Even in Season 3, it still seems unreal that I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson is a show that actually exists. After spending the better part of the last decade writing for iconic comedy series such as Saturday Night Live and Detroiters, Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin took their most ambitious swing yet: a surreal Netflix sketch comedy series that put Robinson in front of the camera. The series has amassed a cult following thanks to the infectious lunacy of its humor, and while both seasons are bursting at the seams with contenders for the series' best sketch, one stands out above the rest: the courtroom-set piece titled "Brian's Hat."
As a primer, audiences should know that I Think You Should Leave is not a typical comedy series by any stretch of the imagination. Robinson and Kanin's humor revels in discomfort, with the series often exploiting the tension found in an audience not quite knowing what is and isn't funny. The very first sketch of the entire series, "Both Ways," acts as a brilliantly effective introduction to I Think You Should Leave's uniquely unsettling brand of comedy.
I Think You Should Leave Takes the Normal and Makes it Absurd
In "Both Ways," Robinson is wrapping up a job interview at a cafe. It seems to be going well, with him and the interviewer jovially saying their goodbyes as Robinson heads for the exit. When he reaches the door, he tries in vain to pull the door open, to which his interviewer responds with "Looks like you push." Robinson responds by saying the door opens "both ways" and proceeds to slowly pull the door open with a great deal of difficulty, exerting himself over the course of several minutes of runtime. After painstakingly breaking the door so that it will indeed pull open, he turns to look back at the interviewer and says, "See? Hope to hear from you soon."
This is a pretty perfect representation of the series as a whole. Robinson and Kanin's writing delights in taking the discomfort of nominal everyday occurrences and ratcheting up the tension to an absurdist, heightened degree. "Both Ways" is incredibly accessible and relatable on a narrative level: a nervous individual making a common mistake as they leave a job interview. And yet everything about its execution is positively anxiety-inducing. Robinson's unfaltering commitment to the performance, the escalating editing, the crescendoing dissonance of the musical score all work in support of the juxtaposition at the heart of I Think You Should Leave.
Brian's Hat is Brilliant Courtroom Comedy
Coming in the middle of Season 2, "Brian's Hat" is a startling culmination of all of I Think You Should Leave's greatest strengths. It takes Robinson and Kanin's penchant for establishing genre fare only to immediately undermine it as well as their love of foregrounding escalating anxieties and blends those things together in the name of an engagingly absurdist work. The sketch opens with a series of shots played straight, all setting the table: viewers are thrown into the middle of a traditional courtroom drama, centering around insider stock trading. The prosecutor proceeds to read aloud from a list of text messages between the two defendants, which she claims will prove the illegality of their unloading of Qualstarr stock.
This entire setup -- from the narrative to the craning establishing shot of the courtroom with shallower-focused singles on the individual players -- is the kind of thing audiences have seen dozens of times before. It is straight out of an episode of Law & Order; everything about it lulls viewers into a sense of comfort through the familiarity of what they are seeing. As the prosecutor begins to read the text messages, audiences are treated to flashbacks of the defendants engaging in the insider trading. These flashbacks are color-graded a deeper hue of blue -- another stylistic trope of traditional courtroom dramas that I Think You Should Leave exploits.
Crucially, even as the editing cuts back and forth between the flashbacks and the reactions of the defendants in the present, the prosecutor remains a constant. As she continues to read the detailed messages, her voice gradually reels viewers in. And then the sketch plays its hand: the prosecutor reads the text, "Oh my God, did you see Brian's hat?" In conjunction with this line, the camera's focus sharply shifts from the prosecutor to Brian, a man sitting in the gallery (played by Robinson) wearing what can only be described as a fedora with a flap on the back.
Any trace of the insider stock trading conversation vanishes as the texts and their corresponding flashbacks now focus entirely on the defendants discussing the stupidity of Brian's hat. Here, I Think You Should Leave innovatively weaponizes the visual language it so mundanely established in the opening moments, hijacking the conventions of the courtroom drama to give the sketch a wider canvas, as Brian's titular hat takes a beating.
The Courtroom Sketch Showcases Everything Great About I Think You Should Leave
"Brian's Hat" has an obscenely simple hook: "What if a traditional courtroom drama centered around what the defendants thought of their co-worker's dumb hat?" But through its endlessly motivated cutting and meticulous setup, the sketch carves out a space to deliver I Think You Should Leave's best work. As the prosecutor continues to read the texts, narrating over the flashbacks, she serves as the voice of each character -- including Brian himself. This results in the very monotonous tone of the prosecutor clashing against Robinson's unflinchingly committed absurdist performance in profoundly funny ways.
The sketch also makes excellent use of filmmaking to further heighten its gags. The focus shift on the reveal of the "Brian's hat" message is a perfect example, but the sketch is full of brilliant beats using the formal language and editing of the sketch to further accentuate the jokes. The sketch escalates to an insane degree, as the texts divulge increasingly personal trials and tribulations faced by Brian as a result of his hat, from it getting him in trouble at work to being the cause of an anxiety attack that turns his face "f***ing beat red."
I Think You Should Leave finds humor in elevating the discomforts and anxieties of social interaction to the forefront while embracing genre filmmaking and subverting expectations. What makes "Brian's Hat" such a standout sketch is the masterful way in which it blends the show's approaches in a singular fashion. No one else is making comedy quite like Robinson and Kanin, and while it may be unsettling, I Think You Should Leave remains essential comedy viewing.
I Think You Should Leave is streaming on Netflix.