The best Key & Peele skits took a more risqué approach to the news of its day than on shows like Saturday Night Live, primarily thanks to its home on cable television. After working on Mad TV, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele created Key & Peele in 2012. They delivered adult-based humor surrounding social awareness, race relations, ethnic stereotypes, and pop culture references. What resulted was five seasons, 53 episodes, and 298 different sketches before the show ended its run in 2015.
The best Key & Peele episodes introduced the world to several original characters who became popular enough to warrant repeat appearances. These include Luther, the anger translator for then-President Barack Obama, the awkward couple Meegan and Andre, The Valets and their insatiable love for movies, and more. They also brought in their versions of real characters, including several sketches involving their interpretation of President Obama. With so many great sketches, the best Key & Peele skits remain some of the best on TV.
25 Ray Parker, Jr.
Season 5, Episode 11
The very last Key & Peele episode had some fascinating sketches, including the brilliant “Negrotown.” However, there was also a fake commercial in the sketch that had Jordan Peele playing musician Ray Parker Jr. This musician’s claim to fame is the theme song from Ghostbusters. This skit takes the idea that his only real memorable hit is a movie’s theme song and has Parker lean into it by recording several movie theme songs for the most unlikely of films.
What makes the skit funny is that Ray Parker Jr. makes all his new movie theme songs from older movies that have already been released, and he just tries to bring his Ghostbusters spin to these movie plots so he can sell the box set in a television ad. The three-volume set of “never used hits” includes songs for Jumanji, Lawnmower Man, Armageddon, and even the Stephen King Nazi movie Apt Pupil. The fact that Parker has no idea what the movies are about makes the songs perfect.
24 Where My Dookie Go?
Season 2, Episode 2
There were several amazing episodes in Key & Peele season 2, and the second one included the Obama sketch of him in college. However, in every Key & Peele episode, small sketches that aren’t named in the descriptions often serve as filler between the bigger ones. That is what the “Where My Dookie Go?” sketch is all about, as it just has Key and Peele sitting on the stoop, smoking a joint, and then Peels asks the weirdest question ever, wondering where his “dookie” goes after the toilet is flushed.
What makes this smaller sketch stand out as one of the best Key & Peele skits in the show’s history is the final line that Peele delivers, which takes the ridiculous premise and delivers a message typical for the series. After the two decide that “dookie” goes from the sewers to the ocean before dissolving and rising to make clouds before raining and making plants, Peele has a revelation. If his “dookie” can make it out of the hood, maybe they can too. It is a brilliant punchline to a small skit.
23 Shady Landlord
Season 3, Episode 12
There were a few recurring characters on Key & Peele who might not have been as popular as others but still starred in some bizarrely memorable sketches. This includes Devon, the “Shady Landlord.” In the season 3e episode, the Shady Landlord (Key) shows up at one tenant’s (Peele) apartment and thinks someone is hiding there. When finally pushed, he admits he is looking for someone who is just over four feet tall and has a purple beard.
The entire thing makes it seem like the Shady Landlord has something wrong with him, and even the height of the mysterious assailant gets shorter every time he mentions him. The sketch did what Key and Peele do best: starting with a weird idea and letting it build through little moments before swinging for the fences with the punchline at the end. The pacing of this sketch makes the Shady Landlord look like an idiot and then springs the truth, leaving most fans wondering what they just watched.
22 Negrotown
Season 5, Episode 11
The very last Key & Peele episode has a musical number that showcases many of the themes that Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael Key focused on throughout the show’s run. In the episode, Key plays a man walking down the street at night. He passes Peele, who is playing an unhoused man asking for change. When Key turns into an alley, a police car pulls up and arrests him for no reason before slamming his head into the car. The unhoused man takes Key to a magical place called Negrotown.
The sketch goes for broke. The entire thing turns into a musical number where Key learns there is never a reason to fear for his life in Negrotown based on his skin color. Sadly, it was all a hallucination from his head injury, and he goes to jail anyway, which is a twist that slams home the point of the sketch and series, which is that nothing has ever really changed for him in society. This musical number was brilliantly done and delivered the message that real change might be wishful thinking.
Negrotown was released online before the final season started and had five million views by the time the episode aired (via
Vanity Fair
).
21 Georgina and Esther and Satan
Season 4, Episode 3
In the third episode of season 4, Key and Peele play two good-hearted church ladies named Georgina and Esther. They are sitting in church together and seem to be massive gossip-spreaders, but things take a strange turn when they start talking about how their loved ones have gotten into trouble. According to them, their nearest and dearest are involved in everything from drug use and cursing in front of children to a son-in-law having the “pornography of women on the laptop.”
However, what makes this Key & Peele sketch so funny is what Georgina and Esther say they will do to Satan if he doesn’t leave their loved ones alone. It starts with simply injuring him but then goes on to them doing some terrible things to him, increasing in violence and brutality (“through prayer, of course“) until things go completely off the rails. By the time the big twist in the sketch comes, Key and Peele are at their most unhinged.
20 Gremlins 2 Brainstorm
Season 5, Episode 9
In season 5, Jordan Peele took on the role of Star Magic Jackson, Jr., who said he was a sequel doctor and that when a studio “dropped a deuce,” he was there to make sure it went right. In his first appearance, he walked into a meeting where the writing team was brainstorming Gremlins 2. While he initially insisted he was just there to observe the session, he quickly took over.
He then went around the table and asked people what kind of Gremlins they wanted to see, with each idea more ridiculous than the one before (and all ending with an idea for a Hulk Hogan cameo). The best punchline is that every idea he approved actually ended up in Gremlins 2, no matter how silly they sounded. Peele’s enthusiasm for the ideas makes it a hilarious sketch even for those who have never seen the Gremlins sequel.
19 Laron Can’t Laugh
Season 4, Episode 5
In one of the most bizarre Key & Peele skits, Peele plays Laron, a man who has no idea how to laugh. The sketch has a group of friends in an apartment sharing funny stories. While everyone laughs at the jokes, Laron just starts twitching and convulsing without making a sound. No one has any idea what he is doing, but he admits this is how he laughs.
When he starts going over the top, convulsing around the apartment while trashing things, it just keeps growing to ridiculous levels. It makes for a hilarious display of physical comedy from Peele, making this soundless laugh an ironically laugh-out-loud performance. The more exaggerated his actions get, the funnier it is that he is doing it all with a straight face. The punchline where he reveals why he didn’t want to laugh sells the entire sketch.
18 Video Game Sensors
Season 2, Episode 7
“Video Game Sensors” is a Key & Peele skit that is funny because it is really sad, but then it switches gears and turns into something quite disturbing. A group of friends is playing video games and one of them is breaking down over the loss of his ex-girlfriend. At one point, he goes into his bedroom, and he is still wearing his gaming sensor, so everyone watches him have a breakdown through his avatar on the TV.
He has no clue when he returns, but then he sees a photo of his ex and goes back in, and they all watch him pleasure himself, with everyone gathering around the TV to watch his avatar replicate his body motions. Once the gimmick of the sketch is introduced, it is easy to see where it is heading, but it still delivers some great cringey laughs followed by a gross-out punchline.
17 Obama’s Anger Translator: Meet Luther
Season 1, Episode 1
Jordan Peele mastered President Barack Obama in his mannerisms and dialect, but the best of the presidential sketches came when Key began to play his anger translator Luther. The joke was that many people said that Obama was too laid back and didn’t show enough emotion. This caused him to bring in an anger translator, who said what Obama might have really been thinking as he gave his measured politically correct answers to questions.
This is a perfect sketch to show the versatility of the two comedians and how well they work off each other. Peele’s spot-on impression is further elevated by Key’s simmering rage and hostile outbursts, and vice versa. The sketch was so beloved that the real President Obama invited Key to reprise the role at the 2015 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
16 Manly Tears
Season 2, Episode 9
“Manly Tears” was a low-key sketch that packed a punch at the end. The success of this was building to that final punchline at the end. Peele was a gangster whose best friend had died while Key was a member of the crew, and he told everyone that they needed to hear what he had to say. However, when Peele’s tough gangster can barely hold it together as he talks, Key’s right-hand man cannot contain his laughter.
Some of the funniest Key & Peele sketches show them having fun with the tough guy personas of the gangster world. The sketch is set up perfectly with Key giving a stern warning to take this man’s emotions to heart and see it as true strength only for Peele to be a blubbering mess that is too much to handle.
15 School Bully
Season 2, Episode 7
“School Bully” is a great sketch because it touches on so many real issues – bullying, child abuse, the education system – in hysterical ways. It gets down to the deep-rooted psychological issues behind so many different mentalities in a high school setting that it makes the viewer’s head spin from the exploration of the different perspectives involved while also making the audience laugh.
Peele plays a school bully who confronts Key’s nerdy outcast. With his cronies behind him, Peele begins picking on him, but when questioned about why he bullies, he launches into an honest confession about his own insecurities. It’s one of the most emotionally invested and hilarious sketches in Key & Peele‘s history. Plus, the sketch gets bonus points for featuring Andre Royo – a.k.a. Bubbles from The Wire – as the bully’s dad.
14 Insult Comic
Season 3, Episode 6
Season 3 of Key & Peele introduced Keegan-Michael Key as an insult comic at a comedy club who begins his act by tearing into the crowd members, though he quickly meets his match when he comes across Jordan Peele’s character, who has been visibly burned. The comic moves on to the next potential target, though Peele insists that he get roasted just like the rest of the comedy fans.
The sketch quickly turns uncomfortable as the jokes fail terribly and Peele’s discomfort, pain, and cries through his electrolarynx were not only darkly hilarious but also touched on the delicate balance of appropriate comedy decisions. Peele’s performance really sells it with his enthusiasm for being roasted only to immediately start crying. As an added bonus, there is a small cameo from Paul Walter Hauser as one of the audience members.
13 Text Message Confusion
Season 4, Episode 3
In most of their sketches, Key and Peele either play friends or enemies. Their chemistry is so incredible that they can either play characters who love each other or characters who hate each other. However, in this sketch, it’s like Peele is playing one of the friendly characters and Key is playing one of the contentious characters who found themselves in the same sketch due to confusion over the meaning of a text message.
This is a hilarious sketch because it’s a situation that people find themselves in every day. The duo play friends texting each other about making plans that night. However, while Peele sees the texting as being laidback and considerate of what each of them wants, Key keeps reading them as being a hostile and rude back-and-forth to the point that he is ready to kill his friend.
12 Gay Wedding Advice
Season 4, Episode 1
Key and Peele always know the perfect way to use the “straight man” trope from sketch comedy. In fact, in this case, ironically, the “straight man” is the only gay man in the room. Peele plays a mildly homophobic guy with a gay co-worker and a gay cousin who’s getting married. So, he recruits the gay co-worker – played by Key – to explain the ins and outs of a gay wedding to Peele’s homophobic family.
All he’s trying to say is that it’s basically the same as any other wedding, but they keep asking questions like, “When do we get to sing ‘It’s Raining Men’?” and wondering if instead of throwing rice, they throw couscous or Skittles. There are so many hilarious small details like one of the family members diligently taking notes while another cannot even make eye contact with the gay man. The sketch is also a star-studded affair with the likes of Romany Malco, Gary Anthony Williams, and the late Lance Reddick appearing.
11 Wendell’s Pizza Order
Season 2, Episode 5
A recurring sketch from Key & Peele sees Jordan Peele as the obese pop-culture fan Wendell, who first appeared in the “Pizza Order” sketch from the second season that saw him attempting to hide the fact that he was ordering a large amount of food just for himself when questioned by Keegan-Michael Key’s order-taker Carlos. Wendell pretends he is in a room with close friends which backfires when Carlos becomes interested in one of his fictitious female buddies.
While it is a very simple premise, Peele creates such an entertaining and fully realized character with Wendell. His manner of speaking makes him all the more fascinating to watch and it is hilarious to see his plan spiral out of control with him feeding into the lie in some surprising ways. Wendell would continue to return in hilariously uncomfortable situations that included a fantasy-heavy music video and a sex addicts meeting.
10 The Andre & Meegan Saga
Various Sketches
It’s impossible to pick just one Andre and Meegan sketch because the characters work so well in every scenario the show puts them in, and their relationship develops over the course of several sketches, so their whole romantic saga gets a mention. From their first date to the whole jacket debacle to all the beatings Andre had to take on account of Meegan’s big mouth, Andre and Meegan comically represent a specific type of couple that everyone knows – the couples that probably shouldn’t be together, yet can’t live without each other.
It is another wonderful instance of these two actors playing off each other effortlessly. Subtle looks they share as these characters are hilarious. They nail the voices and the mannerisms perfectly and seem to enjoy playing the dynamic, making it unsurprising that Andre and Meegan became recurring characters.
9 East/West College Bowl
Season 2, Episode 2
There’s no way to quite describe what makes this sketch work, but it’s pretty clear that it does. One of the most simple ideas on the show, the sketch just plays on the strange names of the athletes that pop up in college football games. It’s just one setup (East Coast) followed by about 30 punchlines, and then another setup (West Coast) followed by another 30 punchlines. And then there’s the final punchline: a white guy with the hysterically generic name Dan Smith.
The names of the football players in this Key & Peele skit get more and more outlandish, going from double-barreled to biblical to bilingual to just sound effects. Even the names of the colleges they’re from become stranger and stranger. The structure of the writing works wonders for the comedy because it’s just one punchline after another.
8 Obama Meet and Greet
Season 4, Episode 1
Barack Obama has actually said that Jordan Peele does his favorite celebrity impression of himself. Peele played Obama in a few sketches, taking him from his college years to teaching Malia to drive to hiring an anger translator. However, it’s “Obama Meet and Greet” that is arguably the funniest of the bunch, as Peele plays Obama at a meet and greet in which he’s very reserved and professional with white people and very informal and affectionate with Black people.
When he reaches Key, he’s not sure what to do – until one of his aides informs him he’s one-eighth Black, and he says, “Afternoon, my octoroon!” Even those who didn’t watch the sketch show before have likely seen it play out as a now popular meme that allows people the opportunity to share their favorite and least favorite opinions on everything from MCU movies to Jay-Z albums.
7 Valet Movie Fans
Various Episodes
Key and Peele’s hardcore action movie fans appeared in a number of sketches as they hyped each other up over their favorite films and actors including “Liam Neesons” and “Bruce Willys” while working as hotel valets who occasionally encountered their celebrity heroes. It is a joy to watch for any fans of these types of movies as their enthusiasm for recounting the best moments is infectious.
The sketch touched on typical conversations between friends at the water cooler but amplified to the extreme pure Key & Peele fashion as each subsequent appearance of the Valet Movie Fans escalated further and further like the very films they enjoyed discussing with so much passion. Also like typical Key & Peele sketches, they always rise to a level of absurdity as the duo’s excitement eventually peaks to the point where they literally explode.
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6 A Cappella
Season 5, Episode 2
What makes “A Cappella” work so well is that it’s a light, fun examination of a real racial issue. The sketch begins with Peele’s character in an acapella group (led by comedian Bo Burnham) only for Key to show up as the new recruit. The characters both know that for whatever reason, the group of white guys can only have one Black guy in it, so they engage in a Highlander-like “There can only be one!” struggle to be that guy.
Everything in the composition of the sketch is considered. As soon as the white guys leave, the bright color palette switches to a darker, bleaker, grittier one. The characters’ voices change to a deeper, more sinister tone. Plus, everything they do to fit in adheres to stereotypes to win over white people. It is a biting satire with a bold punchline.