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Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, two biracial men, have managed to reflect the shattered hopes that many Americans held about having a biracial president, who is most often referred to as black. Their sketches play on racial division, racial and sexual identity, authenticity, and the ways that we thrive in these divisions at a time when we are supposed to be "past that."In a sketch from season one, two black men try to out-order one another at a soul food restaurant in an attempt to prove who's "blacker" than the other. The men escalate to surreal levels, from ordering collards to chitlins, to ham hocks, to four pounds of grits, to donkey teeth—"Fuck it," says Peele, "any animal tooth will do." The sketch pushes further and further until they finally arrive at a "a platter of stork ankles, an old cellar door, a possum spine, and a human foot." But the server's question isn't about the foot—it's whether they want gravy on the door. "What's a cellar door without gravy?" asks Peele, and Key supplies the answer: "It's not food." While I can't speak for the actors, to me the cellar door seems like a clever way to integrate the actual context of this "soul food"—in the Underground Railroad, people would often hide runaway slaves in cellars on their journey to freedom in the northern states.The sketch "Negrotown" was another bold statement made in the wake of the murders of Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin, Walter Scott, and Rekia Boyd by law enforcement. In the sketch, a black man arrested for walking down the street knocks his head against the top of the police car. He finds himself whimsically led into a colorful world of smiling, singing, and dancing black people, where cabs stop for black men and "you can wear your hoodie and not get shot." The rousing musical style combined with the sobering lyrics and Peele's repeated appeals of "Can a nigga finish a song?" only make it even more bittersweet. It's so well executed and rousing that it's hard not to want to go too, only to have your hopes shattered later when he comes to, still very much under arrest and being taken to a different "Negro town": prison.
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Though its creators are not politicians,Key and Peelehas come to dispel the silences and euphemisms of the political world with sharp humor aimed at deciphering it. In the last eight years, spurred by cellphone videos of police brutality, the widening wealth gap, and the failure of the post-racial "Yes We Can" era, the country has arrived at a place for a black humor that is broadly popular and relatively unflinching in its approach to racial, sexual, and cultural identity.
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In an earlier sketch, a black family hires a gay wedding advisor to answer their questions about how to prepare for their cousin Delroy's gay wedding. The show eschews all concerns of political correctness and lays out just about every mainstream gay stereotype as one family member asks when the "YMCA" song will be played at the wedding, and another asks where to buy a "gay" wedding present for the couple. The advisor, played by Key, patiently dispels all myths about what gay people do and want on their wedding day, until he loses his cool, trying to make the family understand the absurdity of their questions. One guy asks, "Do we throw something other than rice?" Exasperated, Gary responds: "Like what, sir? What would you throw other than rice?" To which the guy responds, "Couscous, skittles," further infuriating Gary. Although the sketch risks being a bit trite, it's not afraid to talk about stereotypes and poke fun at non-existent divisions related to sexuality.On VICE Sports: Key and Peele's Parody NFL Pre Game Shows Remain Hilarious
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