If you grew up in the ’90s, you know that one of the most seminal pieces of cinema from the era that seems to stick with us all, love it or hate it, is 1996’s Space Jam. Starring Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes characters, plus Wayne Knight and Bill Murray, it’s a pretty universal reference for twenty- and thirty-somethings. Knowing this, Sean O’Connor and Jensen Karp organized a live table read of Space Jam at the UCB Theatre earlier this year that brought a whole new meta twist to it.
They couldn’t get MJ or Bill Murray or Billy West. Instead, they got Blake Griffin, Seth Green, Danielle Fishel, Nick Kroll, Ralph Garman, Ben Schwartz, DeAndre Jordan, Paul Scheer, Jerrod Carmichael, Shelby Fero, Noah Garfinkel, and Melissa Stetten to come down and read every Monstar, NBA player, Bill Murray, etc. The result was pretty fantastic, as DeAndre did his best impression of Charles Barkley, Kroll and Garman nailed Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, and Seth Green brought a new interpretation to Bugs Bunny.
You can watch this compilation of passages from the Space Jam live read at Funny or Die and see what I’m talking about: