Four years ago, comedy duo Key and Peele came out with a series of skits entitled "Obama's Anger Translator." The premise was delightfully simple. Jordan Peele, playing Obama, would deliver a brief State of the Union address interspersed with "anger translations" by his translator, Luther, played by Keegan-Michael Key. Through Luther, the American public discovered Obama's real feelings about a variety of topics, including his complex relationship with a Republican-dominated congress...
...the repeated criticism of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare...
...accusations that he practices Islam...
During the correspondence dinner, Obama himself got fired up enough about climate change to no longer need a translator. In fact, Luther was encouraging Mr. Obama to calm down. It was understood that, after the dinner, Obama didn't need an anger translator anymore. Though Luther fans (such as myself) definitely missed the character, it was a fitting end to a great series of skits.
Therefore, it was something of a surprise to see Luther again a few days ago, when Comedy Central released a video of Key and Peele reprising their respective roles as Luther and Obama (with Peele's Obama looking a lot grayer at the temples). In this video, we see Obama's real reaction to Trump's election...
...the reports that Russia interfered with the results of the election...
...and the difficult task of uniting as a country after a very long and divisive campaign...
Once again, Key and Peele offers us spot-on social commentary through dark humor. It's funny and a little bittersweet. Give it a watch.
