The 12 Best I Think You Should Leave Sketches, Ranked
Netflix has renewed Tim Robinson's hugely popular sketch show "I Think You Should Leave" for a third season (per Variety). While there is no official release date for the newest installment of the SNL alum's vehicle, according to What's on Netflix, filming began at the beginning of November and is scheduled to wrap sometime in mid-December.
Since premiering in April 2019, the show has been a massive hit with critics and audiences. Produced by Robinson and his former SNL writing partner Zach Kanin, as well as Lonely Island members Andy Samberg, Akiva Shaffer, and Jorma Taccone, the show's unique style of comedy blends the surreal, the absurd, and the down-right cringe-worthy into a cosmic gumbo of quotable, memorable moments. Featuring a veritable stable of stars in its guest appearances roster, including Bob Odenkirk, Fred Willard, Cecily Strong, and Vanessa Bayer, Robinson's comedic stylings are patently original and side-splittingly hilarious. According to one reviewer, the heart of Robinson's comedy lies in identifying small, commonplace moments of tension and "escalating them into the most absurd scenarios possible" (via Polygon). To celebrate the upcoming return of "I Think You Should Leave" we watched all 53 sketches and ranked our top 12 below.
12. Dan Vega's Mega Money Quiz
Our first sketch comes to us from Season 1, Episode 6, and its central premise will be painfully familiar to anybody who has put off a big project until the last minute. The game show seems simple enough: contestants pick squares from the Mega-Money board and try to accumulate the highest number of points. If you flip over the wrong square, the show's mascot, Chunky, comes out from backstage and starts to "gobble up your points."
It would be a passably entertaining show if only Chunky could figure out what his deal is. Despite having all summer to figure out Chunky's schtick, the red fur suit-clad mascot seems to be making it up as he goes along, much to the exasperation of the show's host, Dan Vega (Tim Robinson), and the target of Chunky's increasing violent antics, Paul (Andy Samberg).
What begins as a benign game rapidly devolves into utter chaos as Chunky smashes Paul's laptop and forces him to wear his own hat, bringing out the hilariously over-the-top responses of Vega, who insists that Chunky plan his routine before coming onto the stage. Tim Robinson's signature unhinged reactions to Chunky trying to talk ("The mouth on the thing doesn't move! It looks fake!") as well as the other contestants' calm and rational attempts to keep the game on track make this sketch a solid winner, unlike poor Paul.
11. Honk If You're Horny
This sketch from Season 1, Episode 4 serves as a dire warning for anybody who chooses to drive a car with a "Honk if you're..." bumper sticker on the back: if you put that sticker on, somebody might just take you up on it. The sketch features Tim Robinson as the unfortunate owner of a "Honk if You're Horny" bumper sticker and his frequent collaborator, Conner O'Malley, as the persistent follower of the sticker's instructions.
After seeing the sticker at a red light, the afflicted man begins to follow the car around everywhere, continually honking and driving Robinson slowly insane. This culminates in a confrontation at his father's funeral. Robinson tries to pass the sticker off as a little joke from his small town, but O'Malley insists he must be from a service "for people who are so horny their stomach hurts."
The ending of this sketch is what makes it a gem, as a furious O'Malley tries to rip the sticker from the back of the car and inadvertently reveals that it's full of adult magazines. Robinson reluctantly lets him take his pick before leaving the thoroughly relieved honker to sing a beautiful rendition of the original song "Friday Night" at his father's graveside. It's a roller coaster of a sketch that sticks the landing of its absurd premise with aplomb, earning it one of the spots on our list.
10. Laser Spine Specialists
One of several sketches on our list from the third episode of Season 1, this one starts out as a run-of-the-mill commercial for Laser Spine Specialists. Intermixed with the very normal testimonials from patients able to run, bike, and dance again after their minimally invasive spine surgery, Tim Robinson bursts in with some out-of-left-field ideas for activities you can perform after calling 1-888-555-SPYN for your free diagnostic exam.
As if fighting your ex-wife's new husband and lifting your very adult son over your head wasn't hilariously absurd enough, the sketch ends with Robinson taking a trip to see Robbie Starr (Conner O'Malley) at Superstar Tracks Records to get back the $10,000 he spent on the atrocious track "Moon River Rock." O'Malley and Robinson are dynamite in this sketch once again, somehow matching and then topping each other's manic energy, while O'Malley looks like he's barely holding back a laugh.
There's so much to love about this sketch once it breaks out of its commercial parody setup. The small details like Robbie Starr discussing Robinson's "Q-Zone" and the last-minute appearance of a similarly scammed old man singing "Palm Tree" have viewers in stitches long before an absurd crescendo involving a thoroughly flustered Robinson returning to the recording booth to take another stab at his No. 1 hit. Just as the sketch reaches its conclusion, the Laser Spine Specialist's logo reappears at the bottom of the screen, just in case anybody forgot from whence all this insanity came.
9. The Celebrity Game
Another excellent sketch from Season 1, Episode 3 has Tim Robinson playing an uncharacteristically mellow character at a chill-seeming get-together with a group of friends. The game of the evening is the celebrity game, in which participants write the names of celebrities on a piece of paper and their partner must guess the name based on clues about their career. Everything's going smoothly until an unusual celebrity name emerges from the hat, placed there by a ponytail-sporting, jazz-loving cigar salesman played hilariously by guest star Tim Heidecker.
This sketch belongs to Heidecker. Everybody has had the misfortune of knowing somebody like his character Howie, and the familiar details of that character are what elevate this sketch to the next level. He's pedantic, annoyingly esoteric, and passive-aggressive. Every word out of his mouth is so perfect that the sketch is a riot from start to finish.
There's so much to love about this sketch, from the names of Howie's favorite jazz legends (Marcus "The Worm" Hicks and Tiny "Boop Squig" Shorterly are stand-outs) to the fact that he brings a bag of in-shell walnuts requiring his host to find a Christmas nutcracker and his request for gazpacho, which he claims burns his lips. By the time Howie decides to leave with his girlfriend, it's a miracle none of the other guests have gone postal at the sheer audacity of their friend's new beau.
8. The Night the Skeletons Came to Life
This sketch from Season 1, Episode 5 is a parody of a scene from the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line" where the Man in Black himself sings "Folsom Prison Blues" for record producer Sam Phillips. Robinson's version sees a similar scenario unfold: a small gospel trio sings for an unimpressed record producer, who informs them that their sound just isn't selling anymore. Then, in a moment of divine inspiration, the lead singer begins to belt out a new, original blues number, piquing the interest of the erstwhile ambivalent exec — that is, until Robinson's bassist begins chiming in with his own lyrics.
You needn't have seen "Walk the Line" to find this sketch funny, which is one of the reasons why it deserves a spot on our list. It's plenty hilarious in and of itself. Robinson's improvisations have little bearing on the lead singer's, as he turns what was a song about an Old West gunslinger into a chronicle of "The Night That the Skeletons Came to Life," despite the lead singer's attempts to wrest control of his song away from his exuberant rhythm section.
What really makes this sketch sing is the absurd world Robinson builds with his skeleton song. He adds details about where the skeleton's come from (both from under the ground and from all over), why they come to life (to collect your bones, which the skeletons use as money), and what they'll do to you if they catch you (pull your hair up, but not out). You'd feel bad for him when his song is rejected if you weren't so busy laughing.
7. The Focus Group
Another instance of Tim Robinson yielding the spotlight to a fantastic guest star, this sketch from Season 1, Episode 3 might is one of the greats. The beginning of the sketch sees Robinson leading a focus group for Ford, brainstorming ideas for a new line of luxury cars. The group responds with normal requests until the camera lands on Mr. Ruben Rabasa, a striking figure with bright white hair, a mustache, and a charming accent. It's clear from then on that this sketch belongs to him.
Rabasa suggests that the car should have "a good steering wheel that doesn't fly off while you are driving," stopping Robinson and the rest of the focus group in their tracks and repeating his suggestion until he's sure his input has been recorded.
His outlandish suggestions put him into a pointlessly hilarious spat with another focus group member Paul (Zach Kanin), whom he accuses of being a teacher's pet, of farting so much Rabasa can't think of any good ideas, and, worst of all, of loving his mother-in-law. By this point, Rabasa has won over the rest of the focus group. Sensing the power shift, he goes in for the kill, executing one of the cleanest bottle flips ever put to celluloid and making Paul flinch, which, according to the rules of the focus group, means Paul must marry his mother-in-law. Game, set, match. For a relatively unknown actor, Rabasa fits so seamlessly into Robinson's world of pointless altercations escalated to the nth degree, it's a marvel he hasn't been cast in more sketch comedy shows.
6. Baby of the Year
Frequent Robinson collaborator Sam Richardson appears in a few sketches throughout the show's two seasons, but this sketch from Season 1, Episode 1 is far and away his best. The sketch opens on Richardson, resplendent in a shiny silver tuxedo jacket, hosting the 112th Baby of the Year Competition. After Richardson's stellar opening song, we meet the competitors: Michael Patrick Porkins, Taffy Lee Fubbins, and "the bad boy of the competition," Bart Harley Jarvis.
One of the few sketches that doesn't feature Robinson, the setup is so absurd you don't quite know where everything's going to go next. You've got Jarvis-haters yelling obscenities at an infant, a pediatrician named Dr. Skull, and a shocking revelation that Michael Patrick Porkins' father exchanged sexual favors with the Mystery Judge of the competition.
Just when you think the sketch has thrown you its final curveball, Richardson takes us to the In Memoriam Segment. Thankfully, as Richardson explains to the judges, "they don't stay babies forever," and as the segment rolls — hilariously listing the cause of death for each former baby of the year contender — a crazed audience member rushes the stage to try to kill Bart Harley Jarvis. It's complete lunacy and it's completely hysterical.
5. Brian's Hat
Everybody's made a bold fashion choice that didn't go over quite as well as hoped at least once in their life. This sketch from Season 2, Episode 2 sees poor unfortunate Brian (Tim Robinson) make a similar unfortunate choice in haberdashery. The sketch is set in a courtroom where two of Brian's coworkers are on trial for insider trading.
As the prosecutor begins to read the defendant's incriminating text messages, it seems like this might be purely a courtroom sketch until the texts begin mentioning "Brian's hat." We're treated to one of the most hilarious racked focus shots in recent memory, revealing Brian sitting in court wearing a fedora with a safari neck flap.
Robinson brings a tremendous amount of pathos to this character, reacting indignantly as the prosecutor continues to read from the transcripts, heaping more and more abuse upon the unfortunate headwear and Brian's affinity for carrying dice in his pocket. The sketch ends with the recounting of a hilarious office meeting where Brian reveals that the man who sold him the hat told him that "he's never seen anybody pull it off before." He picks the safari flap fedora as the one thing he's going to fight for in his life. Robinson barely speaks in the sketch, but it's no less side-splitting to watch Robinson absolutely lose his cool.
4. Sloppy Steaks
It can be a little bit nerve-wracking holding somebody else's baby, especially if the baby starts crying as soon as it ends up in your arms. That's how this sketch from Season 2, Episode 2 begins before transforming into a slightly unhinged treatise on man's capacity to change and a spirited debate about the degree to which Shane (Tim Robinson) used to be a piece of — well, not a very good person.
At the baby shower for a friend's newborn, rather than accept that babies are just a bit touchy sometimes, Shane becomes convinced that the baby cries when he holds it because it can see his past life of slicked-back hair, white Mustangs, and sloppy steaks at Truffoni's. The vehemency with which Shane derides his past behavior, while also pining for the days when he and his Dangerous Nights crew used to paint the town red, is funny, but what really makes this sketch is the flashback to what those dangerous nights looked like.
As we cut to the past, Shane kicks open the door to Truffoni's wearing an open vest over a turtleneck and a dog tag necklace, his hair greased flat to his skull. He joins his boys at a booth and orders a big, rare cut of meat that he promptly douses with water, as Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig serenades the sloppiness with the original song "Dangerous Knife (The Night Is a Knife)". It's bizarre, it's surprisingly hopeful, and it's downright hilarious.
3. Coffin Flop
With cable cutting on the rise, there are plenty of channels in danger of falling off the silver screen forever. In this sketch from the first episode of Season 2, Tim Robinson appears in a PSA begging the viewers of Corncob TV to save the life of his hit show "Coffin Flop." The ludicrous show has Robinson and his film crew driving around to funerals and shooting the ones featuring catastrophic coffin failure, sending the recently deceased tumbling out of the poorly made caskets.
It's undeniably (if morbidly) amusing to watch "body after body busting out of cheap wood and hitting the pavement," especially when you add in the small detail that one out of every five of them was to be buried sans wardrobe. But what sends this sketch into the comedic stratosphere is Robinson's commitment to his bizarro character insisting that he has nothing to do with the frequency of the eponymous coffin flops.
This sketch is far and away the funniest from the incredibly strong Season 2 premiere. The cherry on top of the cake? Robinson, staring down the camera, head cocked to the side, insisting that they're allowed to show the dead bodies nude because "they ain't got no soul." It's a sketch that owes its success to Robinson's impeccable comedic timing and his hilariously off-kilter delivery of every line.
2. The Gift Receipt
This sketch from the series premiere is the purest distillation of the driving formula behind so much of Tim Robinson's comedy: taking a minor, relatable moment of insecurity and absolutely ignoring social convention until the situation has climbed to such surreal heights that the inciting incident is all but forgotten.
Unfolding at a birthday party for Jacob (played by Academy Award nominee Steven Yuen), Robinson plays Lev, who's insecure about whether the host likes his gift: a wreath that "the guy at the store says works great." Despite Jacob's insistence that he likes the gift, Lev requests the gift receipt back. Still not satisfied that his friend enjoys the gift, Lev eats the receipt. This is where the sketch begins to hit hysterical new heights. When Lev gets sick after his receipt consumption, he insists that the illness was brought on not by eating paper — an activity Lev insists he engages in regularly — but by the presence of "mudpie" (i.e., fecal matter). To prove that paper doesn't make you sick, another party attendee eats a second gift receipt, yielding no paper poisoning, and causing everybody to turn on the birthday boy and abandon his party to go hang out with Lev.
There are many funny moments in this sketch: Lev growing steadily more apoplectic when Jacob tries to touch the unsullied receipt, referring to a piece of toilet paper as "a slice," and adamantly refusing to back down until he's been vindicated, to name just a few. It's a sketch only Tim Robinson could pull off. By the time Lev succumbs to Mudpie Poisoning at the end of the sketch, your ribs hurt so much from laughing, you almost forget that this sketch was originally about gift receipts.
1. The Hot Dog Car
This outstanding sketch from Season 1, Episode 5 begins with a Wienermobile crashing through the doors of a men's clothing store, sending the patrons scrambling to figure out who was responsible. Enter Tim Robinson, adorned in a scarlet letter of a hot dog costume. He chimes in with the others, demanding that whoever crashed the hot dog car step forward and confess.
One of several hot dog-centric sketches in "I Think You Should Leave," it's hard to do it justice by describing it. On paper, it doesn't sound like much, but we highly recommend rewatching it, because its execution is a masterclass in comedic timing and the subtle power of a well-placed sight gag. As the store insists that the hot dog car must belong to the man in the hot dog costume, the camera pans to Zach Kanin wearing an unfortunately hot-dog-esque suit ensemble for one of the biggest laughs.
As Robinson muddies the waters with a long-winded monologue about the evils of technology and how he knows the names of adult websites better than his grandparents' names, he fills his arms with high-end clothing. It isn't hard to believe that this silver-tongued frankfurter might be able to get away with it. Then the moment breaks and Robinson flees the store, pursued by police, hurling insults over his shoulder. This picture-perfect sketch is our pick for the greatest "I Think You Should Leave" segment thus far.