"Old guy" veteran character actors are the secret to I Think You Should Leave's success

The Ringer

"A lesser series might’ve made the octogenarian the butt of the joke, or ignored him altogether," says Alan Siegel. "But veteran character actors are I Think You Should Leave’s secret weapon. The show turns the spotlight on those whom Hollywood rarely allows to be under it. And finally served up a chance to wreak comedic havoc, they’ve grabbed hold of it and eaten it up like Dylan’s burger. Think Ruben Rabasa’s heavily memed focus group alpha dog, Biff Wiff’s cartoonishly ultraviolent version of Santa Claus, Richard Wharton’s sexually explicit Claire’s ear-piercing testimonial weirdo, and Wilson’s burger-obsessed mentor. These old guys are responsible for many of I Think You Should Leave’s biggest, most startling laughs. After all, no one suspects the grandpa in the fleece vest." One such character actor is 87-year-old William Frederick Knight, who plays Doug, the guy whom Tim Robinson’s character Mike repeatedly refers to as “a f*cking skunk!” after Doug calls him out for spending his per diem on ridiculously patterned shirts at a men’s store called Dan Flashes. Knight started watching I Think You Should Leave only after landing an audition, but it didn’t take him long to figure out Robinson’s shtick. To him, it’s as distinct as Jack Benny’s or Rodney Dangerfield’s. “I kind of got his hook,” says Knight. “Every sketch is built on the fact that wherever he goes, he’s gonna stick out like a sore thumb. He’s gonna say the wrong thing. They always say never talk about ropes in a house where someone just hung themselves. … Tim’s gonna talk about ropes.”