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Saturday Night Live: Charles Barkley's Five Worst Sketches

So, this episode of Saturday Night Live wasn't very good at all, a fact that revealed itself about three seconds into Charles Barkley's unintelligible monologue. I mean no disrespect to Barkley: the guy is extremely -- I'd almost say objectively -- endearing and it seemed like he was trying his best to apply his limited acting chops on each sketch handed to him. Given that this season of SNL has been uneven, an episode hosted by a person who can't carry a scene was just asking for trouble -- after all, there's only so many skits in which you can juxtapose Barkley with pint-sized Paul Brittain. Though, I've got to say, I think I've turned into a Cecil lover. Get that man some sweets!

Anyway, in case there's any question, here are the absolute worst sketches of the night.

"The NBA on TNT"
To be clear, I basically know nothing about basketball other than the rules of the game, the fact that the NBC recently had a lockout and that the Chicago Bulls were really good in the '90s, so any and all references to the current state of the game were completely lost on me. I don't think I missed much in that regard, though, as this sketch's main purpose was to let Barkley make fun of his buddy (or rival? You tell me!) Shaquille O'Neal. Maybe I just, uh, had to be there.

"White People Problems"
Vaguley racist, mostly just unfunny. It probably doesn't help that I'm not a huge fan of Jay Pharoah nor Kenan Thompson, and they were given lots of scenes in the episode.

"Joann's Announcement"
A lovely complement to "White People Problems;" this one was just awful in every way.

"Digital Short: Convoluted Jerry"
I'm not sure why this short ended as abruptly as it did and why there were so few jokes it in, but I'm going to go ahead and assume it's because the concept was barely thought out before it went to air. It's a shame, too, because the premise seemed like it could have gone somewhere, and Jerry singing about the ghetto made me chuckle for a hot second.

"New Mayan Calendar"
You gotta figure that even the writers thought this one was bad when, at the end of the sketch, the calendar started talking. Relatively speaking, this one wasn't a complete failure, which serves to show you how awful the rest of the night was.

Bright Spot of the Night: "Adult Video Awards in Memoriam"
One of the darkest sketches we've seen on SNL in a while, this Oscar-esque tribute to all of the fine folks who we lost in the porn industry this year was pretty great. I only wish Kelly Clarkson played Jewel and sang a depressing folk-y tune behind the slides.

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13 Comments

January 9, 2012 11:15 AM
Stan
Reply

You should at least understand the sketch before calling it terrible. The TNT one wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible. Even if the whole thing sucked, the final quote was the best

"We're all black friends"

January 9, 2012 11:31 AM
mandy
Reply

While I agree that Barkley is unfunny, because he can't deliver jokes due to his mumbling problem, the writing was actually very good last night.
Also, "white people problems" is what you think is racist? With all the jokes about black people on SNL? Come on, it was kind of true and really funny. Learn to take a joke. Be critical all you want, but don't go all white privilege on SNL, it's ridiculous.

January 9, 2012 11:56 AM
erika
Reply
replied to comment from mandy

i thought white people problems was racist against black people being lazy and not doing their jobs..

January 9, 2012 12:01 PM
Danielle
Reply

I love that the writer thought that white people problems was racist yet she states she is not a fan of the only 2 black people on the show...smh.

January 9, 2012 12:50 PM
S
Reply

I agree with Danielle. Kenan is SUPERB at pretty much every character (no matter how awful) they throw at him, and Jay has shown some excellent impressions so far, and done some pretty great WU bits. May I ask who you are a fan of on this show if these two are not up to your standards? Fred Armisen, for example, is a talented guy who seems to spend half of his EXTENDED air time doing sketches where he has no lines and pretends not to know what he's doing. Can someone tell me what's funny about that?

January 9, 2012 1:47 PM
Will
Reply

I don't watch basketball at all but that TNT NBA skit had me rolling on the floor. Absolutely great!

January 9, 2012 2:22 PM
jbj
Reply

The hot mess of the NBA on TNT sketch is actually much funnier if you've actually seen the show. I don't normally watch it, but after really enjoying Barkley's second hosting gig, I started catching it every once and awhile with my Dad. They really are pretty ill-behaved commentators and it is funny. Barkley is stiff, awkward and mumbly, but I feel like they do write the sketches to take advantage of his comedic timing so I still find him very amusing. It's not like he's The Rock or anything, but at least he's no Michael Phelps!

January 9, 2012 2:28 PM
Kris
Reply

White People Problems had me rolling on the floor, especially considering the "white girl problem" meme that's going around right now. This outing was 1000x better than the last time he was on. The Barkley App was pretty good, Drunk Uncle during Update was hilarious. I love the Little Lord & the AVN In Memeoriam was awesome. It was actually a pretty decent episode.

January 9, 2012 6:20 PM
Aurora
Reply
replied to comment from Danielle

totally agreed. you don't like the two black actors and thought THAT was racist. smh.

January 9, 2012 6:44 PM
babs
Reply

I liked the "app" for translating post-game commentary. I thought that was quite good.

January 9, 2012 9:28 PM
Jason/Lantern7
Reply

Trrble, trrble review . . . or maybe I'm an easy mark. I will say that I do adhere to Kim's analysis of drag humor: a guy in woman's clothing does NOT automatically equal comedy.

January 20, 2012 9:32 AM
Dany
Reply

Posts like this brighten up my day. Thanks for tkinag the time.

January 22, 2012 11:25 PM
Dan
Reply

What is up with all these armatures on the internet saying it was "The wors SNL". Yeah right. I've seen by far worse SNL episodes. I like Charley Day, but his was one of the worst I've seen in a while. This one was hilarious. I personally thought the porn skit was cheap humor. The Little Lord skit had me cracking up, especially when Charles held him. If you didn't get the Muggsy Bogues joke, changes are you probably barely know who Charles is anyways.

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