“Do you know who is LOCO?”
Our sense of pride is what drives us to be the character we are
In the realm of comedy, there are various facets that can define what type of content that it falls under. From the efforts of stand up in front of a live audience to comedy sketches that are created over time and have more of a narrative aspect. With the digital age, comedy sketches have become hugely popular with all kinds of sketches stirring up excitement in the entertainment industry. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, best known for their show Key and Peele on Comedy Central, have taken the world by storm with innovative and poignant sketches that get you laughing but also have some significance and social relevance. For example, much of their comedy plays on the theme of race and the problems that society deals with currently. They utilize humor as the tool to disarm racial stigmas and create awareness at the same time. The humor, in a good deal of their work, is subtle, hilarious, and wildly entertaining. While not always using race as a theme, common social situations are also prevalent in their sketches.
In season four, episode 11, of Key and Peele their sketch, “Loco Gangsters,” premiered in December 2014. This sketch introduces the audience to Keegan-Michael Key portrayed as the leader of the gang, and Carlito played by Jordan Peele, the main star of the sketch. The premise, starts off with Eduardo, a new gang member being initiated into the gang by breaking a glass bottle on his head. Key wraps a blue bandana across Eduardo’s forehead telling him he is “so loco” that he deserves his spot in their gang. The setting here depicts most likely their meeting spot/hideout presumably in a backyard a.k.a. their crib. Everything seems to go fine until Carlito (Jordan Peele) creeps up on them in the back in an awkward stance and says “yo” to get his members attention.
Key answers back “Hey Carlito” in an awkward voice. The audience can depict that Carlito must have been the “loco” one but now that Eduardo has joined things have changed. The gang all agree that they need a crazy guy and that Eduardo is the prime candidate for the spot. Right off the bat, you can tell Carlito is very unhappy about the situation.
Some stereotypes present in the sketch are how gangsters are always trying to be as you would call it “loco.” Gangs also have initiations where new members have to prove to the others that they are fit in the group and that they are bad to the bone, fearless. But, in this sketch, Carlito plays a gangster that is trying to act way to cool but instead is making a fool out of himself, with his reasons as to why he should be the sole “loco” member in the gang. Ian Roberts, an executive producer, and writer for Key and Peele, commented on Peele’s character saying,
“I’d say one thing that’s funny about the character is it’s really low-energy. Gang members can be played tough and loud, but he’s so quiet and steady.”
Carlito is now agitated that Eduardo is called the loco one in the gang now, so he starts to prove himself to others by presenting different examples as to why he should be the crazy one. First, he grabs a book off of a table near him and starts to open and close the book aligned horizontally with his mouth and starts quacking to imitate a duck. He says “I’m a duck, a crazy duck.” But his members reply back that what he is doing is not even loco but “goofy” or “zany.”
Key then starts to tell Carlito that he is not even loco by telling him that he is the “quiet one” in the group. And of course, from this comment, Carlito denies that he is “quiet” and states that he is always loud and starts to yell. But, it’s not the typical yell you would normally hear. Instead, Carlito barely opens his mouth, and he speaks a monotone noise that is almost close to a whisper.
Next Carlito tries to prove himself again this time by pulling his pants down and letting everyone witness his light blue boxer shorts with the killer whale Tilikum and saying its “Blackfish.” Tilikum is known to be SeaWorld’s infamous killer whale that has killed several people in the past and even has a documentary titled Blackfish which released in 2013. It comes to show that Carlito is trying to express that having Tilikum on his boxer shorts means he is crazy and that he has Tilikum’s aura. The gang members are horrified to witness Carlito’s exposure and tells him to pull up his pants!
After Key rushes to pull up Carlito’s pants so the children in the neighborhood would not see his stuff, Carlito then pulls out nine punch cards from Fro-yo Universe. He states that there is one stamp on each card, and whenever he goes back and gets another fro-yo he grabs a brand new card and punches one hole in it. He wants to prove that he is crazy for doing this but, Key answers back telling him that “it’s just financially irresponsible.” After this, of course, Carlito tries to set another example as to why he is loco by stating his friend “Mr. Basura-head” is crazier. For those that don’t know what “basura” is in Spanish, it means “trash.” He then empties a nearby trashcan and places it over his head by saying “I’m the most loco person in here” before running into a wooden pole and falling backward.
The main point to get across is the essence of pride here. Pride is known to be defined as “having a high opinion of oneself” or “a feeling that you are more important or better than other people.” Portraying a gangster, Jordan Peele uses his character to showcase and exaggerate stupid things that people would likely do just to get attention and show off. From this Carlito is taking in a lot of his pride trying to show his friends proof that he is crazier than Eduardo.
Carlito after falling backyard like a tree then grabs a glass bottle like Eduardo did in the beginning and tries to break it across his head. From his face, he is telling everyone he can do the same thing Eduardo did and that it’s not even that impressive, but in the end, he just embarrasses himself once again. He tells his gang members “I’m crazy, I’m the loco one.” Carlito keeps bashing the bottle on his head, but it just wouldn’t break. Ashamed, he blames that the bottle is “unbreakable” before throwing it away. The funny thing is that after he throws it away, in the background you can hear the bottle break, and this leaves Carlito even more red-faced.
Disappointed, Carlito then grabs a staple gun and staples his hand in front of everyone making everyone uneasy and disgusted for doing such a thing. Key finally acknowledges him telling that what he just did was loco, but says it was “not in an entertaining way to be loco.”
Suddenly, Carlito grabs a gun and starts to fiddle around with it making everyone worried that he might shoot them. Carlito does some fancy tricks with the gun until it slips out his hand and fires towards Eduardo’s head. Eduardo falls back and is presumably dead, and everyone starts to criticize at Carlito for killing Eduardo who was new. Carlito feels no guilt and states that now “I’m the most loco in the gang,” and Key answers back that he now is, but because of “process of elimination.”
The counterpoint comes to play in the sketch when suddenly Eduardo pops back up from the ground staring straight at Carlito. Eduardo suddenly opens his mouth showing the bullet that fired from the gun had not killed him, but that he caught it in between his teeth. Everyone starts cheering because they all agree that was the most “loco-est thing” they have ever seen. Carlito frustrated that Eduardo is actually alive grabs the gun again, suddenly making everyone go into a panic. Everyone who is well aware that Carlito is furious and might unleash his wrath, run to stop him from shooting anywhere else. But, as they try to grab the gun, the screen goes black, and the audience hears a gunshot, ending the sketch.
This sketch was presented as the season four finale of Key and Peele, and it was hilarious. Not only does it touch base on how gangsters think they are super cool, fresh, and loco Jordan Peele who plays Carlito expresses the funny side of how people want to show their pride and be known in their gang as the “loco” one. Another sketch called “Proud Thug,” also has Jordan Peele playing Carlito, and it once again shows off how much pride Carlito takes in himself. Pride is something that everyone has, and the way we want to showcase it varies from people to people and shows what character we have.
