When Key and Peel Made us Laugh - and Really Think

Substitute Teacher

Key and Peel might be this generation's most iconic satirists, with over 160 million views on one sketch, “Substitute Teacher.” This particular sketch is funny because it unearths a universal truth about the cultural divides and a willingness to adapt or not adapt, in the case of substitute teacher it is not adapting. With each side, black teacher versus white students digging into their own culture, the way they speak and act but not giving an inch to the other's perspective.

The sketch starts with the introduction of the “substitute teacher” who vocalises his credibility through years of experience, unfortunately, the substitute teacher cannot get past roll call because of a unique cultural approach to language and names.

It begins with an initial mispronunciation of a traditional Caucasian name, Jacqueline. The substitute teacher asked for Jay-quellin and doesn’t get a response. After multiple calls for “Jay-quellin” to an unresponsive room, the substitute, Mr Garvey, is corrected by the young white blonde girl that her name is pronounced Jacqueline, with more common name mispronunciations, Mr Garvey continues to get angrier with each correction he receives. His satirical technique being an overstatement: breaking a clipboard over his knee, cussing and threatening students. More so, overstating and exaggerating each name. The fact that Key's character messes around with such common white names is what makes his satire effective.

With each name mispronunciation, the students refuse to give into Mr Garvey’s way of pronunciation. By the fourth student’s name Garvey butchers, one would assume that the students would understand the substitutes way of pronunciation and just say “here”. But, each party is unwilling to help the other.  He begins to send a student to the principal's office when the students correct the way he says the principal's name and he reaches his tipping point by screaming to the student Blake or Ba-lak-e, “get out of my goddamn classroom before I break my foot off in your ass,”. The clip uses an element of satire, hyperbole, to exaggerate the substitute's aggressive response of when the student corrects him.

Finally, the sketch ends with Mr Garvey asking for, “Tym-oh-thee”, one would think there would be another correction for Timothee, but the only black student showed just responds with, “present” giving a major sigh of relief to the subsite that someone - finally - understood him.

The skit performed by Key and Peel is not making fun of substitute teachers and their common mispronunciation of students’ names but it unearths a universal truth about the cultural divides and a willingness to adapt or not adapt. In the case of the white students, it is not adapting. With each name, they refused to think of the teacher and the way he would pronounce the names, and would rather fight and correct him rather than adapt. The substitute also didn’t have the willingness to adapt, by denying the students the right to their name, if they were to correct his pronunciation he would correct them back and question their credibility to their own name. This element of the sketch suggests the difference between the 'standard English' and 'black English' dialect. The language is similar, but the way the language is said varies. This exaggerated distinction in the clip represents how dialect should not matter when discussing/referencing superiority over another race. Additionally, the way the names are said may be different (but are not incorrect) for different people due to one's cultural background.

Before learning about satire, I thought the sketch was funny because having substitute teachers growing up, they would mispronounce everyone's name, but the reality is, this sketch took it to another level. It was about a cultural divide and the people's unwillingness to bridge the divide. Their willingness to stick to their guns rather than accommodate others was shown with dramatic irony and demonstrates how ridiculous people may seem when they become too obsessed with the many versions (dialects) there are to express words. Additionally, how absurd that the little differences may be the ultimate concerns that divide us among different races.