I Think You Should Leave: Bob Odenkirk Was The Only One Allowed To Improvise
Bob Odenkirk, in case you forgot, is one of the funniest people around — even though he's spent all of his time prestige TV dramas lately. Those in the know remember that Odenkirk got his start in sketch comedies like "Mr. Show," created alongside "Arrested Development" star David Cross, and not only that, he wrote for comedy institutions like "Saturday Night Live" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." (Though he hasn't yet won an acting Emmy, he does have two for writing thanks to "SNL" and "The Ben Stiller Show.")
This is why it's totally unsurprising that, when Odenkirk showed up on Tim Robinson's brilliant, perverse, and anarchic sketch show "I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson" during its second season, he was allowed a rare privilege: he could improvise. In a sketch with Robinson playing a slightly aggrieved dad who tells his daughter that they can't get ice cream on the way home because, well, the ice cream store is closed, Odenkirk chimes in to "help," yielding increasingly confusing results. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times in 2022, Robinson and his co-creator Zach Kanin said that, though the show is pretty tightly written, they wanted Odenkirk to have free reign over the scene.
"Bob did improvise a bunch at the end of that sketch," Robinson said at the time. "It was all really funny, and I feel like it elevated the sketch off of what was on the page a lot."
What exactly did Bob Odenkirk improvise on I Think You Should Leave?
So what did Odenkirk improvise? Like we said, the sketch is about a dad trying to sell his daughter on the idea that they can't go and get ice cream, because the store is closed — and Odenkirk's character decides to lend a hand by agreeing with Robinson's dad, lending him a small wink. From there, it spirals out of control. Odenkirk's character isn't alone because he's alone in life; he's choosing to be alone. Also, he owns triples of a ton of classic cars, because triples are best. (They're safest, in fact.) On top of that, he's married to a supermodel — he even had her poster on his wall years before they met! — and she's beautiful, but she's dying, but she's going to get better.
Robinson's character, confused at first, ends up completely sold on the charade; as he tells his daughter, his new friend's wife will get better, and, upon urging from Odenkirk, confirms that the gentleman does not "live in a hotel." Odenkirk's entire angle here is that, if the dad repeats it to his daughter, it will become true, just like the ice cream store's closure.
"I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson" is a show centered around one simple concept: what if a person doubled, then tripled, and then quadrupled down on a truly insane idea? Odenkirk is perfect in the sketch, and it's pretty thrilling that Robinson and Kanin stepped aside and let him improvise. Let's just hope he improvised at least three lines, though. Triples are safest. Triples are best.