NUNCALAND

“A retelling of Peter Pan, opening with a young man chasing his shadow through an apartment complex. Hook appears when Pan fondly roughhouses with another boy, accusing him of “faggotry” while the men in the room try to convince Hook that it’s not true, that such a thing would never happen in their community. Pan escapes with Wendy’s help, fleeing to “Nuncaland,” this world’s version of Neverland, where he tries to convince her to stay.

The segment is magical, not least in part because it turns into an all-out musical sequence. When Wendy sings, the Pan corollary becomes clear: The boys need to grow up. Though they risk becoming Hooks themselves and embodying what is stereotyped as black masculinity, or inheriting their father’s sins, they can’t stay boys forever. And instead of Wendy having to hide from rape culture and harassment in Nuncaland, she argues, “You should be the ones to grow.”

In the final musical number of the sketch, though there are a few loose ends — the stigmatization of homosexuality isn’t really addressed again, for example — it manages to fold in most of the themes that the episode has touched on so far, as well as giving the preexisting story of Peter Pan a deeper dimension.

It hints at the greater heights that Random Acts of Flyness could — and hopefully will — reach, as the artists involved use what seems to be complete artistic freedom to speak, and to sing.” -Karen Han [VOX]