Duo deconstructs comedic art form
Keegan-Michael Key, half of the famed “Key & Peele” comedy duo, and his wife, Elle Key, a writer, director and producer, have translated their award-winning podcast, “The History of Sketch Comedy,” into a hilarious and informative new book.
“The History of Sketch Comedy: A Journey Through the Art and Craft of Humor” traces the art form from its earliest iterations hundreds of years ago to its current purveyors, including “Saturday Night Live” and “A Black Lady Sketch Show.”
In between, the authors deconstruct some of the medium’s most notable examples. The Keys provide transcripts of some of these classics, such as “The Argument” from the “Monty Python” troupe. As Michael Palin and John Cleese banter back and forth, Keegan-Michael Key interjects every so often. “It’s so stupid,” he writes. “And by stupid I do mean awesome.”
This is where the book is at its best, because it is clear the Keys love and appreciate the science behind a good sketch, which they point out requires the following: “characters, a premise and some sort of comedic escalation or heightening.”
It was a particular treat to read Key’s breakdown of the famed “Substitute Teacher” sketch from
“Key & Peele.” Watching Key’s Mr. Garvey character butcher names is laugh-out-loud funny. So is reading about how he and Jordan Peele made that three minutes of comedy bliss come to life.
“The History of Sketch Comedy” also features essays from comic giants, and in some cases, famous fans — Peele, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Jim Carrey, Stephen Colbert, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ken Jeong, Mike Myers and Gary Oldman, among others.
Readers probably will feel as though they learned something by reading this book. They definitely will laugh throughout the process. — Mike Householder, Associated Press
Martin Baron’s “Collision of Power: Trump,
Bezos and The Washington
Post” is actually a trilogy — an insider’s revealing examination of Jeff Bezos’ stewardship of The Washington Post, a chronicle of how Donald Trump tried mightily to discredit the Post and sink Amazon, and a tense, sometimes thriller tale of how the Post navigated a perilous time in journalism.
In all the tumult, Bezos emerges as determined, disciplined, analytical, focused, strategic in his thinking and remarkably calm as a perpetually angry Trump relentlessly used his presidential pulpit to attack Amazon. Bezos founded Amazon, but it is unconnected to the Post, which Bezos bought with his own funds and, in Baron’s telling, seems to genuinely relish owning.
Baron, executive editor of the Post from
2013 to 2021, clearly has researched extensively and thought deeply about how to cover the unprecedented presidency of
Trump. Baron writes that he “needed to get myself ready for his brand of presidency,” and cites the books he read on authoritarianism and the manipulation of public opinion.
In a case that contained scenes reminiscent of a movie thriller, Post reporters followed a woman they had come to suspect was trying to entrap the Post in a sting operation designed to discredit a Post investigation into Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore.
Ultimately, Baron writes, it was Project Veritas, “infamous for setting up stings to expose what it considers the liberal bias of mainstream media” that Post reporters exposed as the organization behind the effort to discredit the paper.
To any who think the news media march to the same cadences, Baron writes “newsrooms often are a wellsprings of conflict, dissent and grievance.” Often, though, from spirited arguments, great journalism arises.
“Collision” serves as a reminder throughout of how fragile democracy is, and how the social media era has made it easier to commandeer public opinion.