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Jordan Peele Thinks Comedians Really "Connect" With This 'Key & Peele' Sketch

By Andrew Sanford | TV | January 2, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | TV | January 2, 2024 |


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Jordan Peele is now known as an innovator of the horror genre. His films Get Out, Us, and Nope are modern horror classics. They touch on social, racial, and political issues. They’re also scary as hell. Peele is so entangled with horror films that it’s almost hard to remember that his roots lie in sketch comedy.

Peele recently sat down to talk about his career with Comedy GOAT (Peele’s words) and Conan O’Brien (in maybe my favorite episode of his podcast so far). The conversation touched on Peele’s beginnings in sketch comedy. One sketch in particular stuck out to Conan. The sketch is called Insult Comic. You can watch it below (and I recommend you do). It’s written by Key & Peele writer Alex Rubens.

Peele’s comedy cohort Keegan Michael Key plays an insult comic in the sketch. He’s working the room and politely skips over a man who is a burn victim. The man insists that Key insult him anyway, only to realize that he is not as strong-willed as he thought. The sketch is incredible, and you can see Peele’s excitement at Conan’s acknowledgment.

I’ve talked about crowd work here before. Most comedians have tried it to some extent, so it makes sense that O’Brien brought up the sketch first. It is also something that, I would argue, will be a part of Peele’s legacy, like his horror films. It perfectly encapsulates the writer/director/comedian’s ability to put his stamp on whatever he touches.