SPOILER ALERT
Key and Peele hate spoilers, especially spoilers about things they already know.
Nothing is worse than having the newest episode of your favorite show spoiled. We’ve all experienced a time where we have to plug our ears and hum to avoid hearing a spoiler. Key and Peele, in their sketch “Spoiler Alert,” couldn’t agree more, but it’s more than just TV spoilers that anger them. To the characters, anything from the new Russel Crowe movie to how the casserole that they are eating tastes is too much of a spoiler to be discussed at their dinner party.
The sketch opens by having Michael Key and Jordan Peele, accompanied by their wives (played by Danielle Nicolet and Regina Hall), having dinner together. Key beings to ask the table what they thought of the Game of Throne’s season finale, but Peele quickly interrupts, claiming he has not finished the books yet.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I’m reading the books!”
The group quickly gets over the topic and Nicolet begins to ask if anyone in the group has seen the new Russel Crowe thriller.
The group seemingly begins to wonder, “what can we talk about that won’t be a spoiler?” You can feel the awkwardness they emit as they look at each other in silence. Key then tries to comment on how he thinks the green bean casserole tastes, when his wife interrupts him with, “Scooby-Doo-bop-bop-bop-bop-bop! Bop! I’m so sorry, babe. It’s just that I hadn’t tasted it yet and I was really looking forward to it.”
“Yeah, it’s a surprise for your mouth.” (Peele)
Psychologist Nicholas Christenfeld at the University of California, San Diego, performed experiments where he dug into if spoilers could actually be beneficial for enjoyment. He had two groups each read stories, one of the groups having the stories spoiled and the other group with no spoilers. When each group rated the stories after reading them, almost everyone in the spoiled group liked the stories more than those in the non-spoiled group. This goes to show that knowing the ending of a movie or show heightens the experience. Of course, there will still be a lack of surprise, but, to Christenfeld, the overall experience is greater than one instance of surprise.
Christenfeld furthers this observation by relating it to when driving down a scenic highway for the first time, you will be too focused on the unfamiliar road and directions to pay attention to the details of the beauty around the highway. But when you are familiar with a highway and drive it constantly, you can look for and appreciate the small details you would otherwise not see.
This is also seen in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, where the first lines of the play spoil the entire ending. This clearly doesn’t stop people from appreciating the work and its many themes considering the play is one of the most famous works in history. Instead of waiting for a plot twist and being surprised when both characters take their lives, the audience can rather enjoy the relationships of the characters and the dynamics of the two families.
“Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life”from the Romeo and Juliet prologue
Key and Peele continue to take the idea of spoiler alerts further and further throughout the sketch, developing the idea past traditional spoiler alerts regarding writing and film. The characters don’t want anything in life spoiled, not even tomorrow’s weather.
Christenfeld’s study on how spoiler alerts can enhance an experience with something new, apply to most of the conversations in this sketch. But as the comedians take the idea of spoiler alert further away from its use in real life, the study doesn’t become distant. Even the “green bean casserole” talk relates to how spoilers can change an experience.
When we go to a restaurant we’ve heard good reviews of, we expect the food to taste delicious, and therefore would be more likely to judge our meal as so. But if we were to go to the same restaurant only hearing that it was subpar, we would have expectations of unappetizing food and most likely thing the same meal is bad. When Nicolet’s character doesn’t want to know how her friends think the casserole tastes before she tries it, she doesn’t want to have the experience ruined for her; she wants to make her own judgment. But would she have had a better experience if she were told it tasted good prior to trying it?
The sketch beings to gain speed as the characters have seemingly run out of things to say that won’t spoil something for one of them. They each try to start talking but cut themselves off when they realize it’s not worth it. They all stare at each other in silence, looking around the backyard to take their gazes away from the lack of conversation.
When the awkwardness becomes unbearable, Peele mumbles to himself, “Cheesecake. We’ve got cheesecake?” This seems to spike the group’s interest and they begin to laugh a start normal dinner talk again. How could cheesecake spoil anything?
After mentioning his cholesterol concerns, this is when Key jokes, “No, I’d love some cheesecake. I mean, I’ve been watching my cholesterol intake, but what the hell, right? We’re all gonna die someday anyway.” The other characters react with an outburst of dissatisfaction and disgust, claiming Key “always has to ruin it!” How could Key dare spoil their dessert? Everyone storms away from the table groaning and bickering at Key, leaving him alone at the table shouting the line:
“Now how would you not know that that is taking place?”
Sources
C. (2015, July 17). Key & Peele — Spoiler Alert. Retrieved March 06, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDEuS5wIk5Q&t=29s
Ouellette, J. (2016, May 25). Stop Worrying About Spoilers — They Actually Help You Enjoy the Story More. Retrieved March 06, 2018, from https://gizmodo.com/stop-worrying-about-spoilers-they-actually-help-you-en-1778452171
Rosenbaum, J. E., & Johnson, B. K. (in press). Who’s afraid of spoilers: Need for cognition, need for affect, and narrative selection and enjoyment. Psychology of Popular Media Culture. doi: 10.1037/ppm0000076
