God bless Jordan Peele. The man knows that while some things are beyond parody, a little word-for-word recreation can say plenty. Peele, seemingly for no other reason than a certain je ne sais quoi, has taken it upon himself to precisely reenact the bizarre 1988 interview James Brown gave on CNN’s Sonya Live in L.A. In it, Brown is ostensibly being asked about his arrest for allegedly domestically abusing his wife, but the video is often dubbed “Drunk James Brown” because the singer’s erratic behavior in no way matches the gravity of those accusations. Instead, Brown repeatedly cuts off questions, shout-sings, and gets up out of the frame to shimmy. In Peele’s estimation, the whole thing is “nutsoid.” Breathe in Peele’s recreation above, and compare it to the source material below.
