The “Lunch With Greatness” sketch in which black actors playing Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Key and Peele do have a few funny moments that show genuine potential for great comedy. Homer: Ah ha ha, it's true, it's true! We're so lame! Yeah, but white guys, see, they drive a car like this. Homer watches a black comic’s stand-up routine:Ĭomedian: Yo, check this out: black guys drive a car like this. This 'Simpsons' moment from 18 years ago mocks both the comedy and how eager white audiences are to embrace racial comedy that doesn’t address real racism: White talk / black talk is an old and lazy shtick. This premise is the basis of nearly every single sketch.

But 'Key & Peele' is less about the complexities of navigating the often tricky multi-racial road, and more about the cheap humor of “White people talk like this,” and “Black people talk like this” - with black characters deciding whether they’ll talk white or black in a given situation. In theory it’s interesting for America to hear about the mixed experience. Key and Peele address this tension and frustration by juxtaposing black identities, their own and their characters’, with black caricatures in popular culture.Īs the daughter of an African-American father and an Asian mother, I’m tempted to support their efforts. These narrow definitions play a destructive role in how the world sees black people and how black people see themselves. The black experience is hugely varied, existing outside of the limited narratives typically shown in film, television and music. On one hand, this is a genuinely good thing. (It's also been popular with viewers the show was Comedy Central's most-watched premiere since 2009, and was just picked up for a second season.) Two light-skinned black men, middle-class in mannerism, who, like our black president, have white mothers.

'Key & Peele's' deep flaws have gone unnoticed by the majority of reviewers, and I suspect this is due to the attractiveness of the package: Comics Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele are black folk who, like most white critics, want to move past race. In our sincere but hasty desire to actualize this mythical post-racist world, Key and Peele are the jackpot. And since these are the show's two goals, it has failed miserably. Comedy Central's new sketch show 'Key & Peele' (Tuesday, 10:30 p.m.

White person sketch show