Keegan-Michael Key’s Iconic Skit Has Him Apologizing Years Later!

Emmy, Peabody, and Webby Award-winning actor, writer, and producer Keegan-Michael Key has a lot of great projects in the works, including a partnership with Lysol.

Key, known for so many of his iconic roles, sat down with The Blast to discuss what he has in the works, his partnership with "HERE for Healthy Schools," why he apologizes to some fans for a skit that's been around for many years, and more.

Key is passionate about teaching and equally as passionate about keeping kids healthy, so he teamed up with Lysol for this year’s initiative before the start of the new school year.

“This year, what they’re doing is they’re assembling and creating these things called Lysol Minilabs Science Kits. And what they’re doing, what the kids are doing is they’re assembling and creating these things called Lysol Minilabs Science Kits to help children learn through hands-on experience and help them learn about germ education and how to keep their environments in their classroom clean as well as at home,” he told The Blast. 

“And because I’ve been an educator myself, I kind of have a sense of how this works and how important it is to keep kids clean. The interesting thing about hands-on learning is that it’s really helpful for kids. 98 percent of kids feel that when they get to play and do things that are interactive and hands-on, they learn better.”

Key is excited to be a part of the initiative and feels it’s a “worthwhile endeavor” so he’s happy to join forces for the cause. 

Key might be a well-known educator in skits (we’ll tackle that topic in a few) but he’s also a teacher in real life. He taught improvisation, acting, and communication skills at Second City in Chicago and Detroit, Penn State, and a youth theater.

“At Penn State, I taught acting for non-majors. A lot of the students that were at the university there would take kind of an introductory acting class and I got to teach that. And after I finished teaching there, I went back home to my hometown in Detroit, and I worked at a really wonderful youth theater called the ‘Mosaic Youth Theater.’ I used to go into schools with kids and teach them improv and communication skills, and that was really awesome,” he said. 

“It’s very fulfilling, especially to give kids tools that help them communicate, especially in this day and age. I’ve always enjoyed being in the teaching role and being in a place where I can help make these kinds of skills accessible to both kids and young adults.”

Speaking of teaching roles on and off camera...

One of his popular “Key And Peele” skits from many years ago has him still apologizing to people today. When he portrayed substitute teacher, Mr. Garvey, he couldn’t have predicted how the skit would take off and be a hit with multiple generations, as well as still be talked about years later.

“I take every opportunity I can nowadays to apologize to every Aaron I meet, every Jacqueline, every Blake, every Denise, everybody I meet,” he hilariously told The Blast exclusively. “I’m here to personally apologize to you for ruining your life.” 

When that skit took off the way it did, just as many of Key’s others have, his first thought was curiosity about how and why it happened.

“The first thought is usually, I’m very curious about how it happened, especially in this day and age with this landscape of social media. It’s a completely different world even than 10 years ago when our show was on the air,” he told The Blast.

“We used to put the sketches on YouTube. It was mostly for advertising so people knew about the show because the show was coming up still in an era of appointment television watching, or that’s what our thinking was, that you go, oh they’re going to watch it this time on this day. The show became popular because of YouTube videos.” 

When asked if he has a favorite role, he said while it’s tough to pinpoint, Mr. Garvey holds a special place in his heart. 

“It brings me back to the fact that having been a teacher in real life and then having one of your most renowned characters be a teacher is interesting,” he said. “Now that I say that, it makes me think about the fact that when I was on ‘MADtv’ before ‘Key & Peele,’ I played a coach who was a teacher-educator.”

On the topic of television shows and what Key watches in his free time, the Netflix show “Friends From College” joined the chat as a show that some people watch over and over. The show only had two seasons before being canceled, right as the show had a big cliffhanger.

When asked what comfort show Key puts on when he’s not fully paying attention to the TV, he said he’s more of a “moving forward media person.” 

“I’m always kind of looking when I’m on Netflix, I’m always scrolling for what the next show will be,” he said.

“And I’m always the one that looks when I get the email from Netflix going we’ve added a show to your list that we think you might like. Like, that’s what gets my heart pumping. So I’m not really more of a jumping-back person. I’m always kind of moving forward, or I’m the one that goes, I’m two years behind on this show. I need to pick that up and binge that.” 

Key doesn’t sit still for too long with the many upcoming projects he has in the works. In addition to his partnership with Lysol and assisting with getting the Minilabs Science Kits ready for teachers and students, he is also working on multiple projects. 

The book he co-wrote with his wife Elle, “The History of Sketch Comedy” will be released as an audiobook in September, and he’s also got a cool voiceover gig in the works.

“I’m one of the voices in the new ‘Transformers’ movie, entitled ‘Transformers One’ and I’m very happy about that because I get to play Bumblebee, which is one of the more popular,” he said. “I was very honored to be able to do that, and I’m also in a movie with Jack Black that will be coming out this holiday season called ‘Dear Santa.’” 

One thing that Key would love to do in the future is to move back into more dramatic roles.

“I really love action cinema and thriller, and I would really love to work in that space,” he said. “So that’s something that’s always kind of been on my bucket list. It’s those kinds of projects that I’m trying to gravitate toward.”