Sunday, November 22, 2015

Key and Peele Show Truth in Teachers

The popular comedy show Key and Peele never ceases to entertain its audience. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele create hilarious sketches that, while funny, also reveal some rather depressing truths about American culture. One such sketch is called TeachingCenter. The short video shows two men talking heatedly about teachers and their salaries, similar to the popular TV show SportsCenter. The men go on to describe how certain teachers are "first-round picks", and even analyze a "game changing" play that a teacher makes.


The satire is a parody of popular sports review shows like SportsCenter. By using "footage" of the annual "teacher draft", the sketch mocks the amount of attention given to sports, while simultaneously pointing out the fact that teachers are not given enough recognition for their work. The video even uses a parody of a car commercial (with a teacher in place of an athlete), to draw attention to the huge imbalance of attention given to sports and teachers.

The satire also uses hyperbole within the parody. It is a widely known fact that most teachers get paid very little; in the video, however, the teachers are paid millions of dollars. At one point, the announcers describe a teacher who was very successful despite being raised by a father who "lived paycheck to paycheck on a pro-footballer salary". This overstatement of reality again emphasizes the fact that teachers are rarely justly rewarded for their hard work and dedication. The satire is trying to get people to realize the amount of commitment and devotion that it takes to be a good teacher.
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 22, 2015 at 9:33 PM

    I think you used a lot of great evidence to support your argument. You explained the elements of a satire in piece of work very well. Good job!

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  2. AnonymousNovember 22, 2015 at 9:59 PM

    I really like this video by Key and Peele because it finally gives hard working teachers the recognition they deserve. I think people often fail to think about all the glory professional athletes get compared to other citizens that work very hard to make an impact in our world. Great post!

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  3. AnonymousNovember 23, 2015 at 9:45 AM

    I think you did a great job at analyzing how in the video the roles of teachers and sports stars were switch. I liked the way you broke down the argument into 2 distinct points at the end. 1. It takes a lot of work to be a good teacher. And 2. Teachers are not appreciated enough for teaching us valuable life skills.

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  4. AnonymousNovember 23, 2015 at 2:10 PM

    Key and Peele is a great source of satire and I really like the one you picked. I also liked the structure of your argument. I felt like the structure was perfect for the point you were making.

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