Kenny Smith redeemed himself with the American public last night. His roast of Charles Barkley on live TV was a masterful act put together.
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The Inside crew is responsible for some of the greatest moments on sports television EVER. This is a show that wins the Emmy every year, either for its production or for its main crew.
Ernie was obviously the first around, but he’s seen the show pass through several iterations. Kenny Smith is his oldest longstanding studio partner, while Chuck has been with TNT since his retirement in 2000.
Shaq is a more recent addition, and you can sense the clear difference in chemistry between Shaq and others on most days. The big man only joined the crew back in 2011, but he’s been a good fit over the past few years.
Chuck and Kenny definitely respond a lot better to being roasted by the other crew members. Chuck, in particular, takes roasts in his stride like a champ. This allows Kenny to pile on him for his fat any time he wants, and Chuck obliges readily because he gets his own roasts in.
Kenny Smith roasts Charles Barkley for his fat a**
Kenny got on Chuck’s back with a nice piece of wordplay, using Barkley’s own words against him to crack a neat fat joke that fit the occasion so perfectly that Chuck had no option but to grin and bear it.
Chuck: “Not the series, the season. You guys have been on my a** all year.”
Kenny: “It’s easy, we can all fit.”
You can call Kenny’s joke sus, you can call it tasteless and homophobic if you like. All you’ve got to know is that Kenny is 100% not a fit for any idiotic label you might throw at him for this well-timed quip.
Kenny, Chuck and Shaq will not be politically correct, and often, you might feel like they’re disrespecting a community. At such times, keep in mind that they’re ribbing each other, and they’re not talking about any community in particular.
