Key and Peele: Super Bowl Special

January 31, 2015 5:43 AM - Season 4, Episode 12

Bertram Skilling (Key) and Dante Pibb (Peele) host the CCN Super Bowl Special, featuring Enos the football robot, Richard Sherman and Marshawn Lynch's very different takes on interviewing, a Craig Robinson halftime show, and Alison Janney starring in everything else on the CCN family of networks... and the world.
posted by Etrigan (6 comments total)

I absolutely adored this episode, and would have a hard time not ranking it as the show's best. There were some one-note bits that didn't work that well (e.g. the tiny field), but those were generally kept very short and to the point. Meanwhile, the Allison Janney / Enos thing was simply perfect. They phased it in slowly, first with a silent interstitial ad, then with increasingly more annoying ones involving Skilling and Pibb banter, and finally with the "rise of the robots" thing. It reminded me in a way of the pacing of the "Too Many Cooks" video -- starts out straight, then slowly builds up the tension, then descends into total ridiculousness.

It's funny, because I really didn't care for much of season 4 as compared to previous seasons, but this special was outstanding.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:09 PM on January 31, 2015

Haven't seen it yet, but are they allowed to use the words "Super Bowl"? The NFL has rules, and the alternatives...
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:50 PM on January 31, 2015

They used real NFL logos and everything on the helmets and uniforms in various sketches, so I'm guessing they cleared it with the NFL with some money changing hands.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:51 PM on January 31, 2015

Haven't seen it yet, but are they allowed to use the words "Super Bowl"?

Comedy Central is owned by Viacom which is owned by Sumner Redstone who owns CBS so the NFL won't piss him off if they don't absolutely have to. Plus it's parody.
posted by Etrigan at 1:56 PM on January 31, 2015

I thought of "Too Many Cooks" also tonycpsu. It feels to me that more cable networks are, perhaps unconsciously, turning toward absurdism in a bid to be noticed amid the constantly increasing competition for viewers.
posted by zachlipton at 6:12 PM on January 31, 2015

According to Ars Technica, nobody actually needs permission to say "Super Bowl" when they're talking about the Super Bowl.

And since they're doing a pretty specific parody of the NFL and their broadcasting style, I imagine they have more legal room for using logos and names. SNL had Patriots logos all over their deflategate skit last week for the same reason.

Biscuits and gravy.
posted by Uncle Ira at 1:13 PM on February 1, 2015