Watching “Key & Peele” Hurts Dave Chappelle’s Feelings

When I watch the Comedy Central show Key & Peele, I laugh. Sometimes I squint and think “Okay, I guess Jordan Peele looks like Adam DeVine.” But when Dave Chappelle watches Key & Peele, he gets sad. Sorry, A-A-Ron, but you done messed up again.

When Dave Chappelle made the decision to leave his insanely popular sketch show Chappelle’s Show after two seasons in 2005, Comedy Central reportedly offered him $50 million for a third season. Dave turned their offer down in favor of going to South Africa with his family. While promoting his three-part Netflix comedy special during an interview with Gayle King for CBS This Morning, Dave spoke again about quitting Chappelle’s Show.

Dave has said in the past that one of the reasons why he left was because he was overworking himself. He elaborated a little further to Gayle. According to Dave, half of his job was fighting with the decision makers at Comedy Central for control of his show. Dave tells Gayle that one of his main complaints was that there were certain “conventions” of the show that Comedy Central resisted. Dave says that he doesn’t hate Key & Peele (in fact, he claims to be a fan), but watching it is a huge bummer.

“I fought the network very hard so that those conventions could come to fruition. So, like the first episode I do, that black white supremacist sketch. And it’s like, ‘Well, that’s 10 minutes long. It should be five minutes long.’ Why should it be five minutes long? Like, these types of conventions. I fought very hard. So when I watch Key & Peele and I see they’re doing a format that I created, and at the end of the show, it says, ‘Created by Key & Peele,’ that hurts my feelings.”

This isn’t the first time Dave has sort of come for Key & Peele. During the Roots Picnic Festival last October, Dave cracked a joke that Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele have been doing his show for the past five years.

I get that there is a bee in Dave’s bonnet that snuck in there from Comedy Central’s hive, but I don’t know if he should focus that much energy on it. If he’s going to get sad about anyone sort-of ripping off his format, it should be Jimmy Fallon. An always-grinning dude getting paid millions of dollars to do sketches and dance along while The Roots perform? Dave, call your lawyer!

Pic: Splash