Key and Peele, who are generally known for their sly, subversive humor, made some lame oral-sex jokes during the MTV VMAs.
Early in the awards show, Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande performed their new track "Side to Side." The stars were joined on stage by male dancers, who pantomimed going down on both women near the end of the performance.
Key and Peele's hot take? "Red alert," Keegan-Michael Key began, "If your son just went to the bathroom, he's not peeing." Key went on to call Minaj a "cunning linguist," probably the greatest joke from your sophomore year of high school.
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Online, fans of the women rolled their eyes at the commentary.
Cunning linguist. Bruh.
— Bullfighter (@DeeGreezy) August 29, 2016
After that joke about Nicki being a "very talented... cunninglinguist," I was 200% done watching the #VMAs. #NotFire #cringe
— Abbigail Miles (@AbbigailMM) August 29, 2016
Tweeting that someone is a "cunning linguist" doesn't make you clever, Sir VMA host. It makes you a fan of the 1998 revival of Cabaret.
— jacobskid (@jacobskid) August 29, 2016
The crass jokes fell flat and were out of character for the usually funny men. Their eponymous Comedy Central show featured interesting and original skits like "Movie Hecklers" and "Substitute Teachers." But their VMAs performance was decidedly unconvincing.
how did key and peele flop this hard
— steven j. horowitz (@speriod) August 29, 2016
I really don't understand the hype of Key and Peele. I've yet to even smile at this skit. In fact my face is stuck in a perma-frown. #VMAs
— Korey Kuhl (@koreykuhl) August 29, 2016
Key and Peele are usually hilarious. Tonight, they got me like: ???? #VMAs
— Awesomely Luvvie (@Luvvie) August 29, 2016