'Key and Peele' sketches riff on race, politics and celebrity

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Don’t tell comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele their brand of humor is funny in some sort of ‘racial’ way. To them, it’s just funny.

“[It’s not] that these are the two best black comedians we’ve seen since Chappelle – it’s just like ‘These guys are crazy!”, Key said of the response they’ve heard from many of their fans. “I love that.”

The stars of Comedy Central’s Key & Peele show grew close working together on Fox’s “Mad TV.” They first met in Chicago while performing in different improv troupes.

During a recent interview with theGrio.com’s Todd Johnson, the pair practically finished each other sentences.

And jokes too.

“We get together and we become eleven years old,” Peele said, before the pair broke into an impromptu jingle dedicated to theGrio.

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The show’s sketches cover everything from a substitute teacher unable to adapt to his new suburban classroom to two valet workers excitedly professing their love for action stars Liam Neeson and Bruce Willis.

And it works – Comedy Central renewed the show for a second season.

“We observe things and this how we hired our staff too,” Key said of the pairs knack  for finding the ‘funny’ in everyday situations.

The pair are best known for their sketches involving Luther, ‘Obama’s Anger Translator.’ Peele plays a calm and cool President Obama while Key rants and raves as Luther, his  crazed anger translator.

The sketch is part of an overall goal the comedians have to break new ground in their industry and not recycle the same material.

“One of our goals as comedians is doing stuff that hasn’t been done before,” Peele said. “There was [Richard] Pryor, we…had In Living Color growing up, [Dave] Chappelle and so they covered a certain amount of ground. So when we bite off something that’s topical or cultural, we look to make sure we’re doing something we haven’t seen before.”

TheGrio: Key & Peele land 3rd season on Comedy Central

Follow theGrio’s Todd Johnson on Twitter @rantoddj