Every episode of I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson is a gift. Robinson and Zach Kanin’s sketch series is filled with endlessly quotable bits, enhanced by Robinson’s oft-shouty delivery. I particularly love how familiar some of his characters and situations are; even at their most heightened and bizarre, there’s a deeply relatable specificity to lines like, “My life is nothing I thought it should be and everything I was worried it would become.” That one comes from season 3’s “Darmine Doggy Door” sketch, in which Robinson relives the existential terror of witnessing what he erroneously believed to be some type of pig monster, while shilling for a doggy door.
Vulture spoke with directors Jeffrey Max and Zachary Johnson (who also directed the “Coffin Flop” sketch), special effects artist James Ojala, and stunt performer Devyn LaBella about bringing the “Darmine Doggy Door” monster to life. According to Max and Johnson, Robinson’s inspiration for the face of the creature was “This Man,” the viral internet hoax from 2008 which alleged that thousands of people saw the same man’s distinctive face in their dreams. In the sketch, which you can watch below, Robinson is promoting a dog door that promises to keep all manner of not-dogs out of your home: varmints, intruders, and “this thing”—a deranged pink-skinned creature with a face that looks like it’s trying to mimic what a human being should look like, sort of like the freaky-as-hell bioclones in Annihilation.
Robinson finds out the creature is actually a pig wearing a Richard Nixon mask, and it belongs to his neighbor, with whom he’s embroiled in a property line dispute. Also, he hasn’t been sleeping well since a swing dancer flipped his wife eight times at a wedding (it really bothered him). A classic I Think You Should Leave existential meltdown ensues, in which Robinson refers to the night that thing entered his home as the most consequential of his entire life. When faced with his own mortality, he felt relieved that he wouldn’t have to go to work the next day.
Vulture‘s feature on the making of “Darmine Doggy Door” is a great read, especially for fans of practical effects and horror, but I especially love this quote from Ojala:
“It’s not something that everybody can do,” Ojala explains, noting how constricting and claustrophobic prosthetics can feel. “A lot of people and actors think, Oh, you just jump into a suit, and it’s like, no, you need a special mindset, a special patience. I’ve seen actors think they can do it and buckle and have full-blown breakdowns where they’re crying, ripping it off, everything.”
That reads like the real-life version of season 2’s “Prank Show” sketch, in which a prank show host goes undercover wearing entirely too many prosthetics and—much like Robinson in the doggy door sketch—has a complete existential breakdown.
In addition to interviews with the creators, Vulture has concept art, storyboard animatics, and all kinds of behind-the-scenes photos of the prosthetics. It’s a great Friday read and it gives you an excuse to revisit one of the best sketches from I Think You Should Leave season 3. I dare you to watch just one, though.
(featured image: Netflix)
