BoW - Key and Peele STUDENTS

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

Estimated Work Load 2-3 hours

For this lesson you will need

• Internet connection and MS Teams
•  Access to the Lessonup link sent to you via magistar
• Access to Lessonup Class link sent to you via magistar
• Note book and colour pens/pencils for annotation. 
• Previous Notes on Global Issues Fields of Inquiry and BOW's 

Plan your time over a period of one week

Key & Peele - Body of Work

The American sketch comedy series 'Key & Peele' was created by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele and aired on Comedy Central. The short skits from this series which you are about to watch are available on YouTube. Key & Peele initially wanted to explore themes (think GI) related to masculinity but now cover a wide range of themes. Their sketches on racism went viral and eventually won them two Emmy awards.

1. Sketch Comedy:

 "K & P" followed a sketch comedy format, which has been a popular format for comedic shows for decades. However, during the 2010s, there was a surge in the popularity of sketch comedy shows, thanks in part to the rise of online platforms like YouTube, which allowed comedians to share and showcase their sketches to a broader audience. Key and Peele's show incorporated a mix of social commentary, pop culture satire, and character-driven sketches, often exploring racial themes and subverting stereotypes.

2. Social and Political Commentary

  Comedy in the 2010s increasingly embraced social and political commentary, with comedians using their platforms to address pressing issues and challenge societal norms. Key and Peele's sketches often tackled race relations, identity, and cultural stereotypes, providing both humorous and thought-provoking commentary on these topics.

3. Character-Based Humor:

 Key and Peele showcased their versatility by portraying a wide range of characters in their sketches. This character-based humor allowed them to explore different perspectives and highlight various aspects of society through comedic lenses. They often used characters to satirize cultural archetypes or parody specific individuals.

Watch together

What impression has this video made on you?

We are going to explore the BoW that is 

Key and Peele! 

• Understanding  types of comedy. Read the Wikipedia page on the following slide. Take notes on the theory in your notebook. 
• Watch several of Key & Peele's sketches on the following slides. The titles as they appear on the slides: text message confusion, auction block, gangsta standoff, civil war reenactments, das negros, country music, gay wedding advice, white zombies, black ice, negro town, substitute teacher, yo momma, cult, someone's gotta say it, office homophobe.
• Choose three of the videos. (Remember, punchlines can occur towards the end of a text (or video) so do not be too quick to judge).

• Answer the questions based on your video of choice.

en.wikipedia.org

Keegan-Michael Key’s text messages and attitude grows increasingly hostile, believing that Jordan Peele’s messages are meant to convey the same tone, while Peele’s texts are actually intended to be sincere as he assumes that is Key’s intention as well. Key escalates from bitter mania to apocalyptic dungeon warrior, rushing into the bar ready to take Peele down, until he realizes that by “First round’s mine,” Peele was actually referring to drinks.

One of my favorite things about the “Text Message Confusion” sketch is Keegan-Michael Key’s gift for uproarious, high-energy on full display, but the key (no pun intended) to this Key & Peele classic is how relatable the situation is, given how easily people misinterpret text messages. Of course, in the duo’s signature fashion, it ends by throwing authenticity out the window with Jordan Peele making a bizarrely obscure historical reference.

for-sale slaves who, like a scrawny kid picked last in gym class, become consumed with insecurity when no one bids on them. ”I had this image of us standing there next to a guy who’s just physically superior to us,” ”There’s something innately funny in the double humiliation of that.” Key agrees. ”Think of all the courage that our ancestors had,” Key says, citing the Civil War drama as evidence. ”Compared to them, we’re such wimps! We’d complain about the lack of air-conditioning, let alone being bought by another human being. So the skit’s really a treatise on vanity, and the framework happens to be slavery.”

Two tough gang guys who find the thing they have in common is Twilight. 

Funny because sharing something so simple can effect their lives.

Also the ending about the stereotypical white cops assuming its a gang related killing 

Stereotyping dumb slaves. Against the confederate soldiers. 

And the modern white actors who are eventually robbed by the stereotypical black thugs

As Key and Peele attempt to survive a zombie apocalypse in a predominantly white suburb, they slowly realize there’s a reason why they haven’t been bitten yet. Zombies as an allegory for racial discrimination. Brilliant.

The comedy, at first, appears to be that the black newsmen have picked up on an intentional insult. The anchors repeat “black ice” often enough and with enough alacrity that you sometimes hear it as “black guys.” The segment could have ended right about there, with the audience perfectly well versed, after all these years, in racism-as-farce. But the actors playing the anchors turn the offense into sport, and the light-skinned weatherman and darker-skinned on-the-street-reporter (under the circumstances, a house Negro and his field counterpart) decide to play defense. “One must keep in mind that just because black ice looks different than white ice, that doesn’t make it more dangerous,” says the reporter. “One must remember how hard it is for black ice to survive, what with the authorities trying to destroy it with the snowplows and the salt trucks. But black ice perseveres.” The weatherman chimes in, unhinged: “As you can see right now, the city is being controlled by oppressive white snow, making it hard for all people to advance. And we do not hear much ‘news’ about that, though. Do we?” Then the white female anchor recalls, with Midwestern/news-desk cheer, the time that black ice almost “robbed me of my … balance.”

Don't forget

Copy paste the url of your choosen video, your secondary source and all your answers into a WORD document and add this to your  portfolio.

Highlight the Global Issue and possible Field of Inquiry in your document. 

You could want to use this non literary text for your IO in 2022.