Tim Robinson could have been the Michael Jordan of Saturday Night Live, but, instead, the decision-makers of 30 Rockefeller Plaza treated him like he was Dave Tesh.
This week, the world of entertainment celebrated the grand return of a cultural institution when the revival of NBA on NBC brought basketball fans back to a time when Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were must-see TV and the surging melody of John Tesh’s hit single “Roundball Rock” scored the greatest broadcast in sports. Now that professional basketball is back at NBC, “Roundball Rock” is, once again, the song of the NBA season, which has caused one of the all-time greatest intersections of sports and comedy to return to the zeitgeist as fans of both the NBA and SNL sing along to the iconic theme song with some help from a certain other discarded NBC legend.
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The re-launch of NBA on NBC has returned the Robinson-starred 2013 SNL sketch “Roundball Rock” to relevance, which means that it’s time to revisit how SNL squandered one of the future superstars of the comedy industry. Over a decade ago, SNL and its staff failed to realize that, much like the poet Dave Tesh, Robinson was the true genius of the early 2010s SNL family.
In addition to becoming one of the most enduring SNL sketches of the 21st century, Robinson’s “Roundball Rock” showed off his absurd, high-energy comedy style that would later make him a household name with his own sketch series I Think You Should Leave, but which SNL struggled to showcase during his tenure. After just one season in the SNL cast, Lorne Michaels moved Robinson to the writers’ room, where the idiosyncratic comic would remain for three seasons before leaving the show in 2016.
Late-night host and SNL legend Seth Meyers was the show’s head writer during Robinson’s brief SNL career, and, earlier this year, Meyers admitted that he played a part in the underutilization of the surrealist comedy king during an appearance on the podcast WTF with Marc Maron. “It did not work the way anybody who is a fan of his thought it should,” Meyers said of Robinson’s time at SNL. “I, having been the head writer at the time, felt like I was mishandling this asset.”
“Everybody knew how funny he was. At every table read he would crush,” Meyers said of Robinson’s talent, adding that the SNL family is happy that Robinson is finally getting the opportunities that the series itself couldn’t provide for him. “For everybody at SNL to see him have this moment, along with Zach Kanin his co-writer, it’s so lovely,” Meyers said of Robinson’s success. “He’s honestly the best dude in the world — they both are. They weirdly found their way into the zeitgeist almost beyond what SNL is because it’s so singular.”
Since leaving SNL, Robinson started a cult-hit sitcom called The Detroiters with Sam Richardson, he launched the aforementioned breakout hit I Think You Should Leave, he starred in the critically acclaimed black comedy film Friendship and, most recently, he debuted his comedy thriller series The Chair Company on HBO. Although Meyers and Michaels couldn’t turn Robinson into a superstar, thankfully, the non-NBC world of entertainment has been able to turn their airball into an alley-oop.
