In Crazy Machines in the Garden of Forking Paths, Tom Gunning defines a “mischief gag” as a humorous physical prank consisting of a set-up and a result. The prank generally creates a great visual spectacle, and it involves a rascal – who puts the mischief into motion – and a victim.
The sketch “Prank Show” from the Netflix series I Think You Should Leave begins like a typical set-up to a mischief gag; Tim Robinson is being covered in prosthetics and makeup, turning into a rascal-esque character known as Karl Havoc with the intention of walking into a shopping mall and “messing with (people’s) day”. Once he’s in the costume, though, he walks into the mall and immediately gives up on the prank, feeling so overheated by the amount of prosthetics he’s wearing he just stands still, breathes heavily, and professes that he doesn’t want to be around anymore.
This is a subversion of the trope which Gunning identifies, as Robinson’s character goes from filling the role of the rascal to filling the role of the victim; in this sketch, the comedy comes from the visual gag of Robinson’s appearance in the ridiculous costume and his sudden physical discomfort. No longer in control of the mischief gag, Robinson’s character is now at its mercy.
The sketch also invokes elements of Donald Crafton’s Pie and Chase, which draws a contrast between “pie” gags, or one-off moments of physical or visual comedy, and “running gags” which are more narrative-focused and involve the comic pursuit of some goal. He describes how pie gags fit into the overall narrative; while many have critiqued them as unsophisticated distractions, Crafton argues that they are just as valuable comic strategies.
In “Prank Show,” the entire assumed narrative of the sketch – Robinson’s character wreaking havoc on a mall – is derailed when he refuses to go through with the prank, and the entire plot becomes a simple visual and physical gag based on how ridiculous and uncomfortable he looks. The tendency to prioritize narrative over a gag, which Crafton critiques in his piece, is even referenced in the last lines of the sketch itself; after Robinson’s character claims that he doesn’t want to live anymore, the man communicating with him via earpiece reluctantly agrees to scrap the whole segment. In one final punchline, Robinson sincerely asks, “Then what’s the show?”, prompting the other man to tear off his earpiece in frustration. Within the universe of the sketch, the characters recognize the expectation to deliver a coherent narrative rather than a one-off gag, while subverting that expectation with the format of the segment itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Fv3LFGCgo&t=9s
Brunovska Karnick., K. and Jenkins, H. eds., (1995). Classical Hollywood Comedy. New York Routledge.
Sketch shows lend themselves quite well to the structure of early slap-stick films. The structure of short gags which do not relate to each other existed in the early days of screen comedy long before television, as spoken about in Gunning’s essay. Shows like I Think You Should Leave display a persistent desire for such gags a century later.