{"id":5703,"date":"2019-03-20T21:33:23","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T21:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=5703"},"modified":"2019-03-28T00:32:47","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T00:32:47","slug":"8-key-and-peele-sketches-that-planted-jordan-peeles-horror-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/8-key-and-peele-sketches-that-planted-jordan-peeles-horror-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"8 &#8216;Key And Peele&#8217; Sketches That Planted Jordan Peele&#8217;s Horror Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week, Jordan Peele&#8217;s hugely anticipated follow-up to <em>Get Out<\/em> hits theaters.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/us\/272263\"><em> Us<\/em> <\/a>follows the story of the Wilson family, who go on what&#8217;s meant to be a quiet seaside vacation, but it turns into a brutal fight for survival when a family full of their doppleg\u00e4ngers show up to terrorize them. It might be strange for some to consider that Jordan Peele, best known before <em>Get Out<\/em> for comedy, is now reinventing the way we think about horror movies.<\/p>\n<p>But fans who have been following Jordan Peele&#8217;s career for a while know that plenty of seeds were planted during his time with Keegan-Michael Key on <em>Key and Peele<\/em>, seeds that eventually sprouted into the nightmarish blossoms of horror he&#8217;s reaped in the last few years. Indeed, Peele has been blending horror with comedic elements for years \u2013 it&#8217;s just that now, the mainstream audience is finally noticing.<\/p>\n<p>In honor of the release of <em>Us<\/em> and Jordan Peele&#8217;s roots, here are the best horror skits from <em>Key and Peele<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2>1. Sexy Vampires<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iXpxnxAL62A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In this skit, the idea of the overt gothy sexiness and cultish aspects of vampirism are taken to extreme levels. It&#8217;s a great parody of some of the more ridiculous tropes of vampires in entertainment, and one of the more fun. The genius is that the human victim in the skit looks genuinely terrified to be the vampire coven&#8217;s meal, even when Keegan-Michael Key interjects with snarky commentary. As coven leader Cyrus, Peele manages to walk the line between seductively menacing and exasperated.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Psycho Clown<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ngk3VX405GE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One of the hallmarks of Jordan Peele&#8217;s brand of horror is the same thing that catapulted Stephen King into fame and relevance back in the &#8217;70s and &#8217;80s: a focus on life&#8217;s inane mundanities. Peele always juxtaposes his intense situations with the small, daily realities of life, whether it&#8217;s the Wilson family arguing about who gets to drive the car when they&#8217;re running for their lives in <em>Us<\/em> or Daniel Kaluuya&#8217;s Chris dealing with awkward small talk at a backyard barbecue in <em>Get Out<\/em>. &#8220;Psycho Clown&#8221; explores his brand of absurdist humor, with two middle-class guys being so worn down by the daily grind of adulthood that they find being kidnapped by a psychotic clown to be a refreshing change.<\/p>\n<p><em>Key and Peele<\/em> also explored the zombie genre a few times, as you&#8217;ll see with the next two examples on the list&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>3. Zombie Attack<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y_qZggrYHRQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The slow-motion body drag, the Apocalyptic dull tones, the bombed-out building: &#8220;Zombie Attack&#8221; was one of the shorter sketches of <em>Key and Peele<\/em>, but even back in the first season it established Peele&#8217;s eye for nailing horror elements and adroitly balancing them with humor.<\/p>\n<h2>4. White Zombies<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4xyhVO-SWfM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If any sketch in the entire run of <em>Key and Peele<\/em> set up <em>Get Out<\/em>, it was this one. It laid the foundation for the suburban horror of Peele&#8217;s first feature, as well as the fact that, well, white people are scary af. The social and racial elements of racist zombies were an early test run at tackling the themes that would later be explored more deeply in <em>Get Out<\/em>, with Chris Washington trapped in white suburban hell.<\/p>\n<p>But he&#8217;d flesh out those ideas a little more with a later sketch from the fourth season&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>5. Alien Imposters<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DWO1pkHgrBM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Damn, white people, you scary. The most hilarious parts of this are also the most cringingly true &#8211; the only way Key and Peele can determine whether the white people they run into are actual humans or shape-shifting aliens is whether or not those white people are racist. A white redneck who wants two black guys to join their community of survivors? Alien. Rich, middle-aged businessman who says he&#8217;d be cool with his daughter dating a black guy? <em>Definitely<\/em> an alien. White girl who claims she has a black friend and listens to rap? Hold up, she&#8217;s good. And of course, <em>of course<\/em>, her name is Emily. It builds on the same themes first touched upon in &#8220;White Zombies,&#8221; but takes them even further. You can trace a direct line from &#8220;White Zombies&#8221; through &#8220;Alien Imposters&#8221; to <em>Get Out<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2>6. Hall Of Mirrors<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TCw-iEJoVfY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If most of the previous sketches laid the groundwork for things that would be fine-tuned in <em>Get Out<\/em>, this sketch directly sets the stage for a major set piece in <em>Us<\/em>. The creepy hall of mirrors, complete with something terrifying lurking in the reflections and the claustrophobic sense of being stalked by something that fragments into unreality, the red-drenched lighting, all are used to greater and more terrifying effect in <em>Us<\/em>. Of course, since this is Jordan Peele, there are still elements of absurdist comedy as his serial killer tries to convince Keegan-Michael Key&#8217;s detective he&#8217;s not real &#8211; even as he&#8217;s flinching from the gun barrel every time it waves past his face.<\/p>\n<h2>7. Roommate Meeting<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bxHEZU0AFcQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement might have perfected the supernatural roommate comedy with <em>What We Do in the Shadows<\/em>, but <em>Key and Peele<\/em> actually explored it in a slightly different way a few years earlier with this skit. The roommates are all boneheads, but the genius is the homage to Asian ghost stories that permeates the background while the bros bicker. The visual genius of this skit is that the white, surfer boy wigs are truly terrible while the creepy makeup effects of the ghosts are accurately on-point. Could we one day see Jordan Peele move away from suburban horror and tackle a full-on ghost story? It&#8217;s entirely possible.<\/p>\n<p>And last, not a horror sketch, per se, but one that deals <em>with<\/em> a (sort of) horror movie&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>8. &#8216;Gremlins 2&#8217; Brainstorm<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/x01l_jMhjVM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One of the classic <em>Key and Peele<\/em> sketches. &#8220;Gremlins 2 Brainstorm&#8221; introduced us to Peele&#8217;s Star Magic Jackson, Jr. It is one of their more hilarious and memorable skits, with Peele displaying some serious acting chops in the role of the flamboyant pitch doctor. The first <em>Gremlins<\/em> movie was a horror-comedy, but the sequel went off the rails &#8211; and we have Star Magic Jackson, Jr. to blame for it.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0Us<\/em> hits theaters this Friday, March 22. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/us\/272263\">Buy your tickets here.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>You Might Also Like<\/h2>\n<hr style=\"color: #000; width: 95%; margin-left: 0;\" \/>\n<!-- The Grid Plugin Version 2.7.4 --><div class=\"tg-error-msg\" data-grid-name=\"Home Featured\">No post was found with your current grid settings.&#xa;You should verify if you have posts inside the current selected post type(s) and if the meta key filter is not too much restrictive.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, Jordan Peele&#8217;s hugely anticipated follow-up to Get Out hits theaters. Us follows the story of the Wilson family, who go on what&#8217;s meant to be a quiet seaside vacation, but it turns into a brutal fight for survival when a family full of their doppleg\u00e4ngers show up to terrorize them. It might be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50,58],"tags":[40,37],"class_list":["post-5703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-horror","tag-featuredpage","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5717,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5703\/revisions\/5717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}