Nobody laughed as hard as I did at the original, when Key & Peele poked fun at the unique, often ridiculous-sounding names of high-profile football players. A year later, it’s back by popular demand and I’m left grumbling and muttering while I watch those I deem less intelligent than myself slap their knees and giggle. The names are no less crazy and the characters embodying them are no less flamboyant than those presented in the original, but something is missing. The first time around, there was a noticeable devolution as the players’ names became more and more unrealistic and absurd. What’s missing from the sequel is this same simple yet effective comedic formula that many of Key & Peele’s more successful sketches seem to share. While the names in the second sketch do eventually take on the form of ludicrous sounds rather than ludicrous names, there was no realistic starting point.
That isn’t to say that the “formula” used for the original sketch would have been enough to save the sequel. We live in a time where things deemed successful enough to warrant a sequel will not often take any risks to present anything other than what earned its acclaim to begin with. I was just sad to see that something as low-risk as a comedy sketch fell into the same confines of creativity as a Michael Bay movie. Key & Peele’s original sketch took a noticeable stereotype and pushed it further and further into a successful parody. On the other hand, the sequel paid less mind to how the content was presented. They simply seemed to think that people like the funny names, and ran through a list of what we had already come to expect.
This brings me to my last thought, which is mostly just disappointment that people actually find the second sketch hilarious. Don’t get me wrong, “Eqqsquizitine Buble-Schwinslow” is a funny as hell name, but the outrageous names were only half of what made the original sketch so great. Without the element of surprise, we’re just left nodding our heads in agreement that the black guys have silly names. The original sketch successfully parodied the racial aspect to it, waiting until the final player introduction - the lone white guy - to be named “Dan Smith” and attend Brigham Young University. In the end, it managed to stereotype the white player in one example as well as it parodied the black ones through the entire thing. The sequel simply repeats this, right down to the last player being white, but the effects of everything are lost on us, and anyone actually laughing is just finding an uncomfortable amount of amusement in the goofy black guy names.
Submitted by Ben Humphrey
@humpnotes
That isn’t to say that the “formula” used for the original sketch would have been enough to save the sequel. We live in a time where things deemed successful enough to warrant a sequel will not often take any risks to present anything other than what earned its acclaim to begin with. I was just sad to see that something as low-risk as a comedy sketch fell into the same confines of creativity as a Michael Bay movie. Key & Peele’s original sketch took a noticeable stereotype and pushed it further and further into a successful parody. On the other hand, the sequel paid less mind to how the content was presented. They simply seemed to think that people like the funny names, and ran through a list of what we had already come to expect.
This brings me to my last thought, which is mostly just disappointment that people actually find the second sketch hilarious. Don’t get me wrong, “Eqqsquizitine Buble-Schwinslow” is a funny as hell name, but the outrageous names were only half of what made the original sketch so great. Without the element of surprise, we’re just left nodding our heads in agreement that the black guys have silly names. The original sketch successfully parodied the racial aspect to it, waiting until the final player introduction - the lone white guy - to be named “Dan Smith” and attend Brigham Young University. In the end, it managed to stereotype the white player in one example as well as it parodied the black ones through the entire thing. The sequel simply repeats this, right down to the last player being white, but the effects of everything are lost on us, and anyone actually laughing is just finding an uncomfortable amount of amusement in the goofy black guy names.
Submitted by Ben Humphrey
@humpnotes