Tim Robinson’s HBO series is funny and deranged

“We’re all trying to find the man who did this.” this line, said a confused man dressed as a hot dogbecame one of the most famous moments from “I think you should leave with Tim Robinson.” The hilarious Netflix comedy series created by Robinson and Zack Kanin. The moment arrives after a hot dog-shaped car crashes into a clothing store, causing chaos. Inside, customers and employees try to regain their bearings and begin to ask, “Who did this?” Who hit that hot dog car at the store? Suddenly, the man dressed as a hot dog (played by Robinson) appears in the frame, trying to join the crowd. It’s clear to everyone that Robinson’s character is the guy who crashed the hot dog car – and he’s dressed as a hot dog! However, Robinson’s man keeps the hot dogs Insistence He wasn’t involved.

The sketch is undeniably funny and has ingrained itself in the popular culture consciousness, as Hot Dog Man Robinson cries “We’re all trying to find the guy who did this!” It becomes a catch-all meme when public figures try to shift blame away from themselves. It perfectly sums up the type of characters Robinson tends to play: messy, insecure men afraid to admit they’ve done something wrong. They do not (usually) act this way because they are confident in their actions or believe they are actually right. Instead, they are so terrified by the idea of ​​being embarrassed that they are willing to blatantly lie in order to escape ridicule. (The first sketch of “I Think You Should Leave,” in which Robinson plays a man in a job interview who literally breaks down a door rather than admitting he’s opening it the wrong way, also sums up this mentality perfectly.)

While the joke is always taken to the silliest place, this type of individual is the one who keeps it Insistence They are right while everyone around them is wrong – seems synonymous with our current dysfunctional American era. Although conspiracy theories have always been present in America, the past two decades have seen them become mainstream, with leaders of industry and politics crying out about a ruling that could easily be debunked. Robinson has a talent for turning this deeply disturbing modern phenomenon into a laugh-out-loud comedy, and he’s done it again with The Chair Company, an uneasy black comedy about a man who becomes more and more entangled in a conspiracy that may be all in his head. But he can’t admit it, because to admit it would be to admit he was wrong – and what could be more embarrassing than that?

In “The Chair Company,” created by the “I Think You Should Leave” team of Robinson and Kanin, Robinson plays Ron, a family man living in suburban Ohio who is tasked with designing a new shopping center. When we first meet Ron, he’s out to eat with his wife Barb (Lake Bell), his son Seth (Will Price), and his daughter Natalie (Sophia Lillis). Barb proposes a toast to Ron, saying, “The way you’ve weathered the ups and downs of the last few years…we all know it hasn’t been easy for you.”

It’s the first of many hints of this Something Not quite true to Ron’s life, a suspicion that only grows as the show progresses. After an unfortunate incident occurred during a work presentation (critics were specifically asked to do this no Revealing what the accident was), Ron begins to become unattached and agitated. He finds himself embarrassed in front of his co-workers and his boss (Lou Diamond Phillips), and embarrassment is the worst thing that could happen to Tim Robinson’s character. Instead of admitting anything resembling defeat, Ron begins looking for someone to blame for his misfortune. In other words, he’s trying to find the man who did this.

While the subject of QAnon never appears in the show (at least not in seven of the eight episodes available for review), Ron’s unraveling reality feels like a perfect reflection of the alarmist conspiracy theory, whose proponents see society as being controlled by a supernatural evil that will be defeated by those who know the truth. “The Chair Company” holds up a mirror to a world where people have become conspiracy theorists convinced That if they spent enough time online, and posted on the right message boards, they would discover a truth that “normal” people overlook. Ron starts doing his thing He believes It’s deep online dives (they’re actually very simple Google searches) that lead him to discover what may be a global conspiracy linked to a mysterious company.

Or maybe it’s all in his head.

On paper, this concept sounds bleak and dark. And yes, there is an inherent darkness in “Chair Company.” But the show’s humor is so absurd that it turns an uncomfortable topic into something uproarious. Robinson and Kanin embrace their own kind of paranoia Classic conspiracy movieswith an unapologetic absurd twist. What if one of the “I Think You Should Leave” characters suddenly faltered in a movie like “The Parallax View” or “Three Days of the Condor”? It may sound like “President’s Company.”

While Ron is the archetypal eccentric Tim Robinson, “The Chair Company” is also filled with a cast of eccentric characters who seem to be on a similar (mythical) eccentric wavelength. Comedy writer Jim Downey (He even appears as one of Ron’s co-workers.) The most famous and memorable supporting character is the mysterious Mike Santini, played by Joseph Todisco in what can only be described as a breakout role (his other credits on IMDb are mostly small parts and background extras). Working as a security guard at a restaurant where every customer seems to be constantly fighting (??), Mike is an older man who gets caught up in the conspiracy (when he’s not watching porn or listening to Jerky Boys-like comedy tapes where two guys with New York accents scream at each other).

As Ron, Robinson finds a way to make an unlikable character sympathetic – something Robinson is good at. We sympathize with Ron, even pity him, all while he becomes increasingly erratic. He’s the modern loser. The kind of man who has stumbled through life so awkwardly that he’s convinced that someone must hold him back. His failures and mistakes cannot be due to his character flaws. no, someone You must be blamed for this. What makes “The Chair Company” particularly compelling, though, are the hints that maybe, just maybe, Ron is actually on to something here. What if he’s right? As Joseph Heller famously said: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they won’t target you.”

The Chair Company was created to do better than… Robinson’s last film “Friendship” Which I thought was intermittently funny but a bit uneven. Robinson’s style of humor seems better suited to the television medium, and works well in this episodic structure. However, if you’re not a fan of Robinson’s style of awkward comedy, you probably won’t find anything new in The Chair Company to latch on to.

But if you We are A fan of Robinson’s work (like me) you can expect “The Chair Company” to send you into a near-hysterical state. There are several moments here (which I won’t spoil because describing them simply wouldn’t do it justice) that made me laugh so hard that they brought tears to my eyes. Since I didn’t get the final episode, I can’t say if “The Chair Company” stuck the landing and ended things in a satisfying way. But the series is so fast-paced and entertaining that I enjoyed the ride.

What can I say? I just find Tim Robinson incredibly funny. He has a knack for making almost any situation entertaining (one of the biggest laughs in the show for me came during a quick moment in the first episode, where Ron is having trouble sleeping and shouts “I swear I have the worst pillow!” In the city“; It’s not really a joke, but Robinson sells it perfectly.) At the same time, the darkness beneath all this humor makes “The Chair Company” far more interesting than one might expect. It’s a deranged comedy for our deranged times.

/ Movie rating: 8 out of 10

The Chair Company premieres on HBO on October 12, 2025, and will be available to stream on HBO Max. New episodes of the eight-episode season will premiere weekly leading up to the season finale on November 30.