Tim Robinson didn’t spend a ton of time in front of the camera at SNL. Most of his tenure at 30 Rock was spent as a writer, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t contribute a few bits of on-screen genius when he was called upon. In fact, arguably his best work on the show is trending more than a decade later, and as a Robinson fan, I’m so happy to see it.
During Season 38, Robinson appeared in a sketch about the creation of NBC’s beloved basketball theme song “Roundball Rock.” NBA fans know the song as perhaps the most iconic sports instrumental theme in history, but the sketch imagines a world in which songwriter John Tesh brought in his brother Dave Tesh to sing vocals. SNL favorite Jason Sudeikis plays John and Robinson plays Dave, who belts out his lyrics with vigor and pride.
Today is the start of the NBA Season, and there’s an entire slate of basketball games on NBC and Peacock that will, of course, feature a soundtrack headlined by “Roundback Rock.” As such, a couple users on social media decided to dig up Robinson and Sudeikis’ SNL version of “Roundball Rock” and post it. Not surprisingly, the videos have been widely liked and shared, both by those familiar with the sketch and those discovering its greatness for the first time. You can watch the sketch in its entirety below…
Fans love to talk about the SNL cast members who crushed their time on the show and immediately springboarded into super successful movie careers. People like Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey and Adam Sandler were beloved during their tenures and achieved everything fans hoped for and more.
Quietly, however, there’s an extremely impressive alternate list of performers who weren’t able to show everything they could do at Studio 8H. They had some flashes of brilliance, but they needed a change of scenery to fully show their talent. I’m thinking of people like Jenny Slate, Larry David, Ben Stiller, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Robert Downey Jr. Robinson is most definitely a proud member of that club.
Robinson’s HBO comedy series The Chair Company premiered last year to rave reviews and led to probably the weirdest headline we've ever written at CinemaBlend. The project allows him to get as weird and uncomfortable as he wants, which obviously wasn’t something SNL always tolerated. Still, given how popular he’s gotten and the rare bits of gold he did create at SNL, it would be a joy to see him guest host the show at some point in the future. Fingers crossed.
