Last week’s Inside the NBA tip-off segment went about as well as it can with our favorite quartet. Fresh off the news that ESPN will continue TNT’s flagship show, the gang’s skeletons were dug out of the vault. Especially their past jokes about ESPN Deportes. Now that they’re going to the Disney-owned network, the Inside Guys brushed up their fake Spanish skills. As it always happens, Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley butchered a few classics that left their multi-lingual and chicken-loving fans between amused and confused. The underrated humor reached the $368.25 million worth Mexican chicken giant who didn’t like it.
After fans teased the TNT crew about possibly landing on ESPN Deportes, Charles Barkley called Shaq, ‘ugly’ in Spanish. O’Neal tried to fight back asking the studio how to say, “fat a–” in Spanish only to call Chuck, “El Pollo Loco.” And yes, Shaq pronounced it the ‘wrong’ way.
It briefly went viral online before more comedy buried it. But the folks at El Pollo Loco noticed. A week since the NBA tip-off show, the restaurant chain published, “a message for @shaq & @charleswbarkley,” on all their social media pages.
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The first half of the “Official statement from El Pollo Loco” was calling out Shaq for butchering the pronunciation. Does he get a lifetime ban from all El Pollo Loco outlets? No. He gets punished with something better. “It has come to our attention that on a event episode of NBA Tip-Off on TNT. Shaquille O’Neal incorrectly translated our name. While we don’t condone the language, we couldn’t stay mad at The Diesel. To show there are no hard feelings, we’re donating 100 El Pollo Loco meals to the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation, which works to create pathways for underserved youth to help them achieve their full potential.”
a message for @shaq & @charleswbarkley pic.twitter.com/IiZIVpNnQV
— El Pollo Loco (@ElPolloLoco) November 26, 2024
Usually Shaq’s multilingual fails make him look silly in front of Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic for mixing Russian and Serbian. This time, his foundation benefited from his hilarious Spanish skills.
But the bigger crime was by Charles Barkley who got the El Pollo Loco organism into a teeny bit of trouble.
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Charles Barkley spurs restaurant giants into action
When Shaq mispronounced El Pollo Loco, he must’ve triggered Chuck’s chicken cravings because he immediately said, “El Pollo Loco, that’s a good restaurant.” Never mind that Kenny Smith was trying to fix Shaquille O’Neal’s pronunciation. Chuckster was craving his favorite thing on the menu. “They got some good fat chicken noodle soup.”
A seasoned El Pollo Loco expert would be confused at Sir Charles‘ specific dish. Fans were confused if the Mexican chain served chicken noodle soup at all. When did Charles Barkley have a chicken noodle soup at El Pollo Loco? Did everyone miss some limited edition item? Questions abounded and El Pollo Loco themselves had to set the record straight in the same statement.
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“Our legal team has also asked us to clarify that while we’re thrilled to hear Sir Charles Barkleyt is a fan of our soup, we don’t serve chicken noodle. We think he meant chicken tortilla soup. We’ll get some bowls of that over to you ASAP, Chuck.”
Maybe that will jog up Chuck’s memory. Or convert him from noodle soup to tortilla soup. Maybe Inside the NBA on ESPN kicks off with an El Pollo Loco special.
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Did Shaq's Spanish blunder actually turn into a win for his foundation? What do you think?