Sunday’s tragic news of Stuart Scott passing away at the age of 49 led to a variety of touching, heartfelt tributes to the sportscaster from former colleagues on ESPN and NFL Network, as well as peers and fans on social media.
While watching ESPN’s 15-minute tribute to its fallen comrade, I wondered if there might be any footage of the classic 1999 skit from Saturday Night Live in which Tim Meadows imitated Scott and his trademark style. Sure enough, at the 5:20 mark of the tribute, there it was. That slice of pop culture just couldn’t be ignored.
But ESPN only — and appropriately — showed 20 seconds of the skit, providing just a quick glimpse of how Scott penetrated the culture. Let’s watch the whole thing, which is available online.
As with most impersonations, Meadows’ spoof of Scott is reductive, focusing largely on how many times he could work “Booyah!” into the copy. That’s what comedy often does, finding its hook and working from there. But if you watch the entire five-and-a-half-minute sketch, it turns out — especially in retrospect — to be quite a tribute to Scott and how good he was at his job.
Scott’s SportsCenter sidekick for the evening, Chet Harper (memorably played by Ray Romano), is trying hard to be as flashy and witty in his narration of highlights, but just doesn’t come across as authentic. His references and attempts at catchphrases clang like a basketball hitting the rim or just fall to the floor with a thud. (Although “Sweet Sassy Molassy” has definitely stuck in the cultural lexicon, making this a classic SNL skit.)
As Harper says toward the end of the skit, before being escorted from the SportsCenter set, “Your clever metaphors and catchphrases escape me.” That surely applied to so many who may have been inspired by Scott’s success but failed when trying to duplicate him on the air. Fans and viewers knew what was the real thing and what was a bad imitation. There was an art to the way Scott did his job, and the seriousness he applied to his work was demonstrated in the final product.
Booyah, indeed.
