Embrace Debate: Is Travis Kelce Actually Funny Or Just Athlete Funny?
Travis Kelce hosted Saturday Night Live this past weekend. Chances are you didn't watch it, but saw plenty of people S'ing Kelce's D for his performance after the fact. (Shorthand for oral intercourse)
Now Travis Kelce has become quite a polarizing figure "athletes who also view themselves as entertainers" world. He's loud, boisterous, not afraid to get a little rambunctious behind the microphone and throw around some reckless remarks. Some folks love him, some folks hate him. There aren't a ton of people out there who find themselves to be indifferent towards Travis Kelce. Regardless of your personal opinion on Travis Kelce, you can't deny the fact that the man gets the people going.
But after hosting SNL, it's time to finally ask ourselves the question--is Travis Kelce actually funny, or is he just funny for an athlete? The answer may not be as simple as you think.
Let's take the opening monologue for example. Did it make me laugh my dick straight off of my body? Of course not. Contrary to what the haters believe, my dick is still firmly attached to my body. But there were still a few highlights in there. "If you smoke weed and you're bad at school, you can win the Super Bowl twice". We can't pretend like that's not an objectively funny statement to make. Personally I don't view anything that happened at the end of Super Bowl LVII to be a laughing matter, but I can see how the back-and-forth between himself and Jason could be viewed as humorous.
Then we get to the sketches. Where again, there were some serious highs but also some serious lows.
This particular sketch didn't make it into the episode but I'm still going to count it anyway. Very funny. Tremendously executed sketch. You can't sit there with a straight look on your face and tell me that NFL players dabbling in some cuckery for charity isn't objectively funny. And this plays right into Travis Kelce's typecast of "criminally horny man whore". However, when it comes time for him to show a little more range in those acting chops and provide some deeper emotion, it tends to fall flat.
This next sketch, for example, is downright brutal to watch. I commend anybody who makes it more than 45 seconds into it.
But here's the thing--how much of that is Travis Kelce's fault and how much is the fact that SNL just isn't good anymore? Did the sketch suck, or did Travis Kelce suck? Because I think it's way more of the first than the latter.
And after watching this sketch, I am even more inclined to think that was just a problem with the previous sketch. Because Travis Kelce, athlete or not, crushed this one.
Physical comedy, baby. Gotta love it. But I think when you give Travis Kelce the ability to break out of his mold and not just be the good looking horny dude, that's where he thrives. That's where he can grow from being "funny for an athlete" to "actually funny".
Like everything in life, it's a spectrum. So I think the meter is always going to be moving back-and-forth between the two for Travis Kelce. But credit where credit is due, I think it's leaning way more towards actually funny at the moment.