Top 5 – Key & Peele Skits

I don’t usually post things about T.V.  Mainly because I watch too many movies and don’t have enough time to watch all the shows that are out there.  I do watch my fair share though and one of the ones I watched on the regular was the sketch comedy show Key & Peele.  This is best sketch comedy show since Chapelle Show in the early 2000’s.  It was brilliant, hilarious, and a great mix of social and pop culture topics.

The reason I am talking about Key & Peele is because the brains behind the show, Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele, have a movie coming out this weekend with the gangster cat comedy Keanu.  I’m so excited to see this movie, so in honor of the two men, I want to look at the best sketches from their show.  So here we go, my favorite Key & Peele skits.

5 – NEGROTOWN

“Negrotown?  What?  Like Atlanta?”

This is the brightest, most lavish skit ever on Key & Peele, yet also incredibly socially relevant and sad.  Launching their fifth and final season with this skit, Key is a harmless black man arrested for nothing.  He hits his head on the car door and then enters a dreamland where every stereotype of black people, from their “gangster” life style, no loan approvals, and inability to get a taxi to stop for them, have all vanished, seemingly living in the world white people live in currently.  When he comes to, he’s back in reality where the cop informs Key that Negroland isn’t a fun, magical place, but really the penal system.  The lyrics are biting, the music is catchy, and Jordan Peele is splendid as the whimsical host.  This is as funny as it is relevant and dark.

4 – OBAMA’S ANGER TRANSLATOR

If anyone was skeptical about Key & Peele in their first season, this skit washed away all doubt.  This is a genius idea, giving President Barack Obama, the staple for dignified swagger, an anger translator named Luther who says what the President is really thinking about everything political and socially.  Jordan Peele is perfect as Obama and Keegan Michael Key is a lightning rod of anger as Luther.   The political angle is perfect, Luther is vulgar, and, as always, the skit is funny as hell.  And, it made for the greatest White House Correspondents Dinner ever.

3 – EAST/WEST COLLEGE BOWL

This skit brought out the sports bug in me.  I love football as much as the next guy, and I too have wondered where in the world some of the players get their names.  In one of the sillier, yet infectious skits, Key and Peele shine a light on the insane names football players have.  The wigs and makeup in this, along with masterful voice work from the stars, gave each player their own personality.  This led to two other Bowl Game skits, including the Pro Bowl, where they brought in actual NFL players, including superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers.  This skit still brings me to tears.

2 – SUBSTITUTE TEACHER

Far and away their most popular (93 million views on YouTube), this falls in the line of iconic.  Keegan Michael Key is amazing in a lot of roles on the show, but this is his crowning achievement.  Mr. Garvey, the no-nonsense substitute teacher thinks all the kids are messing with him when he says their names and snaps on them the more it happens.  The only reason this one didn’t land at the top spot is because it’s all Key and a brief moment of Peele (though his one line is great).  Still, Key carries this to become one of the greatest sketches in sketch comedy history.

1 – LIAM NEESON’S/WHAT ABOUT “NON-STOP”, THOUGH?

I couldn’t have one without the other, especially with the cameo in the second one.  This is my favorite Key & Peele skit for a number of reasons.  One, being the movie guy that I am, it’s about movies.  Two, the reactions that they have about each movie is some of the funniest moments the two men had on the show.  But the biggest reason is that this is the best of the two of them, which is what the show is all about.  It’s Keegan and Jordan just being brilliantly hilarious, feeding off of each other, and being themselves.   This sketch IS.  MY.  SHIIIIIITT!!

What are your favorite Key & Peele skits?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter @kevflix or on Facebook at Kevflix.