Keegan-Michael Key Talks to Henry Finder About Making Socially Aware Comedy

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Barack, Washington, Wickenden, News, Obama, Politics, Wnyc, Lizza, President

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2017

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Keegan-Michael Key is one half of the comedy team Key & Peele, whose eponymous sketch show on Comedy Central won the Peabody Award, among other honors. The show ran for five seasons and produced sharp and ambitious sketches that often focussed on popular culture, politics, and race. In the now classic “Anger Translator” sketch, Key played the character Luther, a physical embodiment of Barack Obama’s id, who lets fly all the pent-up rage the President kept in check. The New Yorker editor Henry Finder asked Key how he veered away from his dramatic training into comedy, and about the meaty theatrical roles he yearns to play.

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1:12.2	I'm Dorothy Wickendon On today's Politics and More podcast, the New Yorker's Henry Finder
1:17.8	talks to Keegan Michael Key. Though Key began his career as a dramatic actor, he's earned
1:23.8	acclaim and a Peabody Award by crafting sharp, socially aware comedy with his performing partner, Jordan Peel.
1:34.4	Let's begin with Keegan Michael Key, who's best known for his collaboration with Jordan Peel.
1:40.3	Their sketch show Key and Peel ran five seasons on Comedy Central and won a Peabody Award.
1:46.0	One sketch, already a classic, starts off in the mode of gritty realism,
1:51.1	with a black man provoked and arrested by a white cop for no reason at all.
1:56.6	Look, there is no reason for you to get upset, sir.
1:59.5	I'm not, I'm not.
2:00.5	All right, that's it. Put your hands on your head.
2:02.6	Put your hands on your head, yes.
2:05.4	The officer shoves him in the back of the car so hard that his head smacks on the doorframe and he's knocked out.
	...

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