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The Milk Crate Challenge Is No Match For Amber Ruffin

By Andrew Sanford | TV | August 30, 2021 |

By Andrew Sanford | TV | August 30, 2021 |


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Another week, another A+ sketch by the team at The Amber Ruffin Show. It almost feels pointless to tee it up. Amber needs no introduction.

If you haven’t heard of the milk crate challenge then congratulations. It is ill-advised at best and dangerously dumb at worst. People stack milk crates then attempt to walk across them without falling. Usually, they don’t. If someone told me they were making a milk crate challenge sketch, my first feeling would be one of doubt. Sketch and late-night shows make fun of viral challenges all the time. They just often end up attempting the challenge. Occasionally you’ll get a slight twist. Overall, you end up with a bland, effortless sketch.

The Amber Ruffin Show is neither bland nor effortless! Seeing Amber attempt the challenge could be funny, sure. Instead, we get a brilliant and silly subversion. On The Amber Ruffin Show, milk crates aren’t just obstacles meant to humiliate the tragically bored. Here they talk and sing and call to Amber like the Sirens of old. The style, attitude, and humor of The Amber Ruffin Show are baked into every inch of this sketch.

When I say that the milk crate challenge is no match for Amber Ruffin, I mean that you won’t get the same old clickbait. Where others may take the easy way out, Amber (and her amazing team) uses it to her advantage. She elevates it to something more than a sketch you’ll forget about when the next viral challenge comes along. The milk crate challenge is a fad, sure to burn out like so much firey tinder. The Amber Ruffin Show will live on.