Key and Peele, two black comedians, are well known for their skits on YouTube, and appear on TV. With their most popular video on YouTube nearing 60 million views. they have a large fan base, and therefore a prominent affect on pop-culture. Their videos play on stereotypes and common ideology in a comical manner. By turning stereotypes into comedy, they help expose how ridiculous many stereotypes actually are.
In one of their recent videos, "Alien Imposters", they fight against Aliens, who pretend to be humans, and they must make a quick decision whether the character is an alien or human, based on what they say, and kill the aliens. Throughout the video, Key and Peele interrogate the random characters they come across, and either kill them or take them along, based on their level of racism towards black people. At the beginning the video, they shoot a "redneck" after he invited them to come live in their community, later stating that he got shot because a "redneck" stereotypically wouldn't invite a black person into his/her community. Key and Peele do an exceptional job exposing the stupidity of stereotypes, while keeping the audience entertained with comedy.
Very true. Comedy has a way of taking the seriousness out of anything.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great show i watch it all the time and i did realise a long time ago that they kept playing off stereotypes. Kept wondering if this was ok for them to do or if it could still be considered racist. Eventually I came to the same conclusion that in these skits they use lots of hyperbola and you understand that these are dumb stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteI love this show, and the stereotypes that they poke fun at are spot on. The use of comedy and satire adds another level of truth to things.
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