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"Honest! We know we said that about Chocolate News, but this is the real poo poo right here!" Key & Peele are a pair of biracial comics, and this is their new sketch show. Specifically, they're Keegan Michael-Key and Jordan Peele; both got their start in at the fabled Second City Improv Group, and tooled around on MADtv for several seasons, which obviously doesn't inspire much confidence. And yet, two critics I trust are pretty high on this show. We'll start with Time Magazine's critic, James Poniewozik: James Poniewozik posted:Given the performers and the channel, Key & Peele may seem like the next show to fit the “black sketch comedy” slot, after the late, lamented Chappelle’s Show and the late, less-lamented Chocolate News. Which is true in a way, but Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele are playing a more specific angle. Introducing themselves, they note that each is half-black and half-white, and so, Key says, they are “particularly adept at lying.” Put another way, they, like a lot of people in multicultural America, are in situations where they can, and/or have to, modulate their identity to fit their situation—to “adjust our blackness,” as Key puts it. Left to their own devices, Peele says, “We sound whiter than Mitt Romney in a snowstorm.” And of course I'm not leaving Sepinwall out: Alan Sepinwall posted:There are some growing pains. In the two episodes I've seen (particularly the second), there are several sketches that have one basic joke repeated for several minutes. Sometimes, it works because the joke gets elaborated on each time — in the premiere, Key and Peele play two married friends who have to seek increasingly-remote locations before they feel comfortable referring to their wives by every woman's second least-favorite word — but other times it's just the same gag over and over until you're past ready to move on to the next one. The President's Anger Translator, by the way, has been the money sketch that CC's been pushing to promote this show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qv7k2_lc0M Which has its moments, but I personally think this one's more effective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzprLDmdRlc So...I don't know. I'm not doubled over in laughter at what I'm seeing, but I don't find it offensively bad either. (Then again, I'm one of the dimwits who didn't find Nick Swardson's Pretend Time offensively bad.) I've got the DVR set, and I'll see for myself late tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a place for your thoughts. Have at it!
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 02:13 |
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| # ? May 18, 2013 13:01 |
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I heard these guys on NPR the other day, and literally every joke they made and sketch they played was "white people talk like this black people talk like this." Chappelle this isn't.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 02:33 |
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There will never be another Chappelle's Show until Dave comes back to the cold embrace of cable television.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 02:52 |
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Hopefully Comedy Central has horrible taste when it came to promoting this show. So far it just seems like every sketch is "Aren't black people crazy yall?" Gonna check this out anyway, not going in with high hopes so it won't take much to blow me away.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:10 |
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If this show fails like Comedy Central's other attempts to emulate Chappelle's Show (my money's on it failing), they should just move on from the racial sketch comedy shows. Hopefully this will be a pleasant surprise.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:19 |
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This first sketch is pretty drat good, them looking around in the loving field killed me.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:37 |
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Holy Moly this show is bad
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:38 |
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Gordong Dongbay posted:This first sketch is pretty drat good, them looking around in the loving field killed me.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:39 |
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Gay People Design Things And Get Angry At Other Gay People Designing Things
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:41 |
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I'll give it one thing: it's very Chappelle's Show-esque. Edit: That's not to say it's good. They're really doing  with the jokes.
Y-Hat fucked around with this message at Feb 1, 2012 around 03:45 |
| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:42 |
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Holy poo poo. These two skits have literally been the same joke repeated over and over again.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:43 |
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Dango Bango posted:Holy poo poo. These two skits have literally been the same joke repeated over and over again. Thomas mother fuckin' Jefferson.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:45 |
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Is it possible to run something into the ground that was never funny? At 10:29 I would have said no, but now I see the truth.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:46 |
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Gordong Dongbay posted:Thomas mother fuckin' Jefferson. If I have to give anything to them, it's that they nailed the feel of those commercials. I turned away from the TV, thinking it was a commercial break, and didn't realize it was fake until I heard the bleep from "Tomas Mother Fuckin' Jefferson."
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:48 |
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Leprosy. 
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:50 |
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I just watched the end of that weed card sketch and that was really funny. Rickets!
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:52 |
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This show could be good, but it'd rather repeat jokes over and over. What a shame.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:52 |
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It's better than I expected, but I expected it to be horrible. I'll probably watch at least a couple more episodes.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:54 |
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Peele does a better Obama than most people.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 03:58 |
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Part of me really wants Obama to snap and actually say all that.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 04:00 |
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That wasn't amazing but it was certainly good enough for me to tune in next week as well.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 04:01 |
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Sadly, the one-episode test shows that they still carry the taint of MadTV. Pass.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 04:01 |
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I feel like every time they're just talking on-stage has potential to be hilarious, but then it cut off just before the punchline to go to one of their not as funny skits. Although I'll admit, the last two were skits were pretty good. The sign language rapping killed me, and Peele does a spot-on Obama impression. That said, I'll give it a couple more episodes, I feel like it has potential. I'm just not sure if it'll fulfill that.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 04:05 |
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If it wasn't for the weed card sketch I probably would have stopped watching, but that one was good enough that I kept it on, I really hope the consecutive episodes pick up though.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 04:11 |
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Ugh just bring back Halfway House or Krod Mandoon! Comedy Central cannot recreate Chappelle show, they need to stop trying.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 05:20 |
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This was way funnier than I expected. Some real laughs from the sketches although the onstage stuff fell completely flat to me and just seemed to be there to remind people of Chapelle I guess. If they pull back a little bit on the sketches and show some restraint this could go from amusing to actually great.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 05:41 |
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Robotnik DDS posted:This was way funnier than I expected. Some real laughs from the sketches although the onstage stuff fell completely flat to me and just seemed to be there to remind people of Chapelle I guess. If they pull back a little bit on the sketches and show some restraint this could go from amusing to actually great. Totally agreed. The whole repeating joke thing was a bit annoying, but there were some pretty funny moments throughout. A bit of patience and no expectations that this will be Chappelle Show is all anyone really needs for this show.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 06:08 |
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AV Club gave this an A.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 07:48 |
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I think this show is pretty great. I was actually in the live audience for two of the episodes, and now I'm excited to finally see the rest of the series. Both Key & Peele are super funny dudes, and a lot of people involved in the Upright Citizens Brigade community have a hand in it too. For a lot of cool insight into the show's background and creative decisions, you should check out this interview with the show's director, Peter Atencio. One of the interesting things it highlights is the notable lack of a laugh track and its sharp visual style. http://splitsider.com/2012/01/talki...-peter-atencio/
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 10:10 |
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I just watched this. Thought it was pretty drat funny. Will definitely keep tuning in.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 11:56 |
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It had some moments, will probably continue giving it a shot. While the gimmick fell apart by the end of the first sketch, I actually laughed at the closer on Obama as I didn't see it coming off hand.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 13:17 |
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Bown posted:AV Club gave this an A. Yeah, that was the only reason I bothered to watch it. The ads made it seem painfully unfunny, but I trust the AV Club's opinion on most things. I think an A grade is a bit of a stretch, but it definitely exceeded my very negative expectations.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 14:14 |
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The thing about Chappelle's Show that stood out to me is that it was laugh-out-loud hilarious from the very first episode. As for Key & Peele...well, it certainly wasn't as funny as Chappelle's Show on average, but I do see the potential. Also, I thought the two of them were occasionally funny back on Mad Tv. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tYAA285gY0
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 14:53 |
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Moose King posted:If I have to give anything to them, it's that they nailed the feel of those commercials. I turned away from the TV, thinking it was a commercial break, and didn't realize it was fake until I heard the bleep from "Tomas Mother Fuckin' Jefferson." Same here. I'll probably watch at least one more episode...I mean, nothing else to do after Tosh, right? But I agree several jokes went on too long...the Top Chef ripoff, especially. It was funny the first couple of times, but by the end of the skit I was so sick of it. There are so many other things to rip on on those cooking competition shows, too, so they cold have worked in a couple more jokes if they had just put a smidgen more effort in.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 14:53 |
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Thought K&P was great tho I am just a sucker for comedy double acts.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 15:11 |
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I thought the premise of the sketches were pretty funny but they were drawn out a little too much. I would have preferred less "middle ground" of the jokes and go from low to extreme quicker. The Lil Wayne where he's signing his raps had me lolling though and the I AM NOT A MUSLIM and tossing the megaphone had me in stitches.
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| # ? Feb 1, 2012 16:46 |
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Yeah sorry this premiere was great. I was laughing nearly the entire time and when I wasn't laughing I was pre-mourning for the show's fated cancellation.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2012 02:23 |
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FrensaGeran posted:Yeah sorry this premiere was great. I was laughing nearly the entire time and when I wasn't laughing I was pre-mourning for the show's fated cancellation. I wouldn't start worrying yet, they scored the best CC premiere since 2009.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2012 02:52 |
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I got a big kick out of the Hell's Kitchen parody simply because I knew exactly what the joke would be before it happened. Other than that, loved the Obama sketch, especially with the biiiiiiiiiiitch callback at the end.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2012 03:01 |
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| # ? May 18, 2013 13:01 |
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Watching this right now and I'm pleasantly surprised. All of the scenes have cracked me up. Outside of the stand-up parts, anyway. I'll definitely be watching later episodes. Holy crap, Little Wayne in the shower. I knew the ending was coming, but... but wow. That's funny.
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| # ? Feb 2, 2012 05:27 |
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