![]() ![]() ![]() So being both softies and African American, we wanted to see what a movie would look like if we took guys like us and allowed them to be the lead of an action movie."Ĭhallenging Hollywood and audiences like this couldn't come at a better time. "Not just the fact that we're African American, but the fact that we're not badasses. "The big picture for us is that guys like us would never be allowed in an action movie," he says. Does it mean that we can't be masculine unless we are those things? I have to be a boxer, or a drug dealer, or a rapper, or my experience isn't legitimate?" You can be tough and be African American and not necessarily be a rapper, or a gangster, or anything. It lends itself to the notion that the African American experience is not a monolith. You're now examining a part of the African American culture you may not have been as familiar with. He's the juxtaposition: A kitten with a do-rag. "I don't care if you're a drug dealer or a cartel leader. "All those stereotypes, every single one of them all show a softer side, because everybody cares about a kitten," Key says. It's a curious equation - how can someone be both too black to sell movie tickets, and not black enough to portray black characters?Įpisodes of Key & Peele, but their latest collaboration, Keanu, a feature-length film in theaters about two friends who come up with a plan to retrieve a stolen kitten by posing as drug dealers in a street gang, once more serves up a bevy of racial stereotypes, and through the movie's 98 minute run time, cleverly disprove them all. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Peele said, "You’ll hear a lot of Hollywood execs talk about: 'African-American-led movies don’t do well overseas.'" In the same interview, Key said, "It’s been frustrating when someone says, 'You’re not black enough.'" "We do it through our art," he tells me.īut there's an unfortunate contradiction at play. ![]() It's undeniably hilarious.Īccording to Peele, comedy is the perfect vehicle to get mass audiences to pay attention to larger issues such as racism. When the teacher mispronounces traditionally white names like Jacqueline and Blake, the students attempt to correct their sub - who refuses to be corrected. It goes like this: When an African American substitute teacher "who taught school for 20 years in the inner city," steps in to teach a majority white class, there is a clear divide. Substitute Teacher, a sketch which has racked up a mind-blowing 93 million views on YouTube, encompasses the duo's satirical sensibilities. Though Key & Peele is sadly no more, five seasons of hilarious and often controversial sketches still have a beating heartbeat on the internet. Long before their big screen debut in Keanu, comedy duo Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, better known by their Comedy Central show name, Key & Peele, have used their craft to shine a spotlight on racial stereotypes and tropes. ![]()
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