keegan michael key

09 26 2013

Link: Key & Peele explain how they created 'Substitute Teacher' – The Week

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Interview: Key & Peele explain how they created ‘Substitute Teacher’ – The Week.

“But when you bring someone back, you want to make sure it’s not just a cookie-cutter, by-the-numbers version of the original sketch, where you have the exact same gag with different names. It was very, very difficult for us to figure out how to do it. [The concept] really goes back to the difference between the cultures of an inner city school and a more privileged school in the suburbs.”

I really like reading people break down their craft, especially (tv) writers, and especially comedians because I always get so lost in the funny that I forget and then later remember that there is such an intricate science to comedy. Sometimes I’ll hear a joke and then think about how it was constructed (something is said, then the turn or element of surprise at the end) but I’ve never been good at setting up a joke or constructing one myself. I think that if I think about it enough, when the time comes to write one, I’ll have picked up the basics by osmosis and it will become innate.
So reading this is fun for me, to learn how this duo comes up with one of their more popular sketches. It also offers insight into how this particular group works and the way their writing dynamic seems to play out.

09 25 2013

What I Love About Key and Peele

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Key and Peele is brilliant comedy and exactly what I want more of on television.

What I mean when I say that is that Key and Peele are black comedians, but the things they joke about and goof on aren’t always things that are considered apart of black culture. Sure, they do sketches on smoking weed and ridiculous football player names (which, while might be “considered” common of black media, it could also be seen in a white comedians sketch show. things get tinted to be about one culture, but so many things are actually universal), but they also referenced Of Mice and Men, Les Mis and, in tonight’s episode, Ratatouille and mafia movies.
These are not things that one would normally think you’d see in a black comedians sketch show, but it’s a perfect sampling for the fact that black people are more than just the stereotype, sidekicks. We like the same things everyone else does, just with a sprinkling of our particular experience as black people. A movie or TV show that stars was written by a black person CAN appeal to the masses, because what we offer is the same thing that white writers/stars offer.
Key and Peele is brilliant and I’m glad it is being appreciated by audiences of all types.