Key & Peele

Format

Production

Episodes

Recurring characters and sketches

• Barack Obama – The 44th President of the United States, played by Peele, who often has difficulty expressing his true feelings.
• ' – 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. On January 5, 2017, Key debuted an "Obama-Luther" sketch on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
• Wendell Sanders – Played by Peele, Wendell is a nerdy, extremely overweight, friendless man who loves sci-fi and fantasy. He often comes up with elaborate stories to convince others that he is not a stereotypical nerd, and that he is calling on the behalf of people other than himself. This includes a very attractive woman named "Claire", with whom he claims to have a relationship, and the 15-year-old son named "Stimpy" they have. Though his stories are obvious lies, they are elaborate enough that he usually manages to convince the person on the other end of the phone line that the people in his stories exist. When asked to speak with his fabricated friends and family, Wendell makes up an abrupt event on the spot to prevent the person he is talking to from piecing together that his stories are lies, and to end the conversation.
• Mr. Garvey – Played by Key, Mr. Garvey is an angry and intimidating substitute teacher and 20-year veteran of urban education. He distrusts and has trouble pronouncing the common names of his mild-mannered and generally white suburban students, though he vehemently believes his pronunciations are correct, such as pronouncing the name Jacqueline as "Jay-Quill-Inn" or Blake as "Balakay" or Denise as "Dee-Nice" 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 for disrespect. The only student Mr. Garvey seems to trust is an African American boy at the back of the class named Timothy , 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.
• ' – Played by Peele, Meegan is a young woman angry at her boyfriend, André, 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 comeuppance for the flagrant disrespect she shows to others. When not with André, Meegan is often seen with another woman who acts exactly like her, and they often gossip between one 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.
• – Played by Key, André 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 tenants' 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. He is played by recurring guest star Ty Burrell.
• Levi and Cedric – Two inner-city friends who often get in rifts because of Levi constantly joining new trends such as going steam-punk or getting his own Ratatouille. Most sketches end with Cedric getting fed up with Levi and calling off their friendship.
• Carlito – Played by Peele, Carlito is a Mexican gangster who believes that very normal or minor acts 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 from the Berkshire Restaurant who love discussing their favorite movie stars and characters – despite mangling their names and films – such as "Liam Neesons" from Tooken, "Peter Dinkels", "Bruce Willies," "Michelle Pa-feiffers," "Timothy Elephants" 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. In February 2014, a sponsored sketch with the valets titled "What About Non-Stop?" – in which "Liam Neesons" himself shows up to collect his car – was used to promote the film Non-Stop. Key and Peele also appeared in a parody of "The Valets" in one of the teaser trailers for Toy Story 4.
• 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 is very intelligent and well-mannered and exercises restraint when making important decisions. LaShawn is very loud and extremely flamboyant and is constantly thinking up often nonsensical and impossible ideas for their future.
• East/West Bowl Football Players – A series of college football players whose names become increasingly ridiculous as the list progresses, such as "Donkey Teeth", "Hingle McCringleberry", "Huka'lakanaka Hakanakaheekalucka'hukahakafaka" and "Squeeeeeeeps". The West Team also features players from non-university organizations ; the last player for the West Team is always a white player not played by Key nor Peele. In the third edition of this sketch, the fictional athletes were joined by actual players with unusual names ; the last player for the West team was played by "A.A. Ron Rodgers", in reference to the Mr. Garvey sketches.
• 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 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. Their catchphrase is "I am pissed, ROYALLY pissed!"
• Joseph – Played by Key, Joseph is a crude con man who attempts to deceive others into helping him financially by making up facetious hardships. He is misunderstood.
• Dr. Rajeev Gupta – Played by Key, Dr. Gupta is an Indian-American doctor who works at a large hospital.
• The Continental – Played by Peele, a strange, eccentric man who opulently and hedonistically indulges in his hotel's free continental breakfast, and it is implied that he supernaturally inhabits the hotel.
• Rhinos - The name of sports teams of varying sport, often bearing unusually odd-acting team members. Rafi is a member of the baseball team Rhinos.
• Power Falcons - Often portrayed as a rival to the Rhinos. The Power Falcons is also the name of a fictional team of superheroes in an implied reference to Power Rangers, two members of which are played by Key and Peele.

  Reception

Critical

Awards and nominations

Extras

Vandaveon and Mike

Home media

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