# Jordan Peeles Obama Meet Greet

Jordan Peele's Obama Meet & Greet is a video object labeling meme pulled from a 2014 Key & Peele sketch, where Peele's Barack Obama impression greets white supporters with cold handshakes and black supporters with warm hugs. It went viral on Twitter in September 2018 as a way to rank Marvel movies, NBA players, and albums, and later found a second life on TikTok in 2022.

## Overview
Jordan Peele's Obama Meet & Greet is a video object labeling meme built from a 2014 Key & Peele sketch where Peele's Barack Obama impression works a rope line, giving white supporters brief handshakes and pulling black supporters into hugs and easy conversation[1]. When the clip resurfaced on Twitter in September 2018, users started overlaying labels so that Peele's Obama stood in for themselves and the other figures in the crowd got swapped for items from a category, with the handshake marking the picks they disliked and the hug marking the ones they loved[2].

The gag works because Peele's warmth escalates in visible stages. He turns down a white woman's attempted hug with a stiff handshake, gets hung up on Keegan-Michael Key until a staffer confirms Key is 'one-eighth black,' and then walks off ignoring a white man's outstretched hand entirely[2]. That built-in ranking scale, from full ignore to bear hug, is what let posters map their own hierarchies onto the sketch without changing a single frame of the video[3].

## How It Spread
Within a week of the Marvel edit, the format jumped across Twitter's fandom accounts. Sports writer @KofieYeboah adapted it to the upcoming NBA season on September 26, 2018 with a version that hugged Trae Young and refused the Los Angeles Clippers, pulling more than 29,000 retweets and 79,000 likes[4]. WWE fan @HennyOmega used the same template to rank pro wrestlers, Italian club account @ASRomaEN pushed a soccer version past 17,000 retweets, and a Harry Styles song ranking from @harryoddity picked up traction on pop music Twitter[2].

Mainstream outlets covered the trend at its peak. Highsnobiety published a roundup of the best entries in late September 2018[3], Mashable framed the format as a way to settle divisive fandom debates over Marvel ships, Jay-Z versus Kanye albums, and Avatar: The Last Airbender characters[2], and Complex ran a piece tracing the sketch's second life on the platform[5]. Digital Synopsis later spotlighted a designer-oriented version made by Gombo Digital that swapped the crowd for graphic design programs like Photoshop and Illustrator[6].

The template moved to TikTok in November 2020 and picked up a fresh wave in September 2022 through gaming and anime edits. User @maxmathias626 posted a 'how I greet my favorite games' version on September 5, 2022 that hit 1.9 million views and 243,000 likes within three weeks, and @jedroni followed on September 8, 2022 with a One Piece edit starring Monkey D. Luffy that reached 3 million views and 483,000 likes over the same window[4].

## How to Use
The template is a video object labeling meme with a fixed structure. Posters typically overlay text so that Peele's Obama is tagged 'Me' or a personal stand-in, and each figure he interacts with gets swapped for an item from a chosen category such as Marvel films, rappers, video games, or anime characters[2]. Hugs, the baby-cradling beat, and the 'bring it in, bring it in' group embrace are usually assigned to the poster's favorites, while the firm handshakes and the openly ignored final man mark the entries the poster wants to publicly rank low[5]. The Keegan-Michael Key cameo often functions as the borderline pick that only barely earns approval after the 'one-eighth black' beat[2].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Jordan Peeles Obama Meet Greet?
It is a video object labeling meme pulled from a 2014 Key & Peele sketch in which Peele's Obama gives white supporters cold handshakes and black supporters warm hugs, used as a scale for ranking things[1].

### Where did Jordan Peeles Obama Meet Greet come from?
The source sketch aired September 24, 2014 as the Season 4 premiere of Comedy Central's Key & Peele under the title 'Obama Meet & Greet'[4].

### What does Jordan Peeles Obama Meet Greet mean?
It uses the sketch's escalating warmth, from ignoring someone to hugging them, as a public ranking of favorites and least favorites in any given category[3].

### How do you use Jordan Peeles Obama Meet Greet?
Label Peele's Obama as 'Me' and swap each figure in the crowd for items from a category, giving hugs to favorites and handshakes or ignores to the ones you dislike[2].

### Is Jordan Peeles Obama Meet Greet still popular?
After going viral in September 2018 on Twitter, the format pulled a second wave on TikTok in September 2022 through gaming and anime edits, with individual videos passing 3 million views[4].

### Who made the first viral version of Jordan Peeles Obama Meet Greet?
Twitter user @matte_black posted the Marvel Cinematic Universe edit on September 22, 2018, which pulled over 150,000 retweets and 390,000 likes[5].

### How long did the original Marvel edit take to make?
The creator said the viral MCU version only took about 20 minutes to put together[1].

### Did Jordan Peele react to the meme?
Yes. Peele quote-tweeted a version that used the sketch to rank self-care and mental health habits, writing that he could 'appreciate an honest and vulnerable meme'[1].

### Did the real Barack Obama ever recreate the sketch?
Video of Obama greeting a Team USA men's basketball roster later drew side-by-side comparisons to the sketch, with Complex noting he appeared to use a similar dap-or-handshake gradient in real life[7].

### What episode of Key & Peele is the sketch from?
It aired September 24, 2014 as part of Season 4, Episode 1 of the Comedy Central series[4].

### What are some notable derivative versions?
Notable spinoffs include the NBA edit from @KofieYeboah[4], a graphic design software version by Gombo Digital[6], and a Harry Styles song ranking from @harryoddity[2].

## References
1. [https://www.okayplayer.com/originals/the-story-behind-key-peele-handshake-meme.html](<https://www.okayplayer.com/originals/the-story-behind-key-peele-handshake-meme.html>)
2. [https://mashable.com/article/key-and-peele-obama-meet-and-greet-sketch-meme](<https://mashable.com/article/key-and-peele-obama-meet-and-greet-sketch-meme>)
3. [https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/key-and-peele-obama-meme/](<https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/key-and-peele-obama-meme/>)
4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/jordan-peeles-obama-meet-greet](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/jordan-peeles-obama-meet-greet>)
5. [https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2018/09/old-key-and-peele-skit-resurfaced-and-became-meme/key-and-peele-obama-meme-02](<https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2018/09/old-key-and-peele-skit-resurfaced-and-became-meme/key-and-peele-obama-meme-02>)
6. [https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/obama-meets-and-greets-graphic-design-software/](<https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/obama-meets-and-greets-graphic-design-software/>)
7. [https://www.complex.com/life/a/tracewilliamcowen/obama-key-peele-team-usa](<https://www.complex.com/life/a/tracewilliamcowen/obama-key-peele-team-usa>)
8. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nopWOC4SRm4](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nopWOC4SRm4>)

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