There’s always hilarity when Charles Barkley is on TV and Saturday night was no different.
The Round Mound of Rebound was casting his expert eye on the Final Four games at this year’s NCAA Tournament but found himself on the receiving end of a pretty hilarious prank.
The amusing incident occurred on TBS’ Final Four show just after Purdue had punched their ticket to the national championship game with a 63-50 win over NC State.
During the segment, the NBA legend started talking about a Capital One advert he’s in which features his face and body on it as he flies the crew to the Final Four in Phoenix, Arizona.
A version of the ad ends with Barkley’s blimp deflating and his voice going all squeaky because of the helium he’s inhaling.
Cue the TNT crew, who decided to replicate that effect by changing Barkley’s microphone live on air.
Host Ernie Johnson disguised the prank perfectly by asking Charles a relatively normal question.
However, as Barkley held his microphone up to speak, his voice went all high-pitched.
Charles burst into laughter and fans on social media were as equally amused by the prank.
“The segment on the TNT broadcast with Charles Barkley’s voice digitized on “helium” after the commercial was classic,” one fan wrote.
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“CBS/TBS by altering Charles Barkley’s voice making him sound like he’s on helium was one of the funniest segments I have ever seen,” another added.
“Call me a total advertising mark, but the Barkley helium voice just killed me,” added a third.
The prank came after Barkley made a pretty embarrassing mistake when discussing the first half of the Purdue vs NC State game.
College basketball analyst Jay Wright started talking about Boilermarkers star Braden Smith, who missed all six of his shot attempts in the first half.
However, that stat seemed to elude Barkley, who seemed to think he’d drilled a three.
“I think that [three-pointer] he hit at the end,” Barkley said before Johnson interrupted him and say, “he didn’t hit that.”
“No, I’m talking about a couple plays before that,” Barkley said before realizing Smith was indeed scoreless.
“Wow, my bad, I apologize,” he admitted.
