Trivia / Key & Peele

• Ability over Appearance: Jordan Peele doesn't look anything like Barack Obama, but does a spot-on impression of Obama's voice and mannerisms. The show gets around the difference in appearance by heavily shading Peele's jaw to approximate the president's narrower face.
• Approval of God:
  • Joe Dante loved the Gremlins 2: The New Batch skit and said that it was 100% accurate.
  • Barack Obama considered Peele's impression of him to be one of the best, later inviting Key to appear in-character as Luther the Anger Translator for the 2015 White House Correspondents' Dinner.
  • Big Boi of OutKast admits that he found the "Outkast Reunion" sketch "funny as hell", and claims that he even sent it to André 3000—although he maintains that the two's relationship in Real Life is nothing like in the sketch.
• Award Category Fraud: Keegan-Michael Key was nominated twice at the Emmys as a supporting actor, even though the show is a two hander between him and Peele, even being named after them. Perhaps the fact that Key didn't play a leading character but instead a wide variety of roles got him placed there, but again, the entire show is made up of him and Peele leading the sketches.
• Breakup Breakout: Downplayed in that they still work together and both parties are successful on their own, but Peele wound up making a big name for himself as a director, writer, and producer after the massive success of Get Out (2017). Not only was this an unexpected career move for Peele, but it's even more interesting since Key looked like he was set to be this given he had a much more active schedule as an actor, backed up by Key receiving several Emmy nominations for his acting on this show, something that Peele never got. However, while Key isn't an Oscar winning filmmaker, he's still remained active and had his share of success since the show ended, both alongside and apart from Peele.
• Defictionalization:
  • Key as Luther made an appearance translating for the real President Obama at the White House Correspondents' Dinner 2015. See it here from C-Span. And according to Key, the President kept corpsing during the rehearsal.
  • After the "McCringleberry's Excessive Celebration" sketch aired, actual NFL players began using the celebration.
• Development Hell: In March 2015, a movie starring Mr. Garvey titled Substitute Teacher was announced. However, while not officially cancelled, there's been no updates about the state of the movie since then.
• Fake Nationality: While Key is half-black and half-white, he has played a lot of other nationalities, including Pacific Islander, American Indian, Indian (from India), Middle Eastern, and Hispanic. Peele is somewhat more niched, but he too has played Hispanic, white American (with makeup), German (without makeup), and Middle Eastern.
• Fandom Nod: Season 3 starts with Key and Peele acknowledging that the "Substitute Teacher" sketch may have spread around a little.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine:
  • Some MADtv (1995) cast members have appeared on this show. Nicole Parker^note known for her Disney Girl character and her celebrity impressions of Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Ashlee Simpson, Jessica Simpson, and Christine Amanpour appeared on the "Les Mis" sketch, Nicole Randall Johnson^note known for her character Ka-Son and her celebrity impressions of Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, and Condolezza Rice played Michelle Obama's anger translator, Will Sasso^note known for his impressions of Randy Newman, Bill Clinton, Mike Tyson and others appeared as a pirate singing a verse in the "Pirate Chantey" sketch, and Stephnie Weir^note known for her impressions of Anna Nicole Smith and the Olsen twins, among others appeared as Hillary Clinton's anger translator.
  • Gary Anthony Williams appeared in the gay marriage planning sketch after both he and Key were on the new Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
• Missing Episode: The 2015 Super Bowl Special is not included with the series on any streaming platform.
• Post-Script Season: Two years after the show ended, we got a post script sketch.
• Real-Life Relative: Chelsea Peretti from the "Dicknanigans" sketch is married to Peele.
• Referenced by...: In his Netflix stand-up special "Legalize Everything", Eric André talks about a time where he got stopped in the restroom by a fan. As the fan left the restroom, he shouted out, "KEY AND PEEELLLLLLEEEE!" Not only did this guy mistake Eric for Key and Peele, he thought Key and Peele are the same guy.
• Tuckerization: One sketch is about Key and Peele as brothers at a family dinner, with a black father and a white mother, which actually fits their real life parentage.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Peele was one of the actors Lorne Michaels talked to, hoping to hire him for Saturday Night Live, where he would be playing Barack Obama.
  • In "Pizza Order", Wendell's action figures were originally going to be Lost ones, hence the discussion about "Claire". However, ABC ended up reverting their greenlight to the rights to Lost, so the show got WETA's permission to use The Lord of the Rings action figures instead. Since Key's scenes had already been filmed with Claire's name being mentioned, she was represented by a generic figurine in Peele's scenes.
  • "Wendell's Broken Superman Bed": Wendell's Fortress of Solitude bed was originally supposed to be a Millennium Falcon bed, but it was changed when Key and Peele couldn't get the rights for it.
• Working Title: The original title was going to be Tan, reflecting the two leads biracial backgrounds, but it wasn't catchy enough.
• Written-In Infirmity: In the "Substitute Teacher" sketch, Aaron wears protective goggles for apparently no reason due to his actor Zack Pearlman having pink eye at the time.

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