I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE SERIES

THERE IS A SOFT SPOT ON THEIR HEAD WHERE THE SKULL HASN'T FORMED AND THEIR BRAIN PULSES OUT OF. If you have little experience with them, babies are terrifyingly confusing and fragile. Now that I'm 32, I've had infants handed to me non-consensually for over a decade. As soon as he’shanded his friend's child, I cringed, which only intensified when the baby started crying. Tim Robinson plays one of the guests, who is offered the child to hold. The sketch opens at a birthday party, with adults cooing over a baby. I also love this blend of absurd comedy and pathos that you mention, which is exactly what the scene you’ve chosen exudes. Unfortunately I am not cool and am very boring so I love explaining and over-explaining jokes. Oh so what’s the joke? That I had a milder fart than I normally do? That I farted and nobody barfed? Some people also say analysing comedy takes the fun out of it, but to that I say *whoopie cushion noise*. When I say ‘that’s comedy, baby!’ this is what I mean But I’m not boring, I’m very cool, so I didn’t say that.

Many of the scenes disguise themselves as straightforward jokes but abruptly go in a completely unexpected direction.

That’s comedy, baby!Ī more boring person would say that ITYSL is an absurdist sketch comedy that often seems to take a predictable narrative structure or scenario but flips it on its head. Its second season only heightens its dark moments and instantly sympathy-inducing characters - a “haha!.aww” type of reaction. I’ve never before encountered a show that is simultaneously relatable and yet so surreal and distinctly UNrelatable. At the risk of inviting chaos, tell me…what I Think You Should Leave …is about…ĭF: I Think You Should Leave is a show about those tiny, bizarre moments we all experience… and also tiny, bizarre moments literally nobody has experienced. But I feel like we need to do things a little differently this time to fully prime the uninitiated into the cult of Tim Robinson. But the funniest show in the universe has returned, and it’s as great as ever.MS: Deirdre, normally in this newsletter we dive right into the scene at hand.

I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE SERIES

There is a sketch in the new series that opens in the usual way (party where people have gathered to look at a new baby) and ends in an incredibly strange fashion (Tim Robinson pouring a glass of water over a steak) that had me in honest-to-goodness tears. There are recurring themes: the slithering and powerful jealousy it is possible to feel when someone else at the party makes a better joke than you craving fame, or at least attention carjacking entire social interactions because of one small slight small-city American travelling stage entertainment.Ī lot of I Think You Should Leave sketches feel as if you are only one or two broken emotions away from causing the same strange scene in public the best are the ones where, in the opening minutes, it’s hard to know who in the ensemble cast is going to be playing the weirdo. What is fascinating about I Think You Should Leave is the elegant balance it strikes between the weird, late-night, stoner-friendly Adult Swim-style comedy that preceded it and the goofy, post-Vine vibe of modern online skits, all done with a Netflix glossiness and a perfect high-wire sense of balance. The whoopee cushion sketch ends with him, head in his hands, requesting permission to go home early so his face isn’t “beet red” for his family photo later, and … I’ve lost it again.

What I love about the sketch is you never quite know the character’s motivation at any one moment: is he trying to cancel out the joke by overcompensating with his own reaction? Is he genuinely hurt and upset? Is it all a clumsily played ruse to get out of work early? With Robinson, you never really know: he plays upstanding straight man just as well as he plays party guest calmly eating a gift receipt. Anyway, the sketch in question is the one where Robinson sits on a whoopee cushion in a boardroom and, slowly, over the course of several intense minutes, becomes more and more upset by the joke he doesn’t get.

I think you should leave