We’re rolling through every episode of Key and Peele on Pop Thruster. Here we go with “Flash Mob,” Season 1 Episode 6. Follow along on the journey!
Also: check out ALL 351 Key & Peele Sketches Ranked (In Painstakingly Funny Detail)!
Flash Mob
“The flash mob is canceled.” – Key
K&P, dressed in black, both receive text messages at an outdoor public space that the flash mob is a go.” Key hits play on a portable stereo, and they and a group of seven assemble immediately and get down to a pretty awesome rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” when… well, a white dude jumps out and declares that “it’s a god damned race war!” All hell breaks loose as gun fire pops off all over, and Key reasonably declares, “The flash mob is canceled.” Short, funny, surprising, with a potent (if disturbing) little message tucked in there as bonus.
Flicker
“No, there is no schmutz on my jammy-jam.” – Gabe
Ah, that old stupid game where one person pretends there’s something on the other’s shirt, and when the “victim” looks down, the instigator boops the other person’s nose, with a little “gotcha” move. Hilarious, right? When corporate dudes Terry (Peele) and Gabe (Key) go at it, though, it’s no laughing matter. The direction and acting on this one sell this as High Noon in a bathroom stall, and when the bit is over after a few fun misdirects, it’s funny and satisfying. Except it’s not over, not even close. This is Flicker, a title card announces. You think it’s over, but then things ratchet up even more over several subsequent scenes. Flicker turns out to be a harrowing psychological thriller, and a deeply hilarious one at that.
Old School
“Hook a brother up with some of that old school.” – Peele
Peele saunters up to Key at a nightclub, the latter of whom is DJing for the establishment. “Hook a brother up with some of that old school,” Peele requests. Key kindly keeps trying to accommodate by suggesting names – Tupac, Biggie, Run-D.M.C., Sugar Hill Gang – but Peele isn’t having it. “I ain’t trying to tell you how to do your job,” he maintains, but insists that’s not old school enough for him. Finally, when Key storms off, Peele finds the LP that does the trick and throws it on: we hear the sounds of 1920s ragtime jazz, and the crowd hits the dance floor in earnest. More cute and clever than funny, this.
Backyard Barbeque
“100%, grass-fed Japanese Kobe beef, $35 a pound.” – Key
Peele is manning the barbeque at a backyard party, and Key arrives with some good-looking meat to cook up. What starts as friendly banter from Key about how Peele should handle his grill – “I ain’t trying to park my Bentley next to your Toyota,” he says with regard to cooking Kobe beef next to “frozen patties” – soon takes a turn to the crazy. Things escalate quickly, but it’s the rare K&P bit that never really catches fire.
Lessons at the Bar
“I’m sorry about everything.” – Inebriated woman
Key and Peele are at a bar, having a chill, nerdy conversation about Game of Thrones (that I’d pay my life savings to participate in with those dudes, fictional or IRL), when a young, white, inebriated woman (Carla Gallo) interrupts while ordering “three kamikaze shots… or whatever” to hereby apologize for the plight of Black people and their experience living in the United States. Shortly thereafter, Ryan Hansen (of Party Down fame) also interrupts the boys, this time to herald the praises of the iconic rap group, A Tribe Called Quest. Now, the fellas are baffled. And then that’s before Ken Marino (also from Party Down!), in dreadlocks, gets into the theme of Amistad. “Bottom line? We cool,” he concludes. Punch line: the bartender then tells them, “If it makes you feel any better, Black people make me feel uncomfortable.”
UWL
“Okay, he know we just talking here, right?” – Derek Johnson
It’s a UFC-style promo for a pay per view MMA event, and Peele is Derek Johnson (241 lbs, 14-0) while Key is Paulo Odbeus (163 lbs, 39-2). Johnson talks smack (“I’m gonna mercy kill this old man!”) while Odebus is soft spoken, calling Johnson a “very rude person.” Even still, he makes sure to add that he will torture Johnson’s body “so that his soul learns to be humble.” The verbal war escalates from there, and eventually Johnson gets genuinely disturbed by the chilling, sociopathic vibes that Odebus is laying down. A pitch perfect parody of “hype up” talk going way off the rails.
Some stats and info about Key & Peele, “Flash Mob”
TV SHOW – Key and Peele
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 6
AIRED ON – March 6th, 2012
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – Comedy Central/Hulu
GENRE – Comedy, Sketch Comedy
CREATED BY – Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele