James Callis as Shakespeare on "Key & Peele".
Key and Peele are on center stage in this skit, and James is almost the straight man, but he does a lot with his eyes and tones. It's an amusing mixture of (what I assume to be) his classical theater background and Gaius Baltar eyes.
What I found hilarious is that this is basically Shakespearean language mixed with modern-day discourse, like something you'd see in an online forum. Obviously it's also a dig at the racism of Othello, and um, I may be too white to comment much on how this skit tackles racism, but if anyone else would like to analyze it, I'd love to hear it!
And as we all know, James loves to quote Shakespeare every now and then, so it's delicious to see him AS the Bard. (Although Nicole might be right in saying that he got the role based on being British and good at looking scared.)
Setting: "Othello" has just been shown, and the two black gentlemen enjoyed the first act, but are furious when it turns out Othello dies in the end. So they decide to give Shakespeare a piece of their mind..
Shakespeare talks to a couple of fans, all charming. (It's actually very close to how he looks with real life fans.)
"You killed Othello! A black man got it goin' on and you shuffled off his mortal coil?!"
"I say that's a tragedy!"
"Oh! Is that not the trubadour Kanye of the West?!"
:D :D :D This was just a brilliant line. Shakespeare tries to make his escape, but doesn't quite make it.
"Truth be told my lords, 'tis not I who penned this dreadful play, 'twas Christopher Marlowe!"
Heee! That's so good. Granted, I've studied Shakespeare in university, but this is probably a general enough reference that people get it.
I find the ruffles sort of cancel out the masculinity of that beard. It's interesting how culture has since defined ruffles as a female thing. Society was less gender-neutral then probably, but men wore ruffles. That's about as deep as I'm going to get in this post. Moving on.
"Nay, nay nay nay nay.."
"Yes, it was!"
"Thou already tried to use that line of argument, when the Jews wanted to kick your ass after Merchant of Venice!"
"We doth not purchase this Willy, we doth not purchase it!" :D :D :D :D
"Be calm, my good lords. 'Twill not be long til another black hero graceth the stage and now if you let me take my leave [mumbles]"..
"Not so fast. You gon write that hero [takes a quill out of his hat].. NOW."
"Verily that, motherfucker."
Shakespeare *eyes each of the men* *stares at the quill* *realizes his grave destiny*
:D :D :D (Sorry, smilie faces are not exactly brilliant commentary, but when something is just funny, it just is.)
I loved this. My only regret is that they could have used James for another skit, or made this a little longer, but then that's always the fan's view who only watches for one actor. It's Key and Peele's show, after all.
Actually, it would be interesting to see what James would do if he had a sketch show of his own. It's a lot of fun to see him in roles that are just purely comedy. There are many shows like this in the UK, so maybe some day..?
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