After a video of nuns playing basketball in Sevilla made the rounds on the internet, impressionist Frank Caliendo jumped on the comedic opportunity.
Frank Caliendo is back at it again. The comedian, actor and impressionist has dropped some content into our collective non-sports void in the form of color commentary on a circulating video of nuns playing basketball while sheltering in place in Sevilla.
Ball may not be life, but it is still a part of life, at least for the lucky during this time of social distancing. In the original video, posted by Alejandro Ávila on April 13, the Sevilla Big Balling Nuns get after it with habit swaying aplomb and intensity.
Though this game cannot be considered a product of our modern age of efficiency, its aesthetic quality is unquestioned. The classic black and white fits, the peach-basket era lack of dribbling, the hot-potato ball-movement and the voiced expressions of joy make the original video and Caliendo’s narration both high-quality content. I should note, we seem to be one nun short of a full five-on-five construction, but even that has an appeal.
In many ways, the whole video is a flex, akin to Drake saying his pool was bigger than Kanye’s on his single, “Summer Sixteen.” The nuns in the video seem to be saying, “our crib is bigger than yours and our basketball, well, we’re playing it and you’re not.”
In Caliendo’s one-minute, 14-second narration he impersonates the NBA on TNT crew of Marv Albert, Shaquille O’Neal, and Charles Barkley, perfectly reproducing O’Neal’s characteristic mumbled aphorisms and Sir Charles’ typical, self-serious drawl. Caliendo’s O’Neal even seems to put forth a theory on the potentiality of buckets from the superfluity — which the fake Barkley quickly and aptly rejects.
A video of nuns hooping in Sevilla is exactly the kind of cathartic quarantine content we all need; Caliendo’s classic touch only adds to the appeal. All of our solaces are small and fleeting at the moment, but this should be added to the list of them.