The hit sketch comedy series Key & Peele returns to Comedy Central tonight, Sept. 18, at 10:30pm ET/PT, to start Season 3, after a second season that found the show averaging 1.5 million viewers each week, and becoming No. 1 in its timeslot with Men 18-34 and Men 18-24 in all of television. Key & Peele Season 3 will include 13 new episodes.
Once again, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele combine filmed sketches and live stage segments, with elements of improv, celebrity impressions and original characters. Popular characters from the first two seasons make their return, including substitute teacher Mr. Garvey, A-Aron, and Obama and Luther in Episode 1 (with Luther hilariously and angrily translating Obama’s reassurances about NSA surveillance to mean that your porn-watching habits are safe from government snooping). Episode 2 features the return of Hingle McCringleberry and Ozamataz Buckshank as the teams from last year’s popular East-West Bowl Name Derby sketch engage in a rap battle in a very funny parody of awful athlete rap songs (with Key and Peele specifically taking a lighthearted shot at the 1985 Chicago Bears Super Bowl Shuffle at the start of the sketch). And there will be “East-West Bowl Name Derby II” this season.
In Season 3, Key & Peele are also not afraid to tackle social commentary again, with Episode 1 starting right out with a darkly humorous take on the point of view of young black men who wear hoodies in white suburbs, and Episode 2 also featuring darker humor about the interrogation of a mistakenly apprehended Arab wanted for terrorism (when he was actually committing “terrier-ism”). Fans of literature and the arts should enjoy Key & Peele’s Episode 1 spoof of Les Miz, along with the same episode’s hilarious depiction of a rapper and his obnoxious hype man that turns into an Of Mice and Men parody (“Steinbeck, y’all!”).
Based on the first two episodes of Season 3, Key & Peele remain in fine form.
Key & Peele Season 3 premieres Sept. 18 at 10:30pm ET/PT on Comedy Central, and airs Wednesdays.
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Key & Peele Season 3 image Michael Yarish for Comedy Central