Key & Peele: “Y’All Ready For This?”

Key & Peele are back for a fifth season, loaded with the promise of making your Wednesday night a heck of a lot funnier. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
RHINOS OPENER—HOLY PRODUCTION VALUES!
The Rhinos are back, yet again! Here, a lighthearted pre-game pep talk takes a turn for the—whaaaaat! Chest bumps turn into cause for wielding samurai swords, setting traps, and blowing up locker rooms from the comfort of a plush town car. And it’s totally absurd. I love this program’s commitment to turning tropes from mainstream cinema into something uniquely comical, and with top-notch genre design, too.
Here, for example, Key & Peele take the most recognizable facets of both sports dramas and tense thrillers—the game day euphoria, tonal music, and a sepia-colored locker room—creating a Frankenstein of a sketch. It’s held together by the hilarity of juxtaposition; that is, the constant exchange of admiring words between teammates. Uplifting sentiments like “This is our destiny!” spoken by a knife-clenching Key is completely illogical, but K&P’s all-in values make it a complete success. Pretty solid for the first sketch at bat.
Best (Line) in Show: “Play this game like it’s the last game of our life.”
ANGER TRANSLATOR: OBAMA/LUTHER VERSUS CLINTON/SAVANNAH
Here Key & Peele present their trademark sketch on honesty in politics. Hillary Clinton’s own anger translator debuts in this scene (Savannah), which is pretty timely given the increasing chatter around the 2016 presidential election. There are tons of opportunities for the characters to play out the imagined, not-so-nice banter that the two political powerhouses might share, and, despite the sketch being one that’s often recycled, the joke definitely still has some zing.
I like the principle of this bit, and always appreciate a Luther drop-in, but this sketch probably won’t be the one that you revisit on YouTube a week or two down the road. Nonetheless, I’m excited about the potential of more political bits. I hate to think that Luther’s days are numbered (or, mostly, that Peele will have to retire his Barack Obama impression) but that sadness is lessened by the endless possibilities that should present themselves with the burgeoning 2016 election. More of this stuff, please!
Best (Line) in Show: “F-ck you, dream stealer!”—Savannah
SEATMATES FROM HELL: “WE GON’ GIVE THEM THE RAINBOW CONNECTION”
Oh man. Pity the poor guy sitting next to two crazoids in a packed airplane (also: that guy who blasted dubstep for the entire duration of your red-eye from LAX to JFK—no so bad!).