Keegan-Michael Key Returns As ‘Key & Peele’ Substitute Teacher In Paramount+ Ad

ParamountPARA
PARA
+ has booked a 60-second spot during the Thanksgiving Day NFL telecast to air an ad featuring Keegan-Michael Key reprising his role as the substitute teacher, Mr. Garvey. The ad is also available on YouTube.

The character initially appeared in the Comedy Central series Key & Peele. The original sketch featuring Mr. Garvey surrounded the teacher mispronouncing his students’ names and then voicing his frustrations when corrected. The character was popular and revived for multiple sketches. While Key & Peele ended in 2015 after five seasons, episodes are available for streaming on Paramount+ amongst others.

In the new ad, Mr. Garvey appears atop “Paramount Mountain” to mispronounce the names of characters from Paramount/Nickelodeon shows like Big Nate, Blaze and the Monster Machines, Dora the Explorer and Blue’s Clues. NFL player Aaron Donald also appears in the ad.

The ad’s mountainous location is a play on the slogan “news, sports and a mountain of entertainment,” often used by Paramount+’s parent company Paramount Global. The “mountain of content” has been used in ads for the streamer since its rebrand from CBS All Access in early 2021.

The ad will appear during the Buffalo Bills vs. the Detroit Lions game. Last year’s Thanksgiving game brought in 38 million viewers for the Dallas Cowboys and Las Vegas Raiders. Paramount+ streams NFL games and other CBS programming live as well.

Paramount+ has been pushing for end-of-year subscribers. They recently announced Top Gun: Maverick will come to the streamer in December. They also recently added Tulsa King, which the streamer reported drove subscriptions along with NFL football. The service had 46 million global subscribers as of Sept. 30.