In series finale, ‘Key & Peele’ remains biting and irreverent

The series finale of “Key & Peele” took a trip to the magical land of “Negrotown.”

A musical spoof with a tune so catchy you’ll want to sing it all day long at work -- but really, really shouldn’t -- the “Negrotown” sketch was an apt way to send off a series that, in sketches like “Auction Block” and “Gun-Crazy Cop,” has provided scathingly funny and sadly relevant commentary on race relations in America.

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In the sketch (which was actually released online well ahead of its network airing Wednesday night), a character played by Keegan-Michael Key is about to be arrested by a white police officer for no apparent reason, when suddenly he is whisked away to Negrotown.

“Negrotown? What? Like Atlanta?” Key asks his guide, played by Peele.

Not exactly. Negrotown is a candy-colored Utopia for black people, where “you can walk the street without getting stopped harassed or beat” and “wear your hoodie and not get shot.”

Alas, the place “where the strong black men are raining down” and “there’s no disease, no sickle cell” is but a fantasy. Key’s character wakes up from the beautifully choreographed dream to find himself being shoved into a police car.

“I thought I was going to Negrotown?” he says, bewildered.

“Oh, you are,” replies the police officer ominously.

(You can watch the whole sketch here, but be warned: It includes lots of potentially offensive language.)

Elsewhere in the series finale, we found out just why Key and Peele have been on the road for the last two seasons: They’ve been trying to get far enough away from their wives to safely use the word “bitch.” It’s a nice way to touch on another of this show’s recurring themes, macho posturing, and is also, of course, a callback to a classic sketch from the pilot, which starred Key and Peele as married men trading tales of dominating their spouses -- but only when said wives were out of earshot.

Relations between the sexes figured prominently in the hour-long episode, which also featured the almost-breakup of Meegan and Andre, the world’s most poisonous relationship. Meegan, she of the creaky voice and pancake makeup, once again proved herself to be a master of passive-aggressive manipulation, luring dim-witted Andre back into the relationship against his will.

There was also room in the finale for some of the pop culture-inspired silliness that “Key & Peele” does every bit as well as the hot-button subjects. Peele starred in a spoof ad for a compilation of would-be “major motion picture themes” by Ray Parker Jr., of “Ghostbusters” fame. The album includes songs for movies as “12 Years a Slave” (sample lyrics: “Who’s a slave? I’m not a slave!”) but not, it should be noted, “Ghostbusters.” You’ve been warned.

There was even a bit reflecting on the legacy of “Key & Peele,” which Peele claimed, somewhat facetiously, was “the greatest comedy or otherwise show ever made,” and ranked alongside “Dallas” and “The Twilight Zone” as one of the all-time greats (what, no “Breaking Bad”?).

“I think that it’s very possible, like, we’ll go down like the Wright Brothers,” he said, catching himself. “Am I going too far? Am I overblowing it?”

Maybe a skosh, but it’s certainly been nooice having them around.

Follow @MeredithBlake on Twitter.

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