Keegan-Michael Key Quotes

My father has passed away. He was African-American. My mother is white. So I was adopted by a couple that was of a similar dynamic as my biological parents.

There Is Nothing More Dangerous On Planet Earth Than A Black Wife

Surprise is not humor. I think that there can be a fine line there.

Being a melting pot is what I think is great about being American, and also that we get to do something that other people don't get to do, we get to be a hyphenate. That's a good thing.

[Adoption] could turn you into an exquisite comedian. Ask Richard Pryor's ghost.

You can not have comedy unless people are behaving badly. You can't have it.

You hold precious what you create for yourself in your life that makes you comfortable.

It was very important thousands of years ago to categorize things. I can eat that plant, I can't eat that plant. Or this tribe, not that tribe. We don't have to do that anymore - we have processed food now!

I'm racist against non-black people.

Like every human we have to categorize ourselves, so you kind of start to build a mythos 'cause I had no information about [ biological mother]. So you have to build a mythos around yourself. And so my mythos included me not being wanted or me being a wretched person, which is just great fertilizer for comedy.

For me, as a child, I certainly thought that there were more black people in the world than white people.

I want people to say, "Oh my God, I'm laughing out loud at television."

There's a thing called the 'One Drop' theory in African-American culture, which is if you have one drop of black blood in you, you're black.

I'm tall and thin but not strong, so you're either an athlete or you're funny.

The audience loves to figure things out. They love it when a performer leaves a trail of bread crumbs for them, and they get to participate in the comedy.

We[with Jordan Peele] wanted to do something with [Barack] Obama because we actually felt that Obama was kind of responsible for us even getting a show in the first place because there's this biracial person who might, you know, have to ride the divide between two different races.

Everybody puts on airs, regardless of race.

When you're a child, the most important thing is to be able to live a life of comfort. You want to be sure that the moon goes up at night and the sun comes up in the morning and dad comes home from work.

If you look at any successful skit comedy show, ever, there is that format of introducing you to the player in the beginning, and then going on to see those sketches.