Key and Peele (season 1)

If you happen to be illiterate, that says Key and Peele.  Then, wait, how are you reading this? Meh fuck it.

The premise is simple.  Keegan and Jordan are a comedy duo, both with bi-racial backgrounds.  They make skits, and intersperse their bromantic standup in between to make a full episode.  Comedy Central's been striving for relevance since they pissed off Chapelle and this is the latest in their attempt.

To preface everything I'm about to say, its really not fair to these guys.  They're following one of the brightest burning cultural phenomenons I've seen in my 26 years on this Earth.  Maybe I was just a fan, but my slightly racist/homophobic 50 something father liked Chapelle's Show. That leads me to believe there was something more to it.  The show was original, funny, and kept you guessing.  Who the fuck thought a story about Rick James beating the shit out of Charlie Murphy would make it so big?  Even funnier is how most people absolutely believes the skit is total truth with the Rick interviews spliced in.  I am one of those people.  Even the less famous sketches are funny and had a lot of truth and thought put it into them.

This is the reputation Key and Peele is attempting to live up to.  I even began watching because much of the web was saying it was the best sketch show since Chapelle left the scene.

Does it fill the shoes?  Not exactly.

Its funny of course.  I enjoyed the skits enough to watch the 8 episodes in season 1 over the course of a few days.  When did seasons for unproven shows get so short?  That being said, I also fell asleep on them at night several times and had to figure out what I had last seen.  Jordan's Barack Obama is really pretty brilliant (although not as spot on as Alphacat's) and usually elicited the biggest laughs from me (especially when he brought out his anger translator Lester).  Much of the humor ends up being racially based but often is just traditional comedy bits: unsuspected gay crushes, not saying certain words in front of your significant other, etc.

But here's the thing: I watched these about 2 weeks ago.  The skits I mentioned are the ones that really stick with you.  The ones you're going to remember to talk about.  Hm.  Shouldn't there be more after 8 episodes?

Not to compare them to Chapelle again, but Chapelle very rarely missed.  Maybe they had better writers. Maybe it was a different style of humor.  Even the low-brow stuff (haters through time, kneehigh park) was fucking brilliant.  Key and Peele when a skit begins, I wonder if it's going to be a miss.  With only 4-5 skits per episode if that, that's too big a worry.  These skits didn't really make me think, surprise me, or invoke any emotional response outside of mild amusement.  

I know its their first season so I'm going to cut them some slack.  They're getting their feet wet, seeing what Comedy Central will allow, figuring out how to harness their voice into a sketch comedy show.  Its inconsistent, sometimes oddly paced, and often predictable. But the honest truth?  It is funny.  Give it a look if you've got a few hours to kill.

No one gives a Jew a tv show about racism,

-Oz