23/10/2025

Jordan Peele

Jordan Peele is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker best known for his horror/thriller movies as well as his work on the hit Comedy Central television series Key and Peele. Jordan is a cultural icon amongst progressive media buffs, and his work is known for “saying what many are thinking.”

 

Mr. Peele has a gift for unraveling intentionally complicated systems of thinking. His understanding of social constructs adjacent to the ones I would personally assume he would confide in is something I find layered and interesting. His hyperbolic and subliminal approach to expressing what he perceives pertaining to adversarial social constructs can make him appear almost haughty to a traditional audience, and his disregard of his own influence is admirable. This same disregard can be received as recklessness or even callous, but I accept it as a form of anti-culture. His persona reads as very punk to me. It makes me wonder if he understands the level of processing that goes into the ideas that he presents, or whether his thought patterns run on automatic cognition. When I follow his ideas, I get the impression that his art expresses itself before he does, as if he has trained his psyche on implicit expression from a young age.

 

His works, like his feature film Get Out and the American sketch comedy television series Key and Peele, denote themes of anguish towards the spirit of the times he lives in. It is clear he expects more from humanity. Most of his works criticise social atmosphere, holistically speaking. On the surface, the art he produces gives an impression of discontent, but under the cynicism, to me lies a treasure of wounded sincerity, like he’s actually writing love letters to his adversaries. Especially in his show Key and Peele, Jordan further convinces me that he has a stormbound heart by his unwitting determination to break bad news with humour. Those that are not privy to the inside jokes and cultural climate have no choice but to interpret his narratives as a proverbial “slap in the mouth,” forcing the viewer to either settle into denial about the social situations Jordan presents and translates to them or agree. His art is beautifully polarising in a way that reveals indifference as an impossible refuge. His ability to shoot down bigotry with laser precision is so intense that it makes me wonder if he believes in his enemies more than himself at times.

 

When I watch his mannerisms in interviews, such as his appearance on SNL in October last year, I couldn’t help but remark that he appears to adamantly refuse the metaphysical role of “aggressor” in social situations, which can make him awkward to manipulate. He has a way of playing along with the mouthpiece and their sharp games that I find both striking and dubious. I can’t tell if his obliviousness to his own intellectual dominance is intentional. The way he speaks to the wise through the dumb is otherworldly, and I can’t help but draw parallels between his satirical articulations and current meme culture. It gives me a sense of intellectual sadism. The humour stays dry despite the veneer of softness and charm.

 

To me, as an observer, Jordan’s art represents an innate understanding that only the bold are willing to express. He creates from the vantage point of someone painfully awake in a dazed society. His art is somewhere the living can seek refuge in this world addicted to delusion.

Written By:

Mawuli Charles

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