All Football Names In Key & Peele’s “East/West College Bowl” Sketch

The Key & Peele classic “East/West Bowl” sketch is memorably hilarious for its outlandish football names and the incredible introduction graphics that introduce them to their viewers. Key & Peele is a sketch show that paired Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, with the duo proving perfect comic partners. The series debuted in 2012 and ran for five seasons wherein each episode could be relied upon to deliver at least one fantastic sketch. Skits could range from goofy movie or TV parodies to searing political commentary, and the show always gave the titular comics a chance to show off their comedic range.

Jordan Peele has emerged as one of the most exciting filmmakers of his generation, especially with his Oscar-winning horror movie Get Out. Meanwhile, Keegan-Michael Key has remained busy with roles in movies like The Bubble and shows like Reboot in recent years. However, their work together on Key & Peele remains a highlight of both of their careers. Any fan of Key & Peele will have their favorite sketches from the show, and some classics include “Ray Parker Jr. Theme Songs,” “Continental Breakfast,” “Aerobics Meltdown” and “Text Message Confusion.” However, “East/West Bowl” remains their crowning achievement during the show’s run.

East/West Bowl 1

The Key & Peele football names sketch, known as “East/West Bowl,” takes a setup most football fans will be familiar with as the two opposing teams introduce their roster before the game. However, as the names of college football players are read out, they become gradually more outlandish and absurd. This became one of the first viral hits for Key & Peele, and it also gave Key and Peele yet another chance to show off a dizzying array of characters — and wigs — in a very short space of time. Here’s a list of every name mentioned in the Key & Peele sketch:

“East/West College Bowl” starts with a simple comic premise and just keeps escalating from there, making it one of Key & Peele‘s best sketches. Names like Xmus Jaxon Flaxon-Waxon or Hingle McCringleberry are great comic monikers, but by the time it gets to X-Wing @Aliciousness or (The Player Formerly Known As Mousecop), the sketch just gets transcendent. The comic capper of Dan Smith is just icing on the cake and a perfect final laugh.

East/West Bowl 2

The Key & Peele football names sketch proved to be one of their most popular as shown by the fact that they brought it back for a follow-up. Wisely, the sketch avoids tampering with the proven formula of the original and simply operates as an excuse to deliver even more ridiculous names, similar to Key & Peele‘s substitute teacher sketches.

Even with the simplicity of the sketch, it’s as funny as ever with Key & Peele‘s pitch-perfect delivery as well as the straight-faced manner the football commentators accept these increasingly improbable names. While the original sketch eases viewers into the concept with some warm-up names, the sequel just dives in.

The sequel sketch leans even more into the absurd with the inclusion of actor Benedict Cumberbatch’s name without any changes being a particularly funny addition. Of course, it is hard to ignore someone whose entire name is simply “Fudge” (with no school name) while the cryptic Firstname Lastname is made even funnier by the suggestion that he attended “College University.” It all makes for a hilarious follow-up that proves the concept has not gotten old and remains a high point of Key & Peele.

Key & Peele offers everything from social commentary to pop culture and movie humor to sports sketches. The East/West sketch with the bizarre names isn’t the only time the comedy duo has skewered football. There was even a third East/West sketch in which Key and Peele were joined by real NFL stars who made fun of their real names as well, including Prince Amukamara, Fozzy Whittaker, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, and D’Brickashawn Ferguson. The best was Aaron Rodgers, who called himself “A.A. Ron Rodgers.”

In season 3, Key and Peele also brought back a player from the first East/West sketch in Hingle McCringleberry and gave him his own spotlight in “McCringleberry’s Excessive Celebration,” which sees him shaking his pelvis after big plays. After the referee signals for a penalty, the sketch just gets more ridiculous from there, with the referee kneeling down next to him and looking closely at his crotch to determine if it shakes at all for another taunting penalty. It is a great look at the silly penalties and celebrations in football.

In season 4, the title of the fifth episode is “Quarterback Concussion,” and Key & Peele offers up a quarterback who has suffered a concussion trying to motivate his team, even though he is confused and his brain is not operating right. He isn’t even sure if they are playing football, and he thinks his helmet is an apple pie. When the trainer comes out to tell him he needs medical attention, it is an animated squirrel, and it becomes the show’s best football sketch as a social commentary on brain injuries in the sport.

Release Date

January 31, 2012

Showrunner

Keegan-Michael Key

Directors

Peter Atencio

Writers

Keegan-Michael Key