Charles Barkley has a Star Wars language problem on 'SNL'
It's one of those unanswered sci-fi questions: Is there some kind of galactic Esperanto or something?
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Ever wondered how all the Star Wars characters, many from different planets, different alien races and far away corners of the galaxy, all understand each other? Are they speaking some kind of galactic Esperanto or something? Do they all enroll in dozens of Rosetta Stone courses in their spare time?
Charles Barkley, host of "Saturday Night Live" on Saturday, had that very question. In a skit that was cut from the show for time, Barkley is one of the "Mos Eisley Five," trying to make a deal with a Jabba the Hutt-like alien to free a captured Rebel pilot. Turns out all the other characters speak every language invented, including droid-ese and Shyriiwook. But Barkley only knows one foreign sentence -- "Where is the school?" -- and it doesn't come in that handy during a firefight.
The skit is pretty funny for one that ended up getting cut, and by Sunday night, it had already earned more than 400,000 views on YouTube. We can only hope "SNL" tackles other unanswered Star Wars questions, like "what race is Yoda anyway?" and "what really was Luke's plan in 'Return of the Jedi'?"
