Tim Robinson has Perfected Sketch Comedy

Almost a year ago I made a blog post claiming Nathan For You was the funniest show I've seen. I retract that statement, the honour now goes to I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. The first time watching the show I was in tears, literally I was crying. Merely remembering some of my favourite sketches gets an audible laugh out of me. The show is absurd, stupid, and at times cringey, but Jesus Christ it's funny.

Like Saturday Night Live, I Think You Should Leave is a sketch comedy show. Currently twelve episodes total and each episode is less than 20 minutes. The experience is fast-paced, which is perfect for a sketch show because they don't dwell too long on the duds. And there are some duds, but I know people that love even some of my least favourite sketches. The show is a cosmic gumbo that anyone can enjoy.

And it only gets better on re-watches. The first viewing is tough because the cringe can be a little too heavy. It's like how horror movies are hard to enjoy when you're always waiting for a jump scare. But once you're prepared for the cringe, the absurdity becomes an inside joke, and it's easier to appreciate the subtle humor. A couple of sketches that got no laughs from me on the first watch are now some of my favourites.

I want to talk about a couple of my favourite sketches to give an overview of what the show has to offer.

Ghost Tour

From here on out this blog post is for adults only, which means I can say whatever the hell I want.

Ghost Tour is one of the most stupid, infantile and childish sketches in the entire show. Tim Robinson's character is a guest in a Ghost Tour and he repeatedly interrupts with crass questions. It works because his character is genuinely curious about the ghosts. He isn't trying to be funny and he isn't trying to get a laugh. He is sincere when he asks questions about whether the ghosts run around nude and whether they take dumps on the floor. And my immature brain loves it.

Hot Dog Car Crash

Most I Think You Should Leave episodes have a formula: Asshole gets called out for being wrong, Asshole doubles down and refuses to admit they're wrong, Asshole makes the situation far worse for themselves and suffers the consequences. Hot Dog Car Crash might be the best example of this formula.

Tim Robinson has crashed his hot dog shaped car into a clothing store. Tim tries to get away with it by hiding in the crowd of guests inside and he leads the witch hunt to "catch" the culprit. The joke is that Tim is in a hot dog suit, so it's immediately obvious that he was the driver. Tim's persistence to gaslight the rest of the customers is quintessential I Think You Should Leave.

The Day Robert Palins Murdered Me

If Ghost Tour is the show at peak stupidity, The Day That Robert Palins Murdered Me is the show at peak absurdity. Tim's band is demoing a gospel song for a producer, but the demo fails because gospel isn't popular anymore. So the bands lead singer starts improvising a new song, a soulful song about a cowboys murder. Tim's character, who doesn't know this new song at all, proceeds to ruin the performance by interjecting about "The Night that the Skeletons Came to Life".

Some of the lyrics include "the bones are their money, the worms are their dollars" and "they'll pull your hair up but not out". It makes 0 sense and the producer hates it. But like many of the show's best sketches, the absolute confidence Tim has when performing the train wreck makes the sketch top tier.

There are many other amazing sketches that I didn't mention, like Tim dressing up as Karl Havoc for a prank show. But a lot of these sketches are best seen with no context at all. So please, if you haven't seen it yet, take 20 minutes to watch just the first episode. You won't regret it.