You might not always agree with Charles Barkley’s opinions on the NBA. You might think he doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about when he breaks down game film. You might even wonder if Barkley is even paying attention to what’s going on in the league on some nights when you watch him talk on Inside the NBA. But we dare you to try and sit through an entire night of NBA action on TNT without laughing.
It’s just about impossible to do.
While Inside the NBA has changed a lot over the course of 20 years, there’s one thing that has remained a constant: Barkley and his one-of-a-kind sense of humor. Even on the nights when the NBA games aren’t that good, Barkley still manages to bring his A-game and entertain those watching at home. In fact, you could argue that the nights featuring bad games are actually the best nights to watch Inside the NBA, as Barkley always seem to say or do something funny that makes the night worthwhile for everyone tuning in to the show.
On Saturday night, Barkley is going to try and bring the laughs to a different show. For the fourth time in his career, the Round Mound of Rebound will serve as the host of Saturday Night Live along with musical guest Migos. And while hosting Saturday Night Live is obviously a much different animal than cracking jokes with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal, we’d expect Barkley to be every bit as engaging as he always is on SNL. To prep you for his appearance, let’s take a look back at some of Barkley’s all-time funniest moments on Inside the NBA.
20. "Wait, They Got a Police Presence?"
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Date: January 2018
Earlier this season, the Rockets and Clippers were involved in an altercation in the Clippers’ locker room after a game. The entire internet had a blast with it, but no one found it funnier than Shaq and Barkley, who spent several minutes cracking up live on the air.
19. "Jonas Valsuinawasauce"
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Date: February 2014
It’s not exactly easy to say Jonas Valančiūnas’ name, so you’ve got to give Barkley some credit for trying here. But that doesn’t make up for the fact that he completely butchered his name and continues to butcher it to this day.
18. "Don't Cheat on Me, Dummy!"
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Date: June 2012
The only thing funnier than Barkley trying to say names like Jonas Valančiūnas is him trying to spell them. Shaq and Kenny Smith were just as bad as him here, but Barkley’s just not good with names.
17. "You Only Eat Donuts on the Weekend, Ernie"
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Date: October 2010
During an "Ask Charles" segment, Kobe Bryant asked Barkley how many donuts he thinks he ate during his NBA career. Barkley responded by saying the total number probably wasn’t as high as most people might think since "you only eat donuts on the weekend." Riiiiiiight.
16. "I Think You Separated My Shoulder"
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Date: January 2018
Barkley agreed to let Shaq take a hand off from Tim Tebow and then run right at him like a running back. He then proceeded to basically just stand there and let Shaq run him over. How did he think this was going to end?!
15. "Hey, Man, Don't Worry About the Damn Show Going On Over Here!"
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Date: April 2009
One of the things that makes Inside the NBA so funny is that Barkley and the rest of the crew routinely interact with members of the staff who are working behind the scenes. But for whatever reason, Barkley got completely spooked here by one Inside the NBA employee who ran across the set while he was trying to make a point. Why does he look like he just saw a damn ghost?
14. "I'm Tired of Being Black!"
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Date: November 2009
Like a lot of people, Barkley has been confused with Sammy Sosa’s decision to lighten his skin over the years. But that didn’t stop him from trying to do some skin-lightening of his own on Inside the NBA one night. He spent an entire segment having a makeup artist make him “white” while he asked questions about what he would and wouldn’t be able to do once he wasn’t black anymore.
13. "I Love Working on This Show"
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Date: January 2010
Barkley took a DNA test on George Lopez’s late-night show once and discovered he’s both more black and more white than Snoop Dogg, who has a pretty strong Native American background. As you might imagine, the Inside the NBA crew had a ball after they found out that information.
12. "Soon as We Get Off the Air, You Better Be Gone!"
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Date: May 2012
Barkley never got to experience what it would be like to take a champagne shower after winning an NBA title. So Kenny Smith decided to give him a taste of what it would be like by pouring champagne all over him after Inside the NBA received Emmy nominations one year. Safe to say, Barkley would have been better off not knowing what it feels like to be covered in bubbly.
11. "You Assaulted Me!"
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Date: April 2010
The time Kenny Smith decided to fill an empty segment with a prank that ended with him hitting Barkley in the head. How did the Chuckster fall for this?
10. "You Can't Be Making Me Laugh, Man!"
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Date: May 2006
When Barkley said he thought he could break a record set by David Blaine by holding his breath underwater for more than 7 minutes, most people said it couldn’t be done. As it turned out, they were right. But most people expected for Barkley to hold out for at least 30 seconds. He didn’t even come close to doing that!
9. "You Cannot Disrespect the President of the United States"
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Date: December 2008
Just days after former President George W. Bush was forced to duck after an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at him during a press conference, Barkley was forced to do the same thing at the top of a show when Chris Webber chucked his shoes at him. Barkley’s slow-mo reaction to the shoe-throwing incident was priceless.
8. "You're Not Going to Be Talking About My Dogs"
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Date: December 2016
The Inside the NBA producers managed to get a photo of Barkley sleeping with his two little dogs Mango and Yoohoo. That inevitably led to this roast, which featured Barkley trying to defend everything from his dogs’ overbites to the position they sleep in when they’re in his bed.
7. "He Didn't Tell You He Wanted to Be in 'Kazaam 2'?"
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Date: June 2013
Barkley and Shaq are always going at one another. On this particular occasion, Shaq was talking about some advice he once received from Michael Jordan when Barkley hilariously interrupted him to take a shot at his movie Kazaam.
6. "You Might as Well Get Used to Them Because I Bought 5"
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Date: April 2011
At some point, Barkley decided he was going to start wearing short-sleeve button-up shirts underneath of his suit on the Inside the NBA set. And while no one would have known the difference, Kenny Smith decided to expose him for doing it one night by saying he looked like a social studies teacher. Barkley responded by saying Smith better get used to it because he had more of the short-sleeve shirts coming.
5. "You're Not Gonna Work Me Like a Dog and Not Pay Me"
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Date: November 2016
Barkley routinely makes appearances on ESPN. But late one Thursday night, he ripped into The Worldwide Leader in Sports by saying he’d never consider working for the company since they force their employees to work too hard for too little pay. But in true Barkley fashion, he did it by toeing the line between angry and funny, which led to a hilarious segment and forced Ernie Johnson to point out that nothing good happens when the show runs as late as it did.
4. "Ain't No Shame in My Game—I Get My Eyebrows Done!"
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Date: January 2013
Barkley gets his eyebrows waxed. Do you have a problem with that? Apparently, the entire Inside the NBA crew did, and they took him to task for admitting he pays special attention to his eyebrow game live on the air.
3. "Please Don't Pay $6 for That!"
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Date: February 2017
The one thing you’ve always going to get from Barkley is honesty. So when Ernie Johnson read a promotion for an NBA League Pass game between the Bucks and Lakers that was going to cost fans $6.99, Barkley responded by telling people to save their money. And he didn’t stop there, as he went on and on and on about how much a game between the Bucks and Lakers should really cost.
2. "I'm Bored"
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Date: March 2014
While the NBA does its best to schedule great games on Thursday nights, there are times when it simply doesn’t work out. There are bound to be blowouts on Thursdays at least a few times every season. And when it happens, Barkley struggles to even feign interest in the games being played. On this particular night, he went as far as to almost fall asleep on the Inside the NBA set, and unfortunately for him, it was all caught on camera and thrown back in his face.
1. "I Got This Bracelet From a Guy in the Steam Room Back in Arizona"
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Date: April 2016
Kenny Smith was curious as to where Barkley got the bracelet he was wearing on Inside the NBA one night. It led to what might be the most random and most hilarious segment in the show’s history, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with basketball or anything that was going on that night. That’s kind of the beauty of both the show and the sense of humor Barkley brings to it.
