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I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.
The star of a show fully committed to silliness ... Focus Group Man in I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson. Photograph: Netflix
The star of a show fully committed to silliness ... Focus Group Man in I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson. Photograph: Netflix

Meet Focus Group Man: the most unlikely meme of 2019

This article is more than 4 years old

81-year-old actor Ruben Rabasa found fame after 40 long years by shrieking ‘stinky’ in a comedy sketch that took on a life of its own. He talks about his newfound notoriety

‘When I read the script, I thought: ‘This is crazy. How can I say this?’” says Ruben Rabasa. The 81-year-old actor appears in just one sketch in Netflix’s surreal comedy I Think You Should Leave, written and co-created by Saturday Night Live alumnus Tim Robinson. But – as Focus Group Man – he provides one of the breakout performances of 2019.

In the series, he plays a largely bald old man with a long, white mullet. Seemingly gripped by the fingers of the devil himself, he shouts out inappropriate comments in a focus group for a new car. Among his suggestions are “a good steering wheel that doesn’t fly off while you’re driving” and “no space for mother-in-law”. If these sound crackers, that is precisely the point; Focus Group Man is the star of a show that is a pure white light of fully committed silliness.

Unsurprisingly, Focus Group Man has taken on a life of his own as a meme. The internet is now riddled with endless GIFs of Rabasa dabbing and shouting catchphrases such as “teacher’s pet” and “STINKY”. There is a Ruben Rabasa soundboard online. Tweets have inserted him into Game of Thrones, and claimed that he is the boyfriend of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Rabasa remains modest. “I guess I get very passionate about things. I don’t prepare, it just comes right out.”

His performance has also seen a huge outpouring of praise for the actor, who has been working steadily since the late 70s. We speak the day after he makes a surprise appearance on a panel about the show for the US culture site Vulture. “Did you see it?” he asks. “Oh my God, right away everybody started laughing and taking pictures of me, pop pop pop. It was unbelievable.”

Originally from Cuba, Rabasa moved to New York, then later to Miami, where he says he found more work, and LA. However, it was not without its downsides. “In Miami, every movie I get, they killed me. So I moved to LA. The first movie I get in LA, I play a ghost. I said: ‘What the hell is happening?’” Luckily, I Think You Should Leave has finally pushed the jobbing actor over the top. With his increased profile, he is focusing on stage work and standup, and attempting to find a home for his sitcom, Americanos.

I Think You Should Leave returns next year. Can we expect a repeat appearance from Rabasa? As it turns out, it is a question he was asked on the panel. “The interviewer said [to the show’s creators]: ‘I hope you are going to write for Ruben.’ Before they could answer I said: ‘You better!’”

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