If you were wondering what the top 2 were, since I didn’t have to make a post I’ll just slap em here.
At #2: Pizza Delivery. Hilarious skit feat. Wendell
Via Key and Peele. Comedy Central, YouTube
At #1: Prepared for Terries. Hilarious sketch about some eccentric plane passengers.
Via Key and Peel/ Comedy Central; YouTube
Good morning ladies and gents, what’s poppin’? Today on the countdown, we have one of the first Key and Peele sketches I ever saw, and it’s one of my favorite. With 18 million views on YouTube, it’s also quite popular. I should warn you that while it is censored, it’s not exactly hard to figure out what they’re saying. Also, “ass” is uncensored, because that’s not a swear word unless paired with hole. So take that into consideration. This skit doesn’t provide really deep social commentary (although there is a bit about the gay community), but it does heavily satirize former professional boxer Mike Tyson.
Via Comedy Central; Key and Peele
Mike Tyson is one of the greatest boxers of all-time, with 44 wins by knockout in 58 total matches. He is also known as one of the most eccentric and controversial. He has a huge tattoo on his face that makes him quite distinctive, once bit off the ear of his opponent during a match, and was known for his brazen and frankly odd trash talk. On top of these things, he had one of the funniest voices ever, characterized by an extreme lisp. All of these things made him a cultural icon.
Image via Famous Biographies
In this sketch, Peele portrays a boxer who sounds nearly identical to Mike Tyson, lisp and all, trash-talking his opponent in a Mike Tyson-esque manner. This sketch might be a little off the wall, but before you watch it, note some of these actual Tyson quotes, and you’ll realize this sketch is hardly an exaggeration:
“I’ll put your mother in a straightjacket.”; “I’ll eat your a**hole in the lobby, b***h.”; “I’ll f**k you ‘til you love me, son.”; “I’ll f**k you in the a** in front of everybody.”
You let me know if you see the parallels in the character Jordan Peele portrays.
Via YouTube, Comedy Central/ Key and Peele
If you go back and watch some clips of Tyson trash talking, you’ll see the parallels. Key and Peele obviously take it up a notch, as Peele takes it from the obscene trash talking above to describing forming an actual relationship with Key. Perhaps the best part of the whole sketch is when Key has had enough of the perverted trash talk and gets up to fight Peele and both have to be physically restrained while Peele claims that the two of them “Are gonna spend the golden years together” and even when Key runs for city council and is tired the two of them “Are still gonna find the energy to go antiquing on the weekends”. In the end, it turns out that four months down the road the two are actually a very happy couple.
It’s a tremendously well done skit and I highly recommend you watch it.
On a side note, since I won’t be posting blogs 9 and 10, I’m just going to post the videos for my top two sketches next week, and if you care you can come watch them.
Rolling in at number four on the Top 10 Key and Peele Sketches is “Snitch”, which has 11 million views on YouTube. It’s a hilarious sketch and one that is even more relevant today if you’ve been keeping up with hip-hop pop culture. I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying, “Snitches get stitches”, meaning if you snitch on your friends or colleague’s, you’re going to end up with serious injuries in retaliation. In this sketch however, Key and Peele show us that snitching doesn’t always mean you get bad things.
Via Comedy Central/ Key and Peele, YouTube
In the sketch, two men who are presumably criminals are awaiting police questioning, and the one man (played by Mekhi Phifer) reminds the other (Key) to not snitch, and Key affirms that he’s rather die than become a snitch. Key questions whether Phifer thinks J-Rock (Peele) is snitching while being questioned at that moment, and Phifer assures him that J-Rock is his cousin and would never rat them out to the police. That is, until J-rock comes out of the office where he was being questioned joking with the officers and carrying a bag of chips.
Key is immediately suspicious, but J-Rock claims he didn’t tell them anything, in the least convincing way possible. The three men confer and agree that “nobody [is] gonna say nothin'”. J-Rock says that no-one is going to mention that “Big Earl” shot up the liquor store, but Phifer corrects him and tell him that “Buck Shot” held up the store. J-Rock’s eyes go wide and he excuses himself and heads back into the police office, and emerges a short while later, this time with a slice of pizza, chanting “Pizza time!”. Key is certain he has snitched this time, and threatens to bust a cap in his “tiny, pizza-breath ass” if he finds out that J-Rock snitched.
Image via Bustle
J-Rock runs back into the office, and can be seen through the window pointing at Key. Phifer assures him that he must simply be saying “I would never sell-out that man”. The police come out and immediately arrest but Key, and J-Rock emerges riding a toy SUV and holding a lobster.
This sketch ranks so highly because it is quite hilarious, but also satirizes the entire idea of being a snitch. If you follow hip-hop, you may have heard about prominent rapper 6ix9ine being arrested on racketeering charges. After realizing just how serious the charges are, 6ix9ine has turned to selling out his former fellow gang members. He was a part of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods in New York before being arrested and is now snitching on the whole group. Personally, I’d be a bit concerned for his safety after that.
But remember kids, snitches don’t always get stitches. Sometimes they get chips, pizza, lobster, and a toy SUV.
Image via Comedy Central, Key and Peele
How’s everyone doing this week? Getting ready for the deliberations I’m sure. Me too, me too. Just a brief warning, today’s post has some adult content, if that’s an issue. This is definitely one of the funnier Key and Peele Sketches on the Internet, and has over 7 million views on YouTube. The rating of the sketch is boosted by the relevance of the topic. I’m sure by now we’re all familiar with various scandals that have taken down influential public figures and politicians. Some have been taken down because of sexting. With the #MeToo movement growing over the past year or so, issues like these have been brought into the public spotlight more and more often.
This skit heavily satirizes former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, who was found to have sent inappropriate pictures to women multiple times. Keegan-Michael Key’s character here, the senator, even looks like Weiner. Ha.
In 2011, Weiner sent an inappropriate picture of himself to a woman on Twitter, and though he initially denied it, he eventually publicly apologized. And then admitted this might not be the first time. In fact, over the past few years he had sent naked pictures to 6 different women. After one such photo was leaked, Weiner resigned from Congress.
A few years later (2013) Weiner was back in politics, running for the Mayor of NYC. It came out that he had sexted another woman… after he had left Congress.
Three years later, it came out that, oh, yep, he was back at it again, sending an inappropriate picture of himself to woman. This time, his young son was spotted in the background of the picture. One month later it was alleged that he had sent naked pictures to a 15 year old girl. He pleaded guilty one count of transferring obscene material to a minor, and was put in jail for 21 months. He’s there till May.
Image via CNN
This skit takes this serious issue but really just makes it hilarious. This congressman in this case calls a press conference to at first deny the allegation of sexting (much like Weiner did). When he is then informed that TMZ has a picture of his genitalia, he admits that he did but it was a one time incident. When pressed he admits that he may have sent 4 total pictures like that, but no more. A woman in the sea of reporters then stands up to ask what about the picture he sent her right before stepping on stage. Suddenly every single reporter is receiving inappropriate photos from the Senator, and he steps away from the podium to reveal that he is pants-less and taking and sending the pictures while giving the press conference.
It is absolutely hilarious and much like this Senator has a chronic sexting issue, so did Anthony Weiner. It’s altogether a great skit that I highly recommend.
Via Comedy Central/ Key and Peele, YouTube
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.
If you think Penn State should have just given us off today to make it a 5 day weekend, like this post. Can you even like posts on this website? If you can’t, just Venmo me $5 to show you agree. Thanks.
Anyway, the 7th best Key and Peele sketch in my opinion is “Pirate Chantey” [NSFW]. It has almost 8 million views on YouTube, and is definitely funny, but in many respects is actually a more serious skit. The social commentary regarding women’s rights and respect for women is really what makes it great. Made in 2015, the sketch slightly precedes the #MeToo movement and the shift away from a male dominated world, but came just as these ideologies were really starting to take shape. Now as we see male public figures being taken down by past inappropriate behavior and sexism and ads like this infamous Gillette ad taking over the internet, the sketch is more relevant than ever. It’s a must watch.
Image via Comedy Central, Key and Peele
Think of what kind of men you might stereotype to be the most sexist and have the most disregard for respect for women. No, not Trump campaign staffers. Okay, low blow, sorry. What about pirates? Who wouldn’t see them as ruthless killers, interested in taking care of their sexual desires and caring little for anyone that they come across? This sketch completely flips that notion on its head, as it follows a group of pirates on a ship as they sing a chantey about how they’ve treated the women in their lives, and the stories are surprisingly nothing but supportive.
So many relative topics are covered. The first singer in the pirate band (Jordan Peele), covers sexual assault. He sings of a night with a girl who was drunk past consent, and the story is told in a fashion that makes it seem as though he is going to do something abhorrent. Instead, he does the what anyone who isn’t a POS would do here, and put her to bed and “left because that’s what gentlemen do.” The shipmates go on to sing the moral of the story: “A woman has a right to a drink or two, without worrying about what you will do”.
The next singer in the band (Keegan-Michael Key) sings of a girl who he had a romantic encounter with, and instead of only focusing on his sexual desires, he focused instead on hers. As the group goes on to sing, “Always take care of your lady fair, ’cause they deserve as much attention down there”.
Another pirate expresses his support for a women’s choice regarding her body. He sings of getting a woman pregnant, and then supporting her when she chose to get an abortion because “she was working her way through school” and didn’t have the means to care for a baby at that time. The pirates support a women’s right to choice.
They belt out a few lines that demonstrate the typical pirate lingo they avoid when talking about women. These lines are quite humorous and really tie in the choice of pirates as the singers of this message. They sing “No, we don’t say ‘booty’ ‘less we’re talking about gold. We don’t look at chests ‘less it, treasure holds…”
The next crew member addresses the misconception that only men can hold certain jobs. He sings of a woman who is sick and goes to see a doctor for a cure. He then calls out the crew mates (and likely the viewer) for assuming the doctor was a man. As the crew sings during the chorus, “Women are doctors, too! And for a fraction of the doubloons” (thanks to the wage gap).
One last pirate begins to sing a rather inappropriate song using a lot of sexist language, and is promptly shot from above. The captain of the ship, a woman, is shown to be the perpetrator. She comes down to where the men are singing, and they are all visibly terrified. She smiles and begins to sing the refrain from the song, “Cause it’s ‘Yo, ho!’ but we don’t say ‘ho,’ ’cause ‘ho’ is disrespectful, yo!”
Image via Comedy Central, Key and Peele
Overall, the skit is very funny because of the surprises throughout and the way it turns the stereotype of pirates on its head, but also delivers a lot of important messages that men today obviously need to hear.
Image via Paste Magazine
Hey everyone, hope you all enjoyed the half day yesterday. Maybe you took the time to get your homework done, or maybe you put it off till late Thursday night, like me. Who knows? Anyway, coming in at number 8 on the countdown today is “Little Homie” (Warning: NSFW). This sketch is very popular on YouTube, with over 17 million views on the Comedy Central Youtube account. I ranked it within the top 10 Key and Peele skits because it is A) very funny and B) provides a bit of social commentary on the justice system in the United States.
via Comedy Central, YouTube/ Key and Peele
In the sketch, Clive “Double Down” Ruggins (Keegan-Michael Key) meets with his parole officer Daniel Tate (Jordan Peele), who insists he is only there to help Clive. Clive is resistant, claiming that Tate is too out of touch with the street life to be able to help him. Tate acknowledges this, and so enlists the help of “Little Homie” to communicate with Clive. The only problem is Little Homie is a puppet. However, when Clive objects to talking to a puppet, Tate insists that he do and seems to not be paying attention to their conversation. Little Homie asks Clive if he’s been smoking marijuana again recently. Clive says he’s clean, so Little Homie pulls out a joint and tells him to smoke it.
Image via Overblog
Clive insists he’s drug free and won’t do it. Little Homie then pulls out a gun and holds it to Tate’s head, demanding Clive smoke the joint or he’s going to kill Tate. With a shaking voice, Tate urges Clive to give in to Little Homie’s demands. Clive tells Little Homie to stop and that he’ll smoke it down, but stops just before doing it, realizing this is all just a trap to get him to violate parole. Little Homie responds by shooting Tate in the head, his blood splattering on the wall. Little Homie then tosses Clive the weapon who catches it. Little Homie laughs and informs him that because his fingerprints are on the weapon now, they’re in this together. Clive gives in and says yes, they’re in this together. At that point, Tate rises up from behind the desk where he was “shot” and informs Clive that he has failed the test and his parole has been revoked. Several cops walk into the office and arrest Clive. Altogether, it’s a ridiculous but hilarious scenario.
Essentially, the social commentary here is that parole officers, while claiming to want to help, in many cases are just waiting for their reformed criminals to mess up or share information about something they did wrong so they can send them right back to jail. Likewise, many police seem to be waiting for any sort of little infraction to make an arrest on someone, and in some cases may try to prod a violation out of someone. In the end, tricking someone into violating parole doesn’t help them become better people or the justice system end the cycle of crime. Obviously, no parole officer is going to go to these lengths to incite someone to violate parole, but that is what makes this sketch memorable, and number 8 on my list.
Hey everyone, welcome back! I bet you’re wondering what number 9 on this Key and Peele countdown is.
Live look at you trying to see what’s next on the countdown.
Image via Comedy Central, Key and Peele
Or you’re not, because it’s in the title… But that’s right, at number 9, we have…. “Video Game Sensors”! On a side note this sketch is totally inappropriate for work but the language is all clean. Now this isn’t Key and Peele’s most viewed sketch on YouTube, with only 10 million views (ha, only), but it’s great nonetheless. The humor is kind of, as they say, immature, but I’m technically still a teenage boy and therefore can appreciate low comedy. It’s all very relatable too up to a certain point.
via YouTube, Comedy Central (Key and Peele)
We’ve all been through breakups, heck, some of us broke up with/ got broke up with by our significant others over the summer before coming here/ the week before coming here/ while being here. It sucks, but when you have great friends to cheer you up it isn’t so bad. That’s how this piece starts— with Keegan-Michael Key, or Craig in the skit, having some friends over to help him get over a break up with his girlfriend, Sheila. They’re playing a dancing video game on the television, where you attach sensors to your hands and ankles, and an avatar dances on the screen, mimicking your every move. This is similar to the technology used on an Xbox Kinect. Craig remarks that he has gotten so good at the game because he’s had a lot of time to practice since Sheila left him. He then excuses himself from the room, but forgets to take off the sensors attached to his limbs. His 10 friends watch as his avatar begins to mime crying, eventually curling up into the fetal position. They realize that this is what Craig has left the room to do. He comes back shortly and declares that he is “totally over” Sheila. He gets ready to play the video game, but spies a picture of his ex girlfriend that he has forgotten to take down. He grabs it takes it to another room to get rid of it. Once again, he leaves the sensors on his arms and legs and his friends watch as he begins to dance with the photo. Everyone finds this very cute, up until Craig’s avatar sits down and begins to unbuckle his pants, eventually laying down and um, well, you know, well, just watch the video for clarification. Craig then returns triumphantly to the room (minus one sock) and asks if anyone would like him to make some snacks. His friend, Bob (Jordan Peele), politely asks him to wash his hands before making said snacks. This sketch is deserving of this list because it’s funny if you’re immature and because most of us can relate. Not exactly the last part, that was over the top for comedic effect, but breaking up sucks, and it takes help from our friends to feel better sometimes. And sometimes you’re not real to move on, and you just can’t stop thinking about that person, so you excuse yourself from the room look at their picture, and cry. Hopefully your friends aren’t watching you on the TV screen and hopefully you don’t feel the need to… yeah, but everything else is relatable/ Eventually time heals all but it takes awhile. That’s the beauty of Key and Peele; even though it’s funny and meant for laughs, it can be applied to the average person’s life and then be used as a tool to overcome tough times.
When you see there’s a new Key and Peele Episode
Image via Comedy Central, Key and Peele
Image via Comedy Central
Key and Peele is a popular sketch comedy TV series that aired 5 seasons on Comedy Central from 2012 to 2015. The show is named after and features comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. The two have both gone on to enjoy individual success, most notably Jordan Peele as the writer and director of the critically acclaimed 2017 film, “Get Out“. Personally, I regard Key and Peele as one of the greatest sources of sketch comedy ever, and the show produced some unforgettable and hysterical scenes throughout its run. Not only are the skits by these two geniuses hilarious, but they often hit on important topics such as race relations, sexual orientation, and gender equality. These sketches may satirize those with bigoted views in some cases, but other times will simply portray awkward and laughable moments of everyday life. This will be the longest introduction I give for any of these posts, but given this was the first one, I thought it would be important to hit on all of these things. Throughout this semester I will be counting down what I view as the top 10 best Key and Peele sketches from their show. Given the fact that the show had 53 episodes, there are obviously hundreds of skits to choose from, and let me tell you it was extremely difficult to those I could consider the best. I’ll use a number of criteria to evaluate a sketch for this list. Most important is the overall humor of the piece. At the end of the day, I’m picking the scenes that I find the funniest. Also important, however, is the social commentary of the sketch. I may also consider other factors, such as sentimental value and YouTube views to determine placement of these sketches. And finally, as a reminder, many of these sketches use rather inappropriate language, so a word of caution to use headphones when viewing these. I will let you know beforehand if the sketch is clean or not. And once more, these sketches are NOT mine and I don’t own them, all credit goes to Key and Peele and Comedy Central.
But without further ado, my countdown for the top Key and Peele Sketches, starting at number 10: “McCringleberry’s Excessive Celebration” (Clean).
Credit: Comedy Central, Key and Peele, YouTube
Admittedly, this is probably not one of the 10 funniest Key and Peele sketches. It is funny, just not one of the funniest. However, it gets a major bump because the main character in the skit, Hingle McCringleberry (Key), is a rookie tight end out of Penn State. As many of you might know, Keegan-Michael Key is an alumnus of Penn State who is quite famous for looking very similar to Lions Head Coach James Franklin and often comes to games as a super fan. He even impersonated Franklin in a team meeting in 2015.
Image via Penn State on Penn Live
As a result, Hingle McCringleberry is said to be from Penn State and finds himself in a number of sketches. This particular sketch is a critique of the NFL, which is known for having very strict rules about things like celebrations (even being dubbed the “No Fun League”) but often is too soft when it comes to more serious transgressions, like domestic abuse. Obviously, something like an excessive celebration is only an in-game penalty, and domestic abuse charges will lead to suspensions from games, but domestic abuse perpetrators in the league usually receive a suspension of 2-6 games, while those who violate drug policies have been known to be suspended 10- 16 games, or even indefinitely. Regardless, this sketch isn’t that scathing but merely satirizes the NFL for these pointless penalties. In the scene, Hingle McCringleberry scores several touchdowns, but pelvic thrusts three times as a celebration. In this fantasy league, only two pumps are allowed, and so he is penalized each time but seems not to learn his lesson. After scoring his third touchdown, both teams and the refs stare intently to see if the tight end will pump three times once more. He gives two emphatic thrusts, and one barely noticeable one, and is flagged. As the announcers circle the pumps on the replay, they appear to draw a phallic object being pointed into the face of the referee, and then quickly apologize for the “accidental” error. You might find that immature, but c’mon, it’s classic comedy. Anyway, the skit provides some light social commentary, is pretty funny, and features Penn State, bringing it to position number 10 on this list. Check in next week for number 9.