Outward

Key & Peele Explain What Straights Should Expect at a Gay Wedding

But, like, won’t it be different?

Still from Key & Peele

As we continue the battle for marriage equality, it can be easy to forget that everyone who expresses confusion about gay marriage—the wedding ceremony in particular—is not necessarily homophobic. In fact, it’s good to remeber that the wedding, as a ritual that comes caked in fairly conservative, gender-based traditions like “giving away the bride,” is bound to cause some dissonace for even supportive family and friends when the couple involved is same-sex. Though they can sometimes feel perplexing, questions are natural and should be dealt with as graciously as possible. As someone who just recently got gay-married, I can tell you: Fieldng awkward queries and correcting erroneous assumptions is just part of the process. 

I reference that background only to account for why “Gay Wedding Advice,” a newly released teaser sketch from Key & Peele’s fourth season (which starts Wednesday night on Comedy Central), stuck me as almost painfully funny. In the clip, a well-meaning member of the Johnson clan engages his family in a dialogue about their cousin Delroy, who is about to be wed … “to a man!” Being a good facilitator, the host brings in a guest expert to take questions: His co-worker and “active member of the homosexual community,” Gary. An exchange about “gay and straight sections” in the church quickly devolves into a hilarious skewering of straight anxieties about gay marriage ceremonies, which while understandable, are also a little silly. 

(If you’re curious for more gay wedding advice, check out Ask a Homo’s take.)