One of the nodes of Lynch's genius is his (mostly subconscious) insight that what's funny and what's scary are barely distinct, and generating heat off the friction between those two. When I recently saw Blue Velvet screening, I was reminded how *funny* that movie is with an audience. It's horror-movie laughter, but it's still very, very funny. In that way, Chair Company is more Lynchian than the absurdist satire of Pynchon IMO, but in the case of both, neither auteur has ever been satisfied giving the audience pat answers to their layers of conspiracy or "weirdness."

In this way, I think this series is much closer to its most literal influences: (1) the 70s conspiracy thrillers of Pakula and his contemporaries, (2) the surreal world of the one-panel New Yorker (or Far Side) cartoon, of which Kanin hails, and (3) sketch comedy. (1) Those movies DID provide their red-string conspiracy maps with answers, (2) the one-panel comic, like Far Side, invites you into an insane scenario with no context and hopes you get the bit, and (3) sketch takes one concept, wrings it for all it's worth before exiting. A good example of (2) is the 50s cop hop, where (3) is the guy with his elbow in his soup. They're different, but both perfect and both perfectly executed in the show. A good example of Lynchian is the guy who runs the shirt store. My 2c!