Image via Comedy Central, Key and Peele
How’s everyone doing? Good week? Great. Great. Can you imagine if you were working for a large corporation, and then found out that one of your co workers who was recently hired was actually the CEO? That would be insane. It would be more insane if you had been a jerk to this new guy from the start. Undercover Boss is a TV show on CBS that follows high level executives as they work at a low level position within their company, getting to know their workers in a much more intimate way. This Key and Peele sketch by the same name is a spoof of the premise of that show.
The sketch gets this high rating as one of their best based on the fact that it is a parody of the show, and is extremely well done, looking nearly identical to the actual show. It’s also hilarious, and one of their most viewed skits on YouTube with 22 million views. Most importantly, it teaches a valuable lesson: don’t be an a**hole, especially to co workers. Warning: NSFW.
I cannot stress enough how perfectly done this sketch is. It has nearly the same logo as the actual show and could be mistaken for an actual episode of the CBS show. It opens with the narrator announcing that Don (the President; Jordan Peele) is reaching the end of his week with the company is about to announce to everyone who he truly is. As Don calls everyone in to listen to him, one worker, Joseph (Keegan-Michael Key), informs him that “Don’t nobody wanna hear your bulls**t, newbie”. As Don continues to gathher everyone around, Joseph continues to heckle him, going so far as to say that he is “a waste of space, as far as I’m concerned”.
From the beginning, it is clear that Joseph has been rude to Don all week. Don announces that he is actually the President and founder of the company, and Joseph realizes that he has screwed up tremendously. Don goes around the circle of employees, promising them gifts like a new car and college tuition for their sons. Joseph then goes into damage control mode, trying to share his own personal anecdote in order to receive some sort of gift. He tells Don a number of obviously fake stories (that his whole family was decapitated in an accident, he was a prostitute from the age of 17, 15, 10, 7, 3, no since he was in the womb) and begs for a raise. Instead, Don fires him.
As Joesph leaves he begs for his job back and some sort of reward, continuing to try to draw the sympathy of his boss by telling him that his penis was seriously damaged in the accident that “killed” his family, and so he cannot have a family anymore. He even tells Don that he has a rare condition that makes him unlikeable. Don isn’t having it and demands he leave.
Image via Comedy Central, Key and Peele
The whole situation is hilarious, and because of the moral of the story here (just be nice) this sketch is one of Key and Peele’s best.