Good Morning POU!
Key & Peele is an American sketch comedy television series created by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele for Comedy Central. Both Key and Peele previously worked on MADtv.
Each episode of the show consists mainly of several pre-taped sketches starring the two actors. The sketches cover a variety of societal topics, often with a focus on American pop culture, ethnic stereotypes and race relations Key & Peele premiered on January 31, 2012 and ended on September 9, 2015, with a total of 53 episodes, over the course of five seasons. A special entitled “Key & Peele’s Super Bowl Special” aired on January 30, 2015.
Key & Peele won a Peabody Award and has been nominated for various other awards, including Writers Guild Award, NAACP Image Award and several Primetime Emmy Awards.
Notable recurring characters and sketches
Barack Obama – The 44th President of the United States, played by Peele, who often has difficulty expressing his true feelings.
Luther – President Obama’s “anger translator,” played by Key, who works to interpret the President’s low-key statements into raging tirades. One sketch reveals that Obama’s wife and daughters each have their own anger translators as well, whom they request help from to speak with each other. Key appeared briefly in-character as Luther at the Annual White House Correspondents Dinner as an anger translator for the real Barack Obama in early 2015.
Mr. Garvey – Played by Key, Mr. Garvey is an angry and intimidating substitute teacher and 20-year veteran of urban education. He distrusts (he refuses to allow students to leave for club photos, as he believes that it is a made-up excuse to leave class, even after a schoolwide announcement over the intercom, which he also believes to be fake) and has trouble pronouncing the common names of his mild-mannered and generally polite suburban students, though he vehemently believes his pronunciations are correct, such as pronouncing the name Jacqueline as “Jay-Quill-Inn” or Blake as “Balakay” and his most known Aaron as “A. A. Ron”. Any corrections from the students are seen as highly disrespectful lies meant to make him look foolish. Mr. Garvey forces his students to acknowledge themselves by his incorrect pronunciations, often at the very real threat of being sent to Principal O’Shaughnessy (pronounced “O-Shag-Hennessy” by Garvey) for disrespect. The only student Mr. Garvey seems to trust is an African American boy at the back of the class named Timothy (accent on the “o”) (played by Peele), who is implied to be from the inner city and claims to have a daughter. In March 2015, it was announced that Key will reprise the role of Mr. Garvey in a feature-length film Substitute Teacher with Jordan portraying a rival teacher.
Meegan – Played by Peele, Meegan is a young woman angry at her boyfriend, Andre, who always pursues her from a club, but she won’t let him near enough to make up. The distance they cover in their pursuit becomes extreme. Meegan is shown to be extremely selfish and unintelligent, and does not seem to acknowledge social norms. She herself rarely ever receives any sort of come-uppance for the flagrant disrespect she shows to others. When not with Andre, Meegan is often seen with another woman who acts exactly like her (played by Key), and they often gossip amongst each other about being shocked by people doing normal acts, and calling them “crazy”. They also take many selfies of themselves, but delete the majority of them because they don’t like how they look in them, including a picture that had already just been classified as evidence in a crime that they witnessed.
André – Played by Key, Andre is Meegan’s equally loud, but far more intelligent and polite boyfriend who tends to take the fall for the conflicts she starts with others.
DeVon – Played by Key, DeVon is the shady and weird landlord who’s often suspicious of what goes on in his tenant’s apartments,
Rafi Benitez – Played by Peele, Rafi is a baseball player who makes all his teammates uncomfortable in the locker room, because of his “slap-ass” addiction.
Brock Favors – Played by Key, Brock Favors is a news reporter who’s always ill-prepared for his assignments such as helicopter traffic reports and reporting on police dog training. He always responds to unexpected and sudden events with loud, excited swearing.
Col. Hans Muller – A Nazi Colonel who is ignorant to the truth. He uses “very scientific” methods to find black people (offering them beets, measuring their heads, jingling cat toys). He is played by recurring guest star Ty Burrell.
Carlito – Played by Peele, Carlito is a Mexican gangster who believes that very normal or minor acts (including sitting in chairs) are “for pussies”, and believes himself to be above doing such acts. He believes himself to be “the crazy one” of the gang, which he will go to embarrassing lengths to prove.
The Valets – Two valets (who always use unnecessary plurals in names of people, places, or things) who love discussing their favorite movie stars such as “Liam Neesons,” “Bruce Willy,” “Annie Hathaways,” and “Racist-Ass Melly Gibsons“. They end the sketch by saying that something related to the star in question is “MY SHIT!”, then disappearing, by ways such as flying into the air like a rocket or exploding.
Karim and Jahar – Two lecherous Middle Eastern men on the lookout for beautiful women. Though they claim to dislike homosexuals, they often act in a vaguely exaggerated homosexual manner.
LaShawn and Samuel – A gay couple with very differing personalities and views on marriage. Samuel (Key) is very intelligent and well-mannered, and exercises restraint when making important decisions. LaShawn (Peele) is very loud and extremely flamboyant, and is constantly thinking up often nonsensical and impossible ideas for their future.
Metta World News – NBA player Metta World Peace delivers the “news,” which usually takes the form of presenting bizarre hypothetical scenarios to the audience and his imagined approach to them. This is the only recurring sketch that stars neither Key nor Peele.
The Black Republicans – A group of outside-of-the-box thinking black men (one member is played by recurring guest star Malcolm-Jamal Warner) who try to convert other black voters to join the Republican party. They are all shown to be similarly dressed in outdated fashion styles such as leather jackets, braided belts, dad jeans, and wire-rimmed glasses. They will sometimes disguise themselves as Democrats to prevent other black Democrats from voting. Their catchphrase is “I am pissed, ROYALLY pissed!”