Key & Peele’s Keanu Countdown: Ranking Keegan and Jordan’s Talk Show Gigs

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Key and Peele have been getting away with all the stunts they can on the late-night circuit to promote their new movie “Keanu,” in theaters now. If you weren’t able to make it out to see the movie, you can at least check out all their talk show spots.  They showed up on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Conan, plus a few daytime shows and a SXSW premiere. Here’s a list of their appearance, ranked.

#6 Key & Peele on Fox2

Key & Peele are genuinely likeable in this hokey segment on Fox 2. Kevin of “Kevin’s Reel World” has that overeager glint in his eye that comes from needing to be funny and his questions are desperate to be cute. The finished segment is mostly clips and it’s nothing special (Kevin concludes the movie would work better as a sketch), but Key and Peele save the bits.

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#5 Key & Peele on Late Night With Seth Meyers

Key & Peele strike up a fun rapport with Myers, but the result isn’t interesting. Seth’s questions are generic and long-winded, peppered with “ums” and there isn’t that much for the comedy duo to go off of.

 

 

#4 Key & Peele on Jimmy Kimmel Live

The duo did “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and while the interview stuck to the tried-and-true formula of guests telling anecdotes involving other stars, the guys were great. Obviously Key and Peele work well together but they tell stories together better than most old, married couples. The guys are each other’s best foils and hype men and adversaries and they shift between a ton of characters. Kimmel’s interview was linear and predictable, but a fun conversation to listen in on.

 

#3 Key& Peele at SXSW

This isn’t so much a late-night appearance as an appearance that just so happened to happen late at night, but here’s Key & Peele pelting their audience with toy kittens at their SXSW midnight premiere. The guys are having fun and yelling that they have to “watch out for the sconces.” The duo is so likeable that they amp each other up while including the technician telling them not to hit the sconces in on the joke.

#2 Key & Peele on Today

Key & Peele’s appearance on “TODAY” was the opposite of late night or comedy, but the interviewers dug a little deeper on the themes of the movie that others avoided. In their own way, the “TODAY” hosts addressed racial themes in “Keanu” that most interviews have hedged around. The film addresses Key & Peele as biracial African-Americans fitting into a community not often portrayed as the range it is through “gangsters vs. kittens”. Plus, there’s actual kittens playing on the ground below.

#1 Key & Peele on Conan

Key & Peele got super silly with Conan. The guys fake Conan out by saying they forgot their clip and brought scripts for a live reading of a scene (which is so much more fun than just watching a clip), but Conan’s first line immediately includes the “n word”. Conan navigates a charged spectrum of what is and isn’t okay as far as his subbing in for Method Man’s character. The guys act out a story using Andy Richter’s lap as a pillow but my favorite was when they introduce Keanu’s motion capture double, a dog in a green suit named Sandy Pinkus. Sandy Pinkus has played all kinds of kittens before, but never an African American kitten. The audience isn’t entirely on board with the guys explaining the unexpected issues with casting a kitten as a dog, like when Sandy Pinkus would chase squirrels or the mailman, but Andy brings the bit back on track.

 

 

 

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Rachel Crowe

The most notable lies Rachel Crowe has ever told were that she has 10 children (no twins), she’s running a marathon retracing the path her ancestors took to evade the IRS and that she found childcare for 10 on a Saturday night. She’s also a stand-up comedian and dog walker living in Los Angeles. Follow Rachel on Twitter @Racheddar or on Instagram @thelma_and_disease. Or don’t, but at least appreciate those fresh hot puns.
Rachel Crowe

Rachel Crowe

The most notable lies Rachel Crowe has ever told were that she has 10 children (no twins), she’s running a marathon retracing the path her ancestors took to evade the IRS and that she found childcare for 10 on a Saturday night. She’s also a stand-up comedian and dog walker living in Los Angeles. Follow Rachel on Twitter @Racheddar or on Instagram @thelma_and_disease. Or don’t, but at least appreciate those fresh hot puns.