We’re rolling through every episode of Key and Peele on Pop Thruster. Here we go with “Gangsta Standoff,” Season 2 Episode 9. Follow along on the journey!
Also: check out ALL 351 Key & Peele Sketches Ranked (In Painstakingly Funny Detail)!
Baby Shield
“I ain’t trying to fight nobody with a baby.” – Peele
Key is a loving father cooing back to his infant child (who is strapped to himself via baby harness) while walking around a public park. When he accidentally brushes by a taciturn basketball player (Peele), the latter says, “Yo watch where you’re going.” This happens within a few seconds and highlights how quickly and crisply K&P set up comedy sketches. Things rapidly flip against our expectations, however, when Peele, seeing the child, tries to deescalate the situation while Key insists on escalating. Well, sort of.
Bloods and Crips
“We are BFFs, MF.” – Key
Peele is a Blood and Key a Crip. It’s about to go down, but then the boys discover their shared passion for Twilight. It’s BFFs for life from there, which is both funny and surprisingly delightful.
Power Falcons
“Are you talking to me, because I’m the Green Falcon.” – Green Falcon
The opening credit sequence of this Mighty Morphin Power Rangers spoof alone cracked me up. And that’s before the action focuses on Green Falcon (Peele) constantly getting confused by the other Falcons referring to him as Black Falcon (and the increasingly racist ways they try to chill him out when he gets upset). Bonus: guest stars in this one include Rob Huebel of Childrens Hospital and Human Giant fame, and Brenda Song.
Prison Visit
“Yes… I definitely know Seven Inch.” – Peele
Key visits Peele in prison, and tells him across the plexiglass divide, “Everyone on the outside know you didn’t talk. We got mad respect for you, dog.” Soon it because obvious that Peele isn’t nearly as tough as Key assumes he is, with lots of allusions to how Peele is, uh, handled in jail. I wasn’t really feeling this one overall – it has not aged well, and I wouldn’t be surprised if K&P agreed.
Traffic Stop
“Man, you sure got a lot of colors.” – Key
Peele is pulled over by Key, playing a white cop. Things quickly take a strange turn, as Key keeps finding seemingly planted items in the trunk and on Peele, but then vamps into Key doing magic tricks (such as a bag of drugs turning “magically” into a bouquet of flowers). The sly satire at work here is that police in these situations (and drop in other “situations” involving race if you like) hold all the power and can play magician with other people’s lives.
What If Names Were Farts?
“So this is the infamous [Farts] and [Farts].” – [Farts]
The title of this sketch says it all. It’s a classy looking suburban party, with the twist that a… well, a fart noise is inserted whenever someone refers to somebody else. I’d put this more on the [farts] end of the comedy spectrum versus [farts]. But the noises you make for this one are yours alone to emit. Oh: [farts] from Catastrophe fame guest stars.
Some stats and info about Key & Peele, “Gangsta Standoff”
TV SHOW – Key and Peele
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 9
AIRED ON – November 14th, 2012
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – Comedy Central/Hulu
GENRE – Comedy, Sketch Comedy
CREATED BY – Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele