Cory Booker is having a moment. Which invariably means so is Keegan-Michael Key.
With Booker’s 25-hour Senate speech grabbing headlines this week, Key’s name keeps coming up—whether it’s on Fox News, where Gutfeld! panelist Kennedy said of watching Booker’s speech, “I thought it was Keegan-Michael Key… I was like, ‘do the fake football player names,'” or on social media, where viewers are fancasting Key to play Booker on this weekend’s inevitable SNL send-up.
While it remains to seen whether Key ends up on Saturday Night Live, we learned Thursday that he’s scheduled to make a “special appearance” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday. Though the show has yet to reveal what it has planned with Key, it usually bills guests participating in comedy bits as special appearances.
Even more tantalizing: Colbert’s guest that same night is none other than the real Cory Booker. Does this mean we might get two Cory Bookers? Or perhaps one playing the other’s anger translator (it wouldn’t be the first time)? Time will tell, but we do know that Key has been cooking up a Booker impression for some time, workshopping it as far back as a 2016 interview with Larry King.
Booker’s record-breaking speech this week and the press coverage surrounding it have suddenly made him one of the most visible faces of Democratic opposition to Trump, making him a great get for Colbert regardless of whether or not he participates in a comedy bit with Key.
No stranger to late night, Booker has guested on all of the major shows over the years, appearing a dozen times with Colbert on The Colbert Report and The Late Show. Key has also been a frequent guest with Colbert, logging eight Late Show appearances since 2016.
Key and Booker are both set to appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Monday April 7th, 2025.
