Before Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele were Key and Peele, they were just two members of the rather large cast of Fox’s Mad TV. Still, they were able to make a mark on the show with some hilarious sketches that gave us a glimpse of the brilliant work they would go on to produce. Let’s take a look at the best sketches starring Key & Peele during their Mad TV days.
Coach Hines
Fans of Key’s substitute teacher character will likely get a huge kick out of Coach Hines, a high school coach who continues to find himself in situations where he’s in way over his head. In this sketch, he’s supposed to direct a high school drama club version of Oliver but he can’t help but berate all of his actors in the fashion of, say, Bobby Knight. Clearly, no one is better at playing a perpetually angry teacher than Keegan Michael Key.
Deal Or No Deal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol2DedEhOGI
A spot-on parody of Deal Or No Deal (which was quite popular one time), in which Key & Peele display the type of chemistry that made it clear they needed their own show. I lose it when they started dancing, and you probably will too. Also, Michael McDonald makes a great straight man as Howie Mandel. Just a perfect sketch all-around.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Another show that was inexplicably popular in the early 2000s, this sketch focuses on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition‘s tendencies to find the least fortunate families in the world, and be a bit too proud of themselves for helping them. Key plays the blind grandfather who had his eyes pecked out by pigeons because when he was a kid because his Grandma left a peanut butter sandwich on his face (it happens!). Peele plays a former Domino’s Pizza delivery man who has a steering wheel permanently stuck in his heart. But hey, he got that pizza there in 22 minutes.
Jovan Muskatell – The “Crazy As Hell!” Guy
In this recurring sketch, Key plays a shirtless man who just happens to think every movie that came out was “crazy as hell!” This is yet another sketch that seems like a predecessor to a well-known K&P sketch. It’s hard to watch this and not think of the valet characters declaring their love for “Liam Neesons.” Really, it seems like a lot of the ideas behind Key & Peele‘s best sketches first began life at Mad TV, and continued to develop after the pair had the opportunity to work on their own.
Somebody Stole My Weed
In this sketch, Peele gets a chance to shine as a man who calls 9-1-1 to complain that someone stole all of his weed. One can only assume he was too high to realize that calling the cops to report stolen weed was probably not a good idea. What really makes the sketch funny is Peele’s continued impatience with the cops, and his insistence on calling them “Turner and Hooch” or “Crocket And Tubbs.”
