequence was wonderful but unnecessary. Williams fell to his knees and begged Nichols to shoot it again properly. According to a biography of Nichols, when they were unsure how the bit should end, it was Nathan Lane who came up with the punchline: "But you keep it all inside." Remembering the scene nearly twenty years later, Paterson said, "We never thought it would become what it has. It’s iconic."
The Birdcage (1996)
