Charles Barkley Got a Contact High from Nirvana at Saturday Night Live in 1993

One of the most 90s things I’ve ever seen is a shot of Charles Barkley and Nirvana together on the Saturday Night Live set in 1993. Barkley was the NBA MVP that year, and hosting. Nirvana, which released In Utero that year, was the musical guest. It was a magical time in American culture, and to hear Barkley tell it on Dan Patrick’s show, the guys in Nirvana were blazed out of their minds the whole time.

Here’s the quote in case you can’t watch:

"I had people coming in and out, my friends, so I kept my dressing room open. Every time those guys from Nirvana opened their door I got like a contact high. It was like one of those big mushroom clouds came. Like I was scared to go to the airport because I didn’t want to … do not go to the airport."

Barkley has a couple other worthwhile weed anecdotes in there, too, if you’re into that sort of thing. He says he personally only smoked it four or five times, and didn’t care for it much because all it did was make him want to eat potato chips.

Patrick counters that Barkley would have been eating potato chips whether he was stoned or sober. Barkley, a man of other vices, couldn’t dispute that.