30 For 30 Parody Treats Space Jam Game Like It’s Real

Ever wondered what an ESPN 30 For 30-style retrospective of the basketball game from Space Jam would look like? Opinions vary greatly on 1996 sports comedy Space Jam, which for some is either a fond childhood movie memory or for others one of the worst films ever made. It’s an admittedly weird mash-up of animation and live-action that follows sporting legend Michael Jordan and a bunch of Looney Tunes characters as they form a team – the Tune Squad – and go head-to-head in a basketball game against a gang of giant aliens (AKA the Monstars), who’ve stolen the talents of NBA pros like Charles Barkley and Shawn Bradley and plan to enslave Bugs Bunny and his pals back on their home planet should they lose.

As wacky a movie it was, Space Jam was a big box office hit and still holds a place in the heart of many millennials more than 20 years after its release. And love it or hate it, there’s no denying Space Jam has staked its place in pop culture history. Even now the official Space Jam website is still up and running – in all its mid-1990s, Angelfire-like glory – and just a few years ago a handful of actors including Seth Green and Nick Kroll gathered at the UCB Theater in Los Angeles to perform a live reading of its script.

It’s safe to say the peeps over at Yahoo appreciate Space Jam for the classic it is. Back in 2013 as part of its weekly web series Sketchy, Yahoo produced a hilarious parody of ESPN’s 30 For 30 documentary films that treated Space Jam’s pivotal plot point – the basketball game between the Tune Squad and the Monstars – as if it was a real game. Check out the 30 For 30–Space Jam parody below courtesy of Basketball Forever.

Yahoo’s Sketchy team managed to persuade some big names in basketball to take part in their 30 For 30–Space Jam parody – former NBA player Kurt Rambis, sportscaster Larry Burnett and basketball analyst Doug Gottlieb included. The faux-serious commentary on the game is laugh-out-loud funny too, highlighting the unethical tactics of the Monstars such as killing Foghorn Leghorn right there on the court and beating up their other opponents left, right and center.

Yahoo’s 30 For 30 parody is funny and all, but Space Jam fans will be happy to learn that they’ll be seeing a sequel – Space Jam 2: A New Legacy – in the not-too-distant future. Starring basketball player LeBron James and actors Don Cheadle and Sonequa Martin-Green, the long-awaited Space Jam sequel is currently set for a 2021 release.