In a wildly political time, The Lucas Brothers, and their calm, cool, and collected style invite viewers to sit back and chill. The pair of comedy twins plays to a small, intimate crowd before a wall of Richard Nixon faces. The new Netflix special, called Lucas Brothers On Drugs, presents the pair as they flow through a wide range of topics. Want to know what Black Panthers thought about Scream 2 or hear hilariously bad OJ Simpson jokes? The Lucas Brothers have got your back.
The Lucas Brothers are most known for The Lucas Brothers Moving Company, an animated semi-autobiographical series. First aired on Fox back in 2013, the series survived for several years on FXX, completing 18 episodes. The pair also appeared in 22 Jump Street and wrote for several short-lived sitcoms.
Individually, the brothers are Kenny and Keith though they make no mention of this ever during the special. The Lucas Brothers bounce back and forth between each other like one mind talking with itself. They finish each other’s sentences, quickly ponder, ask a question and the other answers. It’s an amusing dance between the two, and they do it with an almost Barry White-smoothness.
The special begins with a big F-U to former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon. The Lucas Brothers are not fans of Nixon, and it’s for one simple reason: the war on drugs. Or as the Lucas Brothers put it, both in the animated series and on stage, “the war on niggas who just want to have fun.” But as potheads, the brothers are quick to remind everyone, “All drugs aren’t created equal. Abraham Lincoln said that shit.”
“A slave wouldn’t say he’s working like a slave. That would be redundant.” – The Lucas Brothers On Drugs
The brothers do everything together, and they talk about it through two tightly woven points of view. They went to law school together, jail, and joined the Black Panthers. The pair doesn’t get overly political at any point though they do twist expected punchlines in on themselves in some clever ways.
A story about hanging with the Black Panthers has the pair bring Scream 2 for a “movie night.” Ten minutes into the flick, when black characters Jada Pinkett-Smith and Omar Epps die, the Panthers want to use it as an example of oppression. But the Lucas Brothers offer a different way to look at it and perhaps, a different way to look at all movies where black characters die early on: “Two black characters die at the start of Scream 2, but like 20 white people die the rest of the way.”
The Lucas Brothers are fun to watch even if the jokes don’t always work. A bit about bad OJ Simpson jokes bogs down the flow for a moment. But like Chappelle, the brothers enjoy moments of laughing at their jokes. Their style is also calm and conversational; it invites viewers to act more like friends watching two funny dudes make everyone laugh.
The comedy of the Lucas Brothers carefully rides a thin line. It’s edgy without being offensive and yet still not family friendly. The pair is raw, yet do it in a way that’s so down-to-earth that it goes down smooth.
