We’re rolling through every episode of Key and Peele on Pop Thruster. Here we go with “Babysitting Forest Whitaker,” Season 1 Episode 8. Follow along on the journey!
Also: check out ALL 351 Key & Peele Sketches Ranked (In Painstakingly Funny Detail)!
Barack and Malia: Life in the Real World
“This is called consequences, Malia.” – President Obama
In the first of a series of vignettes, President Obama (Peele) is teaching daughter Malia (Saba McGee) how to drive, and when she completely blows through a stop sign, a police cruiser lights up behind them. The cop, starstruck at seeing the president, offers to let them go on their way immediately, but Barack insists that they get treated like anyone else. Smash cut to the President of the United States getting slammed into the hood of the car, hands behind his back. Short, funny, biting. In the second, Barack and Malia learn what “getting treated like everyone else” means while trying to figure out the nuances of an ATM machine.
Living Your Life To My Design
“Thank you for doing what I told you to…” – Peele
K&P are two dudes enjoying watching a game on TV, but things take a quick turn: Peele has written a song about how the two are best friends. It starts off awkward for Wally (Key), and then takes a nosedive into the bizarre as the song is about how much Peele has guided his friend’s success in life. When Peele’s song turns up a notch (“Like the white wolf guides his cubs through the plains of the caribou…”), Key finally tells him to shut up and storms out. “My wolf cub is all grown up,” Peele concludes.
The Apartment
“Anybody try and get up in here, I’ll murder them.” – The landlord
Peele and his wife, Keira, show up to look at an apartment in a neighborhood they believe to be “changing.” Key is the landlord who unintentionally helps the nice couple understand that this living situation might not be best for them, shall we say. Examples: Key’s potentially murderous cousin, Craig, and a bullet hole in the wall are two of the place’s features. Bonus: a fun twist at the end throws the entire thing on its (crack) head.
Gefilte Fresh and Dr. Dreidel
“What’s up, Temple Beth Israel?” – Gefilte Fresh
It’s a bar mitzvah, and K&P are Gefilte Fresh and Dr. Dreidel, performers ready to rock this party of thirteen-year-old kids and their families right. “Is Daniel Rosenblum in the hizz-ouse?” alone got me chuckling, perhaps in part because I went to a bunch of these as a kid (one county over from Nassau, where this sketch is set!). And then add to that the mockumentary style, in which we get K&P discussing their trade while throwing in Yiddish words, and it’s all quite a riot – as is any sketch where we get to see the fellas dance. And then one Jewish dad notes, “Jews are like Black people, but we were Black people before there were Black people… um, I guess that’s not true.” Make sense?
A Killer Joke
“It’s just that you shot him. That’s the whole thing!” – Key
Key and Peele are gangsters, and Peele cold-bloodedly shoots their captive, who is handcuffed to a chair. Key, running some ridiculous mustache game in this one, starts laughing… but like weirdly too much. This quickly descends into a bizarre and explosive conversation about what is funny.
Babysitting Forest Whitaker
“Have a good cry.” – Forest Whitaker
Key is a babysitter, and Mrs. Whitaker soon heads out for the evening. Baby Forest… Forest Whitaker that is, comes into the room, except it’s a bizarre baby with Peele’s head doing a Forest Whitaker-like accent, saying goo-goo ga-ga in a deeply creepy way. Baby Forest then demands momma’s milk, and his Lego’s. Oh, Baby Forest also has incredible strength and soon is throwing Key about the room when his demands aren’t met. It’s just… uh, weird, this one (and it doesn’t help that I’ve just never found babies talking as adults all that funny).
Some stats and info about Key & Peele, “Babysitting Forest Whitaker”
TV SHOW – Key and Peele
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 8
AIRED ON – March 20th, 2012
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – Comedy Central/Hulu
GENRE – Comedy, Sketch Comedy
CREATED BY – Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele