Tim Robinson’s HBO Comedy The Chair Company Mixes Cringe Humor With Corporate Conspiracy

HBO’s latest comedy series The Chair Company, created by Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin, officially premiered on October 12, 2025, at 10 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max. The eight-episode half-hour series brings Robinson’s trademark brand of uncomfortable, high-energy humor into a serialized format, backed by major comedy names and a bigger production scale than any of his earlier projects.

According to HBO’s press release, the show follows William Ronald “Ron” Trosper, played by Robinson, a middle-aged employee whose life unravels after a spectacularly embarrassing office incident—his chair collapses during a work presentation. That humiliation triggers a spiral of paranoia and absurd investigation into a chair-manufacturing conspiracy that blurs the line between workplace comedy and surreal thriller.

The Chair Company was first ordered to series in September 2024, as reported by Consequence. It is co-created by Robinson and his long-time collaborator Kanin, who also co-wrote Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave. The show is produced by Adam McKay and Todd Schulman under their banner Hyperobject Industries, alongside Robinson and Kanin as executive producers.

The main cast features Lake Bell as Barb Trosper, Ron’s wife; Sophia Lillis as Natalie Trosper, his daughter; Will Price as Seth Trosper, his son; and Joseph Tudisco as Mike Santini, a co-worker entangled in Ron’s growing chaos. Veteran actor Lou Diamond Phillips plays Jeff Levjman, a corporate CEO whose company may—or may not—be at the center of the conspiracy. Backstage notes that Phillips’ recurring role adds a sharp contrast to Robinson’s manic energy.

The series combines Robinson’s signature cringe-driven absurdism with a surprisingly grounded story structure. TechRadar describes it as “a workplace meltdown stretched into a full conspiracy,” while early reviews from Decider call it “the evolution of Robinson’s sketch chaos into narrative form.”

Visually, The Chair Company leans into the banality of corporate life. Drab cubicles, stiff suits, and bleak break rooms dominate the screen, serving as the perfect backdrop for Robinson’s surreal unraveling. A GQ feature on the show’s costume design revealed that the production team intentionally created a “sad, normie style” wardrobe to heighten the humor of Ron’s downward spiral.

For longtime fans of I Think You Should Leave, this series marks Robinson’s most ambitious project yet. It keeps the cringe comedy DNA that made him a cult favorite but expands it into something serialized, cinematic, and slightly darker. With its mix of corporate anxiety, social awkwardness, and surreal paranoia, The Chair Company cements Robinson as one of the most distinct comedic voices of this era.

Episodes of The Chair Company air weekly on HBO and stream on HBO Max, with international availability varying by region. For anyone who loves absurd workplace humor, this might be the show to pull up a chair for.