Focus Group Man You Have No Good Car Ideas

2019reaction imageclassic

Focus Group Man is the elderly character from the 'Focus Group' sketch on Netflix's I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, played by Cuban-born actor Ruben Rabasa. His absurd car suggestions and scornful comebacks, including 'You have no good car ideas' and 'Stinky,' turned into widely quoted reaction images throughout 2019.

catchphrase memesreaction memesabsurdist humor memesnetflix memes2019 memes

Overview

Focus Group Man is the fan nickname for the unnamed elderly character in the 'Focus Group' sketch from the first season of Netflix's I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. Played by 81-year-old Cuban actor Ruben Rabasa1, he sits in a focus group for a new Ford model and lobs out increasingly bizarre suggestions, including a steering wheel that stays attached while driving and a car described only as 'too small' or 'stinky'2.

His scornful reactions to pushback, capped off by a dab and a bottle flip, produced a stack of screenshot-ready lines. 'You have no good car ideas,' 'Oh my god, he admit it!,' 'Teacher's pet,' and 'STINKY' all circulated as subtitled reaction images and GIFs throughout 20193. The Guardian later described the internet as riddled with clips of Rabasa dabbing and shouting his catchphrases1.

How It Spread

Early meme posts appeared within days of the sketch hitting YouTube. On May 4, 2019, Instagram user memetides posted a fake text conversation built around the character, drawing close to 400 likes over the following two years4.

On May 30, 2019, journalist Dave Itzkoff posted a Focus Group Man image captioned 'Oh my god, he admit it!' as a reply to a Donald Trump tweet about Russia, and the post pulled more than 1,000 retweets4. By late 2019, the character was landing on year-end lists. The Ringer's Dan Devine wrote that everything about the performance was 'immensely versatile, and eminently portable to your specific reaction/reference needs'3, while The Guardian ran a full profile of Rabasa titled 'Meet Focus Group Man, the most unlikely meme of 2019'1.

Vulture staged a live oral history of the sketch at Vulture Festival, publishing the transcript in December 2019 and calling Rabasa 'one of the most memed men of 2019'2. An earlier Vulture interview clip in which Jamie Loftus told Rabasa 'You're a meme now' was posted to YouTube on November 12, 2019, and picked up over 33,000 views4.

How to Use This Meme

People typically grab a screenshot or GIF of Rabasa from the sketch and pair it with one of his lines. As The Ringer laid out, 'Stinky!' works for a truly bad suggestion or performance, 'That is a good idea' punches up something smart, 'It's a good idea, and I stand by it' delivers sarcasm, and 'Oh, nice' provides either support or snark3. 'Oh my god, he admit it!' is the go-to reply to someone accidentally confessing something, a usage popularized by Dave Itzkoff's viral tweet at Trump4.

Frequently Asked Questions

Focus Group Man You Have No Good Car Ideas

2019reaction imageclassic

Focus Group Man is the elderly character from the 'Focus Group' sketch on Netflix's I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, played by Cuban-born actor Ruben Rabasa. His absurd car suggestions and scornful comebacks, including 'You have no good car ideas' and 'Stinky,' turned into widely quoted reaction images throughout 2019.

catchphrase memes reaction memes absurdist humor memes netflix memes 2019 memes

Overview

Focus Group Man is the fan nickname for the unnamed elderly character in the 'Focus Group' sketch from the first season of Netflix's I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. Played by 81-year-old Cuban actor Ruben Rabasa1, he sits in a focus group for a new Ford model and lobs out increasingly bizarre suggestions, including a steering wheel that stays attached while driving and a car described only as 'too small' or 'stinky'2.

His scornful reactions to pushback, capped off by a dab and a bottle flip, produced a stack of screenshot-ready lines. 'You have no good car ideas,' 'Oh my god, he admit it!,' 'Teacher's pet,' and 'STINKY' all circulated as subtitled reaction images and GIFs throughout 20193. The Guardian later described the internet as riddled with clips of Rabasa dabbing and shouting his catchphrases1.

How It Spread

Early meme posts appeared within days of the sketch hitting YouTube. On May 4, 2019, Instagram user memetides posted a fake text conversation built around the character, drawing close to 400 likes over the following two years4.

On May 30, 2019, journalist Dave Itzkoff posted a Focus Group Man image captioned 'Oh my god, he admit it!' as a reply to a Donald Trump tweet about Russia, and the post pulled more than 1,000 retweets4. By late 2019, the character was landing on year-end lists. The Ringer's Dan Devine wrote that everything about the performance was 'immensely versatile, and eminently portable to your specific reaction/reference needs'3, while The Guardian ran a full profile of Rabasa titled 'Meet Focus Group Man, the most unlikely meme of 2019'1.

Vulture staged a live oral history of the sketch at Vulture Festival, publishing the transcript in December 2019 and calling Rabasa 'one of the most memed men of 2019'2. An earlier Vulture interview clip in which Jamie Loftus told Rabasa 'You're a meme now' was posted to YouTube on November 12, 2019, and picked up over 33,000 views4.

How to Use This Meme

People typically grab a screenshot or GIF of Rabasa from the sketch and pair it with one of his lines. As The Ringer laid out, 'Stinky!' works for a truly bad suggestion or performance, 'That is a good idea' punches up something smart, 'It's a good idea, and I stand by it' delivers sarcasm, and 'Oh, nice' provides either support or snark3. 'Oh my god, he admit it!' is the go-to reply to someone accidentally confessing something, a usage popularized by Dave Itzkoff's viral tweet at Trump4.

Frequently Asked Questions