Obama Offered Keegan-Michael Key Advice On His Impersonation

 Keegan-Michael Key of Key & Peele reveals President Obama responded with a note of criticism after hearing Key’s impression. Key rose to prominence, along with Jordan Peele, as the co-creator and co-lead of Key & Peele. Airing on Comedy Central, the show featured a recurring sketch that tried to figure out what the 44th president must actually be thinking.

The premise of these segments revolved around the fact Obama, as portrayed by Peele, often struggled with how to communicate his true sentiments. That’s where Obama’s anger translator, the perpetually indignant Luther (Key), came in to speak with direct fury. The bit garnered major success, leading to a performance at the Annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2015. But, when Key performed a more straightforward version of Obama, the response was somewhat less glowing.

In an interview on The Tonight Show, Key told host Jimmy Fallon about the time he got the chance to meet up with Obama and do an impression of him. The Key & Peele star stresses the former president enjoyed the bit, although, when it was over, Obama did have a bit of criticism to offer. You can read Key’s quote below.

Last year, I got to do it for him. Like, explicitly, almost, for him. I was telling him a story about impersonating him, I was telling the story about the fact that was impersonating him to Ethel Kennedy, to Robert F. Kennedy’s wife, and her kids put me up to it. And then I got to relay that story to him and tell him that I was that I was doing this impersonation, and he was giggling and laughing at the story. And then at the end, he goes, he goes, you know, my register’s a little bit lower than what you’re doing.

During his conversation with Fallon, it becomes clear Key has a fairly impressive Obama impression. But that’s what made Key & Peele’s take on the 44th president so clever. Rather than relying on mere voice mimicking or using the politician’s repeated phrases as a crutch, the Comedy Central series dug a little deeper and came up with a more illuminating version of Obama than their peers. It’s entirely true that, as a Black man, Obama could not readily express the kind of anger which other presidents have openly indulged in. But, in the same vein, it’s also the case Obama was sometimes too even-tempered and quick to acknowledge the validity of his opponent’s arguments, a tendency that sometimes disappointed his most fervent supporters. Key & Peele alluded to these aspects, allowing audiences to draw their own conclusions.

The approach is impressive in another respect, considering the show could have easily just relied on recreating Obama’s general appearance and speech habits. Some would argue that second approach, the easier one, is the path Saturday Night Live opted to take with Obama’s successors in office. Alec Baldwin’s take on Trump, in addition to Jim Carrey’s cold open cameos as Joe Biden, sometimes favored the simplest path to a punchline rather than investigating or criticizing political figures more deeply. For seasoned performers, with enough practice, a respectable impression can eventually be achieved. The reason the stars of Key & Peele still get asked about Obama is because, ultimately, they tried something different.

Source: The Tonight Show

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Abdullah Al-Ghamdi
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Abdullah Al-Ghamdi joined Screen Rant in August 2019, focusing on movie and television news. In January of the same year, he wrote a 3500+ word piece on why Primo Colón is underrated. He considers it his finest work. When he’s not arguing for the merits of his favorite wrestler, he can be reached at: [email protected].

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