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Is This Country Song Racist?

Key & Peele2012Season 2Episode 3
Key & Peele
SKETCH-O-VISION
A VERY GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.

The setup

A proud amateur country singer serenades his neighbor with songs that keep getting harder to defend.

Watch on YouTube
Watch onYouTube

Community rating

– / 10

The premise

Here’s the bit.

Showing a neighbor around his basement guitar room, a man who grew up in Texas plays him some original country songs. The lyrics are full of coded jabs at black people, and when his guest objects, the singer, who is black himself, insists it is all just traditional country imagery and accuses his friend of reading race into everything. Each new song he swears is harmless turns out more blatant than the last, until the final verse finally makes him hear it too.

The funny people

Meet the cast. 2

Say it with us

Highly quotable.

Black people? But I'm black.

That's traditional country music imagery, man, like a pickup truck or sleeping under the stars.

Now I see it. Now I see it.

Behind the scenes

The people who made it.

ScriptEnglish · 47 turns

Automatically generated script; wording may contain errors. Speaker labels are inferred.

  1. 00:00

    Jordan Peele

    Hey, all I know is it's good having another brother move into the neighborhood.

  2. 00:03

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Hey, man, it's good to have you over. And I think that you will dig this.

  3. 00:07

    Jordan Peele

    All right. Hey.

  4. 00:11

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Huh?

  5. 00:12

    Jordan Peele

    Nice guitar collection.

  6. 00:14

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Oh, thanks, man. Hey, you want to hear something?

  7. 00:16

    Jordan Peele

    Yeah, sure.

  8. 00:17

    Keegan-Michael Key

    All right.

  9. 00:18

    Jordan Peele

    All right.

  10. 00:19

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Let's get this twist.

  11. 00:20

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Well, Well, I'm just a good old American boy with a heart that's red, white, and true. Dreaming of the girl with the red hair and freckles and her eyes like the skies of blue.

  12. 00:36

    Jordan Peele

    Country music.

  13. 00:37

    Keegan-Michael Key

    I grew up in Texas, you know, so.

  14. 00:39

    Jordan Peele

    All right.

  15. 00:40

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Keep her safe from the homies in the wrong side of town where they're smoking the reefer and acting like clowns. Keep that pretty white dress from getting dirty and brown because that's the American way.

  16. 00:57

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Woo-hoo!

  17. 00:59

    Jordan Peele

    Oh, it's Pretty racist song.

  18. 01:03

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Racist against who?

  19. 01:05

    Jordan Peele

    Black people.

  20. 01:06

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Black people? But I'm black.

  21. 01:10

    Jordan Peele

    Well, keeping the red-headed girl away from the homies on the wrong side of town?

  22. 01:14

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Homies? Come on, brother, there's all kinds of homies. You know, white homies, Asian homies.

  23. 01:20

    Jordan Peele

    No, homies are black.

  24. 01:22

    Keegan-Michael Key

    No, I think you're making them black, man. I mean, I think that's your stuff. You hear the twang, and then you assume that it's racist. But that's just what country music is like.

  25. 01:32

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Look, you're gonna like this one. You'll like this one.

  26. 01:34

    Jordan Peele

    All right.

  27. 01:37

    Keegan-Michael Key

    some folks wear their hats way off to the side with their pants down low and a gun tucked inside take their beer by the 40 and their chicken deep fried i think we all know who we're talking about the only dark i like is when i turn off the lights the only hood i love is pointy and white and trust you if i can't see your face at night i think we all know who we're talking about

  28. 02:02

    Jordan Peele

    All right, wait, hey, stop that, that's racist.

  29. 02:06

    Keegan-Michael Key

    What's what? What is racist about it?

  30. 02:08

    Jordan Peele

    The only hood I love is pointy and white?

  31. 02:11

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Yeah, man.

  32. 02:12

    Jordan Peele

    That's talking about the Klan, man.

  33. 02:15

    Keegan-Michael Key

    The Ku Klux Klan? Are you outside of your mind? That's traditional country music imagery, man, like a pickup truck or sleeping under the stars or your dog got killed or your wife left you, same thing.

  34. 02:27

    Jordan Peele

    I would've been fine with any of those things.

  35. 02:29

    Keegan-Michael Key

    What is the difference between those things and what is in the song?

  36. 02:32

    Jordan Peele

    They're not racial.

  37. 02:33

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Hey, you know what, can I just say something, man? I'm just going to be frank. You're getting a little, like, Al Sharpton, like, Farrakhan on me right now, man.

  38. 02:42

    Jordan Peele

    Oh, my god. Are you serious?

  39. 02:43

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Dude, dude, please. Hey, give me a, you know, can I do one more? Let me just do one more, dawg. I absolutely promise you that this song is not racist, and it's impossible for you to misinterpret it as such.

  40. 02:57

    Jordan Peele

    OK, it seems like you're about to sing the most racist song so far.

  41. 03:01

    Keegan-Michael Key

    over

  42. 03:05

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Howdy, laddy, laddily, get me a rope and find here

  43. 03:10

    Jordan Peele

    I'm out.

  44. 03:12

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Come on, man. Hey!

  45. 03:15

    Keegan-Michael Key

    Over here trying to sing about a tire swing right off an entire genre music

  46. 03:22

    Keegan-Michael Key

    the banjos are strumming and the drums are banging let's get the boys together and have ourselves a hanging

  47. 03:30

    Keegan-Michael Key

    oh damn now i see it now i see it

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