We’re rolling through every episode of Key and Peele on Pop Thruster. Here we go with “High On Potenuse,” Season 3 Episode 8. Follow along on the journey!
Also: check out ALL 351 Key & Peele Sketches Ranked (In Painstakingly Funny Detail)!
Drug Deal at the Park
“What’s with the Robin Williams routine?” – Peele
K&P are so great at satirizing the roles we all constantly play in real life, shifting seamlessly between how we act at home versus work, with friends at the bar versus with a religious leader or in this case, when you’re trying to score some drugs at the local park. In this case, Key just can’t get with the program, to drug dealer Peele’s consternation.
High On Potenuse
“I wish I were high on potenuse.” – Mr. Jackson
Often a funny sketch works because it’s based on a simple, clever premise that’s pushed to its natural limit. Such is the case here as we have Mr. Morrison (Key) and Mr. Jackson (Peele) as students in math class, and when the teacher brings up the hypotenuse, Mr. Jackson whispers “I wish I were high on potenuse.” However, critically, when Mr. Morrison repeats the line for the entire class, they crack the [REDACTED] up. There’s a play on comedians and “stolen material” here (as emphasized by Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias eventually showing up) but mostly this is just about the feeling we can all relate to when we want to tell everyone, wait I said that!
From Othello to Shafte (a sketch in three acts)
“A Black man got it going on, and you shuffle off his mortal coil?” – Peele
It’s a production of Othello (“a tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare,” as the signage says) back in Ye Olden Days, and K&P have a blast as two dudes going to the Globe Theater to catch the show, meshing Shakespearean English with a satire of (as they put it) Black theater – Othello is my shite! This person doth seem dope to me! Bonus: Henry Ian Cusick of Lost and Scandal fame pops up as The Bard himself (who gets in a very Game of Zones-ish line with, “Is that not Kanye of the West?”).
The Meaning of Words
“I’m a-leg-ted to marijuana.” – Levi
Wherein Key slowly uncovers that his friend Levi (Peele) somehow confuses the meanings of the words “leg” and “dick” for one another in every possible context. It’s a silly notion that does get us pondering about questions such as, “Why does this word mean this thing and not that thing?” Especially while enjoying a certain substance, perhaps.
Excessive Celebration
“A third pump will draw a flag no matter what.” – Broadcast booth announcer
This is a perfect parody of the NFL’s weird rules around “excessive celebrations” after scoring a touchdown. Bonus I: we get K&P’s hilarious use of football player names here (Key is Hingle McCringleberry, who is having a career day… if only he can rein in his celebratory “pumps”). Bonus II: the broadcast booth’s use of the telestrator and slow-motion playback to highlight said “pumps.”
Previewing the Speech
“All right? More like all white!” – Peele
James Livingston (Jerry Lambert) is a VP who brings in three employees to review a big speech with his team to make sure it’s not offensive. This set-up allows for a glorious exploration of the weird tension that exists in the workplace around intent and political correctness. That being said, there’s a heaviness to the material too, I must relay, in watching this sketch at the dark outset of a new Trump administration (and the rollback of DEI policies across corporate America that’s come with it). Bonus: Crista Flanagan, who plays the amazing Lois Sadler in Mad Men, guest stars.
Luther, Obama’s Anger Translator #10
“That really cracked me up, and it cracked up the rest of America, too.” – President Obama
This tenth edition of the Obama/Luther franchise actually doesn’t feature Luther at all, instead leveraging Key to come back as Troy Morrison, the star of the “High on Potenuse” sketch from the same episode. It’s thankfully a short and sweet bit, wherein President Obama (Peele) presents Morrison with the Congressional Comedy Medal of Honor (for cracking the random joke in class that he did not actually come up with).
Some stats and info about Key & Peele, “High On Potenuse”
TV SHOW – Key and Peele
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 3, Episode 8
AIRED ON – November 6th, 2013
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – Comedy Central/Hulu
GENRE – Comedy, Sketch Comedy
CREATED BY – Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele