We’re rolling through every episode of Key and Peele on Pop Thruster. Here we go with “Gay Marriage Legalized,” Season 1 Episode 5. Follow along on the journey!
Also: check out ALL 351 Key & Peele Sketches Ranked (In Painstakingly Funny Detail)!
Raccoon Apocalypse
“The zombies are raccoons, right?” – Key
The zombie apocalypse is raging, and K&P are two of the last survivors… oh, and there’s also Tommy. “Tommy’s been bit!” Key announces, dragging him to where they’re hiding out. Peele regretfully shoots him with a shotgun. Grisly, but then things get worse when Key reveals: “It wasn’t a zombie, it was a raccoon… the zombies are raccoons, right?” This one most impressed me for the way it was shot – it’s not that far off what a “real” zombie/horror show would feel like and reminds us that Jordan Peele would soon become an A List film director and horror auteur.
Dueling Magical Negros
“You need to find your own troubled white boy.” – Key
This one takes a tired (and racist) movie trope – the “magical negro” – and satirizes it in a deeply hysterical way. K&P portray competing elderly office maintenance workers who end up “dueling” to help out a white guy named Steve Campbell, Esq (Joe Hartzler). They start out exchanging cheesy platitudes like, “Sometimes things ain’t really broken. It’s the way we treat ‘em that needs to be fixed,” but things soon escalate into a full-on battle involving magical lasers of some sort. Oh, and there’s also an animated bird named Chesterfield in the mix as well.
Naked Presentation
“Oh all right, you’re trying to get all them demographics up in here.” – Key
Peele is a corporate dude getting driven to a business meeting by Key, an older livery driver of some sort. Key asks Peele what he’s in town for, and the latter offers up super generic bunkum from the corporate world such as, “I’m offering market research interpreted with outside the box solutions.” Key sweetly offers back a few buzzwords that he’s just been told (oh, outside the box? Okay…), but then things take a turn. “I’m also thinking about doing the presentation naked,” Peele says. He then continues to crank things up as Key still seemingly bats back what he’s been told without really listening. But when Peele gets out of the car, the punchline comes, and it’s a smasher: “Oh, by the way, when you kill those people with your ass gun, make sure to use a serrated blade to cut their faces off.”
Jaden Pinkett Smith
“Oh yeah, a supermarket’s like a mansion, but it’s full of food and anyone can go there.” – Key
This one strikes as slightly odd in retrospect, given Will Smith’s “slap heard ‘round the world” during the Academy Awards ceremony in 2022. Basically, the bit is that Jaden Pinkett Smith (Peele) is a wildly spoiled rich kid/child actor who has zero concept of how things work in the real world. His bedroom is a modern palace, filled with an entire wall of sneakers and weird futuristic toys, for example. The sketch involves Jaden talking to his power agent (Key) on the phone, the latter of whom is forced to break down the concept for a screenplay called Street Ball in ways that a wildly spoiled rich kid could understand.
Baby Prudence
“What’s that, they found her? She’s fine!?” – Rex Chambers
This one is a super short skit. Local news anchor Rex Chambers reports live on the massive search for “Baby Prudence,” but… it turns out “she’s fine.” Rex should be happy but… he’s clearly not in a way that would be the clip of the year for John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight “And Now This” segment.
Gay Marriage Legalized
“My name is LaShaun and this right here is my Sam-which.”—LaShaun
A local news reporter is covering an unnamed state becoming the seventh to legalize gay marriage. K&P are a happy couple helping to celebrate as part of a large, happy rally… but the problem is that Sam (Key) wasn’t aware that LaShaun (Peele) thinks that they are now going to get married. The improv skills and comedic chemistry between the two sells the simple premise, with Peele’s unbridled excitement and Key’s couple-y discomfort on display. My favorite part: LaShaun talking about how they’re going to have five little girls post-nuptials, named “Etnie, Carousel, Sequin, Abercrombie, and Phantom.”
President Obama outwits the GOP
“And nobody better throw me a cigarette.” – President Obama
President Obama (Peele) convenes members of the Republican party to focus on his hoped-for bipartisan agenda. When the all-white roundtable of Republicans (including guest star Paul F. Thompkins) instantly balk at the notion of working together, Obama proposes very (traditionally) Republican ideas: “No taxes for rich people,” for example. This causes the Republicans to instantly oppose it… because it came from Obama. “Okay,” Obama agrees pleasantly, “More taxes for the rich.” The process continues until the Republicans realize they’re doomed and one of them cuts his tongue off with a pair of scissors. The end.
Some stats and info about Key & Peele, “Gay Marriage Legalized”
TV SHOW – Key and Peele
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 5
AIRED ON – February 14th, 2012
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – Comedy Central/Hulu
GENRE – Comedy, Sketch Comedy
CREATED BY – Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele