Key and Peele: the magic in satirical comedies

In this comedic sketch by Key and Peele, the 2 actors present the scenario of a white cop pulling over a black man. The scene begins with the police officer pulling over the driver, and asking him some questions. He then tells the driver to open his trunk and step out of the vehicle. The officer "finds" some drugs in the trunk, though he really just planted them there, which upsets the driver. The cop then pushes him up against the car and begins to show the driver a bunch of random magic tricks, which confuses and frustrates the driver. The sketch ends on a bit lighter note, where the driver thinks that the cop is handing him a ticket, whereas he's giving him a ticket to his magic show, in which the driver declines and says he'll take the ticket instead.

In this sketch, the prominent and probably only satirical technique that's used is situational irony. When the officer approaches the black man and forces him to exit his car, you can only assume the worse will happen, as the typical representation of this situation would end with the black man assaulted or murdered. Instead, when the cop pulls out the drugs that he planted in the drivers car, he then magically turns the drugs into roses, instead of punishing the man. The cop performs many other unorthodox actions, such as pulling out a multi-colored string of bandana's, turning a gun into a dove, and performing a card trick. The only time he's seen showing practical instances for this type of scenario is when he pushes him against the car, and even then it doesn't show for much. Finally, the officer ends the excitement with giving him a thought-to-be ticket, but instead of two-for-one coup to his magic show, another clear example of situational irony.

The first, and obvious criticism of society in this sketch is the treatment of black men. Black men are usually depicted as being pulled over by white cops for no reason, and harassed for an even lesser reason. Key and Peele, however, use their humor to emphasize the play-by-play of these situations. In this scene, the cop hits the driver with random magic tricks, which in reality represents the ridiculous and unnecessary questions and actions that white cops perform on black man during these types of situations. Also, when the driver asked the cop a serious and relevant question, the cop would either ignore or blow off the question. For example, when the driver asked if the officer was a real officer, he just shouted "freeze!", and pulled out a gun that he planted on the driver. Ultimately, this shows how white cops think they have the privilege of creating unnecessary and unprovoked conflict when dealing with black men, but also proposes a solution of just leaving the situation alone, which is shown through the cop offering the driver a coupon to his magic show, rather than a ticket.