Last night’s Saturday Night Live wasn’t great, even with a comedy/basketball great like Charles Barkley at the helm, but today NBC released a cut-for-time pre-taped short that plays perfectly to Barkley’s very specific comedic talents. The skit is weirdly elaborate for one that didn’t make it to air, as it includes a cameo from J.J. Abrams and a bunch of SNL people in elaborate Star Wars-esque costumes, but at least you can watch it now without having to endure any appearances from Alec Baldwin’s tired Trump impression.
The basic setup of the sketch is that Abrams is introducing a new Star Wars movie about a ragtag team of heroes who end up being instrumental in developing the secret Hoth base before The Empire Strikes Back. Unfortunately, one of the team members is an old Jedi (Charles Barkley) who can’t understand everyone’s crazy Star Wars languages. The sketch goes about exactly where you’d expect it to, but Barkley always does a good job playing a guy who is just realizing that he has no idea what’s going on.