2012-2015 - Comedy Central
When Key and Peele debuted, I was like "Those guys? Those MadTV guys?" But while it seems whatever they did on MadTV has not stood the test of time (little on MadTV has), Key and Peele is a sketch comedy legacy to be proud of. The broad, ground-up comedy of MadTV was gone, and the sensibilities of the two performers really started to shine through very, very quickly.
Not just sharing comedic sensibilities, both Key and Peele share backgrounds, being bi-racial with white mothers and Black fathers, the subject of which comes up a few times in the interstitial segments of the show, and in the content of a couple of early sketches. But for the most part Key and Peele stepped up to fill the 6-year void since the phenomenon of Chappelle's Show abruptly left the air: Black culture-focussed sketch comedy. That's not to say that the comedy of Chappelle's Show or Key and Peele were exclusive entertainment, just that a lot of the sketches were rooted in Black history, popular culture, social statements, trends and behaviors, both shows still managed to entertain across any preconceived racial lines by following the adage that there is humour in specificity.
Key and Peele often exposed as well as exploited the Black experience for humour, but also sometimes for the uncomfortable laugh, about police brutality and murder, slavery, even curiosity that is Black Republicans. One of the carryovers from MadTV was Peele's Obama impersonation, which almost exclusively Key and Peele did with "Luther, Obama's anger translator". This would find Barack Obama calmly and cooly relating his thoughts on a topic, with each sentence Key bouncing, hopping mad in the background saying what Obama's really thinking...the things a dipomatic President can never say himself out loud (or shouldn't).
Their interests in nerd culture leads to sketches lampooning horror tropes, superheroes, zombie movies, as well as the people interested in these things. There's a Harry Potter-adjacent sketch set in a wizarding public school, without the finer resources of a Hogwarts. A second season sketch spoofs the Power Rangers calling the Green Falcon "Black Falcon" repeatedly. There's a sketch with Peele performing as Stan Lee, trying to solicit new superheroes which have foundation in his geriatric situation, or a gonzo final season sketch about the origins of Gremlins 2: The New Batch. There was definitely an dark streak equal to their nerdier and goofier sensibilities.
It's not a flawless five-season run by any stretch. There are sketches that are questionable, particularly the ones where Key and/or Peele choose to play Middle-Eastern, Latino (mainly cholo gangsters), or Indian (doctors primarily). There are some funny sketches in concept, but there's also an stereotypical undercurrent that in modern culture just doesn't fly. There is a point where Key notes that some tough Latinos did come up to him and ask him why he didn't do any sketches about them, which just leads me to think there's a long, long way to go still for representation in sketch comedy on TV.
Over 54 episodes, Key and Peele developed a solid stable of recurring characters, though none of them overstayed their welcome. Of them, Obama definitely appeared the most, though by season 4 appearances were very sporadic. Meegan and Andre, the high maintenance couple, appeared about once per season. Wendell, the overweight nerd with a complex, is maybe not the most favourable caricature but he also only appears three times. Gay couple LaShawn and Samuel appear to promote legalized gay marriage and adoption. And of course the two movie fan Valets who were prone to pluralizing and colloquializing the names of their favourite actors ... Vally Kilmers, Melly Gibsons, Anne Hathaways, Liam Neesons.... (This tag team was so popular that Key and Peele reprised this skit in character as "Bunny" and "Ducky" promoting Toy Story 4). There were also world-building aspects that repeat throughout as well, like the Rhinos, who are every sports team in any sports related sketches, with the big rubbery orange rhino as a mascot and their bright orange jerseys, whether football or hockey.
There's also a lot of musical number (with some quality songsmithing happening) crossing many genres, from broadway to jazz, hip-hop to dubstep, soul to pop to R&B. Likewise there's a lot of high concept production pieces which, in the wake of Peele's subsequent directorial career with Get Out and Us, you can see the gestation of the auteur here. There's a lot of horror-as-comedy, or comedy-as-horror happening throughout and it's clear Peele loves the genre and enjoys toying with it.
The hits to misses ratio of the sketches in Key and Peele is extraordinarily high, but of course I have favourites. It could be a very long list, but I'm going to narrow it down to two favourites per season:
Favourite Key and Peele sketchs from each season:
"Community Theatre Martin and Malcolm" (S1 Ep2) - Two actors are performing on stage as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. When one actor's reciting of a famous phrase gets a rousing bout of approval from the audience, the other tries to outdo them, until it descends into just spouting any old catch phrase for approval. Unexpected silliness.
"Bar/Bat Mitzvah Motivational Dancers" (S1 EP8) - a Christopher Guest-style mocumentary about two Black bar/bat mitvah performers. This kind of sketch is always appealing to me.
"Dueling Hats" (S2 Ep10) - remember when people started leaving the brand sticker on the brim of their baseball cap? And then people started leaving the sales tags on their baseball caps? Well, this absurd style and one upmanship just keeps getting one upped in this sketch.
"Dub Step" (S2 Ep2) Keegan learns about Dub Step, with upsetting results
The Continental (S3 EP7) - A man discovers all the joys of the free continental breakfast buffet at his hotel. My favourite skit of the entire show. "I'll have what I'm having!"
Key & Peele: Continental Breakfast from Peter Atencio on Vimeo.
"Othello" (S3 Ep8) - sort of a 17th century riff on Key and Peele's recurring Valets skit about two guys who love movies, but in this case it's two Black theatre goers who see Othello for the first time."Aerobics Meltdown" (S4 EP9) - a very close second-favourite all-time sketch. Again showcasing a bit of the darker humour as well as the absurd specificity of K&P's comedy. This sketch caused me to track down the audio ("National Aerobic Championship Theme" by Ty Parr) and watch more than a couple National Aerobic Championships on YouTube
If We Treated Teachers Like Pro Athletes (S5 Ep4) - K&P are no strangers to presenting alternate realities in their sketch comedy, but this was my favourite. It's basically ESPN Sportscenter highlights but about the teaching community (complete with commercial break with a teacher promoting the hot new car).
Feminist Pirate Shanty (S5 EP1) - another great musical number, this time about pirates who respect women and inform others how to as well. See also the sketch in which two dapper men run a Ted Talk-like session about menstruation.
Honorable Mentions
"East/West Collegiate Bowl" and "Substitute Teacher" - Various seasons.
In both cases Key and Peele had fun with toying with non-traditional names often come across in the Black community. With the "East/West Collegiate Bowl" It's not that they're making fun of anyone's name, specifically, just riffing on some of the patterns in names and then pushing them to absurd extremes. These guys appreciate an unusual name...but it's also the accent or affectation and the wigs and postures and everything these guys do in these to just create gut-wrenchingly funny comedy.
The "Substitute Teacher" sketch finds a teacher used to working with inner city kids out in the suburbs faced with "normal" names like Aaron (Ay-Ay-Ron?) and Denise (Dee-Nice?). It's even more about playing with the English language than it is about making fun of names. But still, sorry to all the Ay-Ay-Rons out there.
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