The system is rigged: Tim Robinson has fun with conspiracy in HBO’s absurdist comedy ‘The Chair Company’

Tim Robinson in "The Chair Company."Sarah Shatz/HBO

Tim Robinson likes to let out a scream now and then, and he’s got a pretty good one — abrupt and shrill. Sometimes he’s more of a yeller, especially when confronted with a situation that agitates him (that would be most situations). In TV series including “Detroiters” and “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson” and the recent movie “Friendship,” he has staked out territory as a sort of hostile dork who pushes his social anxiety and awkwardness outward onto others. He’s an acquired taste, but if you acquire it, he’s a refreshingly unusual comic presence.

His latest and strangest series is “The Chair Company,” premiering Sunday on HBO and HBO Max. A deadpan conspiracy thriller parody — think “Three Days of the Schmuck” — it plays like a mix of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Office,” crossed with Kafka and a touch of David Lynch. One sinister plot leads to another, all of them absurd and embedded in the mundanity of everyday frustration. In other words, it’s a perfect milieu for Robinson to run amok like a bull in the china shop of life.

Much as Robinson found horror in the perils of male bonding in “Friendship,” here he taps into the terror of common tasks, like grappling with unhelpful chatbots, or getting put on hold for interminable lengths. There’s a cosmic injustice at work here, and it all starts with … well, I’m not allowed to say, even though the instigating incident occurs in the first episode, and the entire series revolves around it. Let’s just say the idea of what constitutes a “spoiler” is getting stretched pretty thin. I think I can reveal that it involves a chair — as suggested by the title of the series — and it’s rather embarrassing to Ron, the worker bee played by Robinson. So embarrassing, in fact, that he feels compelled to investigate the manufacturer of said chair.

Ron is project manager developing a new mall in Canton, Ohio. Married to Barb (Lake Bell), planning the wedding of his daughter, Natalie (Sophia Lillis), a little worried about his aimless teen son, Seth (Will Price), he would seem to have a pretty normal life. Except Robinson’s entire comic persona is built around demolishing normality, to the point of making us wonder if its very possibility is a myth. Once the embarrassing incident occurs, Ron begins to unravel. He falls down a rabbit hole — or perhaps a series of tunnels — of paranoia. He begins to neglect that beautiful family of his. His life becomes the proverbial riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Robinson’s roots are in improv, and his best work to date has come in the absurdist sketch comedy format of Netflix’s “I Think You Should Leave.” He was too weird for “Saturday Night Live” (he should take this as a compliment), where he was a featured player from 2012 to 2013 and a staff writer from 2013 to 2016. “The Chair Company,” created by Robinson and his longtime collaborator Zach Kanin, often feels like a story making itself up as it goes along. Narrative cohesion and integrity aren’t its strong suits, but I’m not sure if they’re supposed to be. It’s a chaotic show about the chaos that unfolds between our ears and out into the world we must navigate every day.

Once you accept this — if you can accept this — “The Chair Company” can be convulsively funny. Most comedies have at least one actor who makes you wonder: Where did they find this guy? “The Chair Company” has several of these people. My favorite is Joseph Tudisco, a longtime bit player who steals a bunch of scenes as Mike Santini. A security guard initially hired to scare Ron away from investigating the titular chair company, Mike switches sides and becomes Ron’s very erratic helper. He comes across as a squeaky-voiced, low-level mobster who would rather listen to porn than watch it and has trouble with simple tasks. But there’s a sneaky vulnerability to Tudisco’s performance; he turns Mike into a lonely guy who just wants to help and perhaps be appreciated.

This odd tenderness pops up throughout the series in unlikely places. Ron really does want to be a good family man, but the idea seems to scare him enough to enter a maze of distraction and possible conspiracy that goes in endless circles. Drug smuggling might be in play. Or corporate malfeasance. Or nothing at all. I don’t make the Kafka comparison glibly. Like Joseph K. in “The Trial,” Ron is up against a nebulous system that is both nowhere and everywhere. He also happens to be a gangly, bug-eyed goofball.

I don’t expect “The Chair Company” to be massively popular; it’s far too fringe for that. Nor do I think it makes for quality, sustained storytelling. But I’m glad there’s a high-profile place for it in the TV ecosystem. It’s an oddity from a guy who has accumulated the clout to once again do something different. It also happens to be a vivid portrait of neurosis for a time in which free-floating anxiety fills the air.

THE CHAIR COMPANY

Starring: Tim Robinson, Lake Bell, Joseph Tudisco, Sophia Lillis, Will Price, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jim Downey, Joe Apelian, Alberto Isaac, Jane Gabbert, and Carole Denise Jones. Premieres Sunday on HBO at 10 p.m. and HBO Max.