The 10 Best ‘Key & Peele’ Sketches

This parody is perfect for anyone who can’t wait to bust out the college-colored face paint and get their football on. Key and Peele take turns introducing themselves as college football players with increasingly ridiculous names. The most fun part about this sketch? Learning what insane player is representing your alma mater. (Shout out to Clemson’s Cosgrove Shumway.) If your favorite college team is missing a K&P player, fear not. There are two other rosters to explore as well as an East/West Bowl rap.

On a surface level, this sketch shouldn’t be funny: Two valets get overly excited about celebrities and constantly mispronounce the famous names. That’s it. But for the love of Liam Neesons, it is comedic gold. Between the duo’s intense excitement over something as mundane as remembering a good movie to their progressively more physical expressions of this excitement, this sketch is for anyone who has ever lost it over pop culture. Thankfully, the valets you wish you knew in real life make several appearances throughout the series to discuss The Batmans and Ned Starks. Key and Peele IS MY SHIT!

Things start off innocently enough as our comedy duo packs Key’s apartment for a move. But, as is often the case with K&P, things quickly delve into violent insanity. It’s hard to decide what’s better about this sketch, how perfectly the dubstep matches the apartment’s destruction or how “awesome” Peele thinks the whole experience is, nosebleeds and all. Anyone too old or uncool to appreciate dubstep will relate to the confusing and dramatic experience, and anyone who actually enjoys clubbing will find humor laughing at clueless losers like me and Key.

Meet the sketch that made it all the way to the White House. In one of the best political sketches in recent history, Peele plays our level-headed and smiling President while Key serves as Obama’s anger translator, Luther. Alone either Peele’s perfect impression of President Obama or Key’s energetic, on-point commentary as Luther would have made this sketch memorable, but it’s the combination of the two that makes it great. Our first introduction to Luther is definitely the best, but if you need more Oval Office translations, you’re covered. Be sure to check out what President Obama “actually” said about the presidential debates and MLK Day, and learn what the leader of our country is like at home.

Perhaps more than any other, this sketch shows off Key and Peele’s most impressive comedic talent: making horrifying subject matter funny without trivializing the gravity of their dark material. Our duo plays slaves on an auction lock who start off as (obviously) angry, but the longer they stand unowned, the more of their insecurities surface. It’s a deeply disturbing sketch, largely because of how casually the auction itself is played out. It’s also hilarious in a way that will leave you cringing and remembering this video days after you’ve watched.

Anyone raised on the feel-good high school movies of the 80s and 90s knows that there are no such things as bullies. There are just misunderstood people. This all-too-common trope is played out to its limits in the form of hyper-self-aware bully who tells his victim exactly where his cruel, violent, and homophobic tendencies come from. The bright colors, over-the-top acting, and blatantly stereotypical reasons for bullying watch as one of the best parody PSAs out there. You should definitely check it out to expand your understanding of people who may seem cruel on a surface level but who are actually just lashing out due to circumstances that have little to do with you personally…bitch.

We’re back in the land of college football with the comedy pair who knows how to mock it best. One of Key & Peele’s fictional players has made it to the pros and is scoring touchdowns left and right. There’s only one problem: He can’t seem to limit his victory thrusts. This sketch wonderfully blends satiric commentary about the NFL’s arbitrary rules with ridiculous victory dances and crotch staring. Bonus points for the dead-on finger-wagging commentators and the Rhino players’ reactions to Hingle’s moves.

Remember when I mentioned Key and Peele’s talent of making the worst moments of human history funny? In this sketch, that talent shines through again, but this time we’re focused on Hitler. Everyone’s favorite clueless sitcom dad, Ty Burrell, guest stars as a Nazi officer who has a great Hitler story he’s dedicated to telling — whether or not the bodies at his feet are actually dead. I don’t know what makes this sketch greater: Key’s terrible portrayal of a dead body, Burrell’s boring story, or the “insubordinate and churlish” call back to K&P’s “Substitute Teacher” sketch. The resulting product is equal parts ridiculous and chilling, but mostly ridiculous. If you can’t get enough Phil Dunphy as a member of the Third Reich, be sure to check out this sketch’s follow-up video, “Das Negros,” which features whiteface.

Now that gay marriage has been legalized, this sketch is more relevant than ever. In an effort to prepare for their cousin’s upcoming gay wedding, the family asks a real-life gay man what to expect. Questions quickly escalate from well-meaning but misinformed to confusing (“So there’re no gay hymns in the ceremony?”). It turns out a gay wedding is just like a straight wedding. Who knew? If you need to show anyone in your life how not to act, this video is it. Also, this sketch was featured on our very-own Decider’s list of the best sketches of 2014, so you know it’s certifiably awesome.

At over 81 million views, this is by far one of Key and Peele’s best known sketches. The premise is simple: An inner-city substitute teacher is not putting up with the antics of his new class of white, middle-class students…regardless if those antics are real or imagined. Key’s no-nonsense character leads to some great mispronunciation gems such as “A-A-ron” and acts as a smart twist to the classroom dynamic. If you can’t get enough of Key as a strict teacher, check out the follow up sketch about “fake” school clubs, and if that’s still not enough, EW reported that our favorite comedy duo may be getting a school-centric movie. If that happens, you can bet that I’ll be pre-sent.

[You can stream Key & Peele on Hulu]

Kayla Cobb is a proud graduate of Clemson University and loves her cat and TV shows more than some people love their kids. You should really follow her on Twitter at @KaylCobb.

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