Key and Peele

Key and Peele

Key and Peele might only be in its second series, but the light hearted sketch show has already won a big heap of friends and marked itself out as a slice of something a little bit different in the comedy flock of 2012.

A lot of modern sketch comedy revolves around pushing the boundaries of humour and taste. While this usually makes for great comedy, it’s often nice to go back in time for something a little bit more good natured. Now with Key and Peele, that needs catered for here and now.

Key and Peele began their careers teaming up on the surrealist sketch show MadTV, which saw the duo team up for nearly a hundred episodes over a five year spell. After the show’s cancellation, the duo needed to find a new home for their antics and eventually got their new current home at Comedy Central.

The show is a mix between the two comedians bantering on stage and short skits of the duo in a variety of situations. Ranging from seeing the pair play Barack Obama and his ‘anger translator’ Luther, a pair of intellectual hecklers in a movie theatre or a couple at a gay rights celebration, the skits are wonderfully varied.

While the show’s rather retro vibe might seem an odd fit, but it doesn’t take long for Key and Peele to get the chuckles rolling, with their skits have a fantastic success rate with their punch lines.

While most comedy shows, especially sketch shows, try to revolve around shock tactics, Key and Peele take a refreshingly different approach, making most of their jokes out of slanted looks at the little things in life.

That the show's only recurring joke is it's spot on impession of Barack Obama, it gives the show a nicely unpredictable feeling, as you never know whether the next skit will be about the dangers of dubstep or two guys lying about who wears the trousers in their marriages. 

The only trouble with Key and Peele is that there's just not enough of it at the moment. As the show comes to the end of it's second series at the end of this year, that will leave the grand total of episodes at a fairly small eighteen.

While there are currently no plans to bring the sketch show over to the UK, but Key and Peele has quickly become a real bright spot in American comedy. Anyone with a taste for hilarious, (kind of) clean comedy needs to put this duo on their watch lists.

 

FemaleFirst Cameron Smith

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