What’s your favorite I Think You Should Leave sketch? Mine changes hourly, but right now, it’s “Driver’s Ed.” Tim Robinson is great in it, as usual — I have lost the ability to pronounce the word “tables” as anything other than “TA-BLES” — but the MVP is Patti Harrison. Over her three sketches, including “The Capital Room” and “New Copier” (ITYSL really needs official names for its sketches), she’s proven to be the Netflix show’s secret weapon for her over-the-top reactions and incredible line readings.
When asked by the New Yorker about where deliveries like “I hate bald boys” come from, Harrison answered, “In terms of line delivery, we recorded a bunch of different versions. There were a lot of takes where my intonation wasn’t a character choice per se; it was me in real time remembering my lines, and it coming out as [does a slow, confused, growly voice] ‘Ooh, that naughty… old… elf?’ My brain’s like a Gateway 2000. Just like a massive computer and very little processing power happening.”
She continued:
“When I went in [for season two], it was just me and Tim and Zach [Kanin, the co-creator] in a room, and that helped me understand the specificity of the lines. Tim would be talking and pitching a joke and Zach would type it in the script exactly the way Tim was saying it. Every word, every additive word, every pause… All of that makes it into the script. Why it’s so funny is that the details aren’t overlooked. It is important to fight for those little details.”
Now I’m going to watch “Driver’s Ed” for the 47th time with a big pour of wine… and popcorn.
https://twitter.com/JarettSays/status/1412861225516507139
(Via the New Yorker)
