Key & Peele on Love Relations

Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele

Key & Peele have superb insight into human nature, and they possess the talent to translate it into comedy.  Their sketches are drawn from their very birth and upbringing:

Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele are the duo behind the Comedy Central sketch comedy show Key & Peele. Each has a white mother and black father, and a lot of their comedy is about race: Perhaps because they're biracial, they're perfectly comfortable satirizing white people and African-Americans — as well as everybody else. The New Yorker's TV critic Emily Nussbaum as a "Golden Ticket to themes rarely explored on television."

Peele tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross, "I think the reason both of us became actors is because we did a fair amount of code switching growing up, and still do."

Reference: For Key And Peele, Biracial Roots Bestow Special Comedic 'Power'.

Here I gather sketches that speak to love relations à la this talent duo, and as in the preceding article consider the insights we offer about The Human Algorithm.

I cannot speak to how Black couples communicate with one another, but the tenuous bravado between these two men in the privacy of the basement, open field, and outer space is so freaking hilarious.  One running commentary on YouTube mirrors the hilarity perfectly, too:

lionel james
man tomorrow imma go to my girl, look her straight into her eyes and i will say "Biiittttaaaaacccccccchhhh...i love you?" gotta give brother some love man!

Levi Doyle
but for real you gonna say that tho?

lionel james
man...ugh, hell yeaa
imma go to her and imma tell her looks around to check whispers Biiiiittttttaaaaacccccchhhh* 

Ryan Kelley
+lionel james But you said it tho right? You said biiiiieatch

lionel james
oh hell yea man, i laid it out..i said looks around i said i said biiiiittttaaaaccccchh

Ryan Kelley
+lionel james I was talkin to my girl the other day and she says, "why dont we have a 4 burner stove?" and I looked at her and I says "we cant afford that" and then listen to this she says "well you gotta get back to work then and buy me that stove tomorrow" and I just said "there is no way you are getting that stove" then I said looks around tree trunk "biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaatchhhhhhhhhhhhh"

lionel james
She did not, but didchu say bitch though ?

In clinical psychology, there is a terribly noxious defensive mechanism called projective identification.  Some people with certain personality disorders have an ability to project their issues onto someone close to them, then psychologically manipulate them to act on these issues.  That's Meeghan, in relation to her boyfriend.  Key & Peele do them with such brilliant acting.

The first part is silly, plain and simple.  It's a commonplace pizza order, the nerdy caller to boot.  But it all turns creepy.  That Carlos falls for Clare, simply from the phone call, is emblematic, I think, of the complexity and the pitfall of online attraction.  Some people get attracted to each other, even desperately so, without seeing, hearing or knowing much of anything about each other.

Sometimes our personality and our position constrain the messages we truly want to get across to our spouse.  So it helps to have translators, who can decipher those messages not just for the spouse, but also for his or her translator.  It's one cumbersome dialogue between the President and the First Lady here, but Key & Peele and their fellow actors pull it off brilliantly.  Kudos!