Robin Williams says he was too drunk to walk when he finally entered rehab

Story: Splash news

Hollywood funnyman Robin Williams says he was too drunk to walk when he finally entered rehab.

The movie star shocked fans when he admitted he had quietly gone through rehab to end years of abusing alcohol.

And he was happy to discuss his hard times on U.S. TV, even laughing about the irony that his interview came up after a clip of people in a remote village in Turkey who all walk around on all fours.

"You know you had those people on today walking on all fours - that's how I went into rehab," the funnyman said, raising laughs as he also went down on his hands.

"It wasn't genetic, it wasn't evolutionary" - and to prove his point he pulled a series of drunken faces with his eyes closed.

He then poked fun at Tom Cruise, imitating the star as he said "Just vitamins and exercise" - what Cruise had said to the same interviewer, Matt Lauer, insisting that that was all that was needed to overcome psychiatric problems.

Williams had gone into rehab in the same time period as Mel Gibson - but said he did not have a "Mel moment" with a major meltdown that let him know there was no way of avoiding his need for help.

"It was just a build-up," he said of his drinking problems.

"After a while you realize that English is becoming like a second language, and if you keep going things are going to get bad.

" He said it was easy discussing the problem with his children - because they were the ones who hated what he had become as a drunk.

"They saw the before and after," he said. "So the discussion is - they're glad to have me back, which is great. That's the best thing of all."

He admitted he has no problem using his rehab stint for comedy value.

"Rehab is this whole thing - it's like college without the beer. You come out with a program to deal with it.

"Is there funny stuff that happens in the middle of it?

Yeah, in the midst of it there's wild stuff, a lot of it you don't want to talk about to protect the innocent."