To be fair, it’s more NBA Jam R than NBA Jam XXX, but this unearthed clip of the original NBA Jam with a ton of cursing in it (sample dialogue: “HE’S ON F**KING FIRE!”) is my new favorite thing. It’s the manifestation of every joke I made playing NBA Jam with my 13-year old friends, and yes, when you’re 13 there is nothing funnier than putting ‘f**k’ where it doesn’t belong. See also, The Dan Band.
The clip made the rounds in video game circles back in August, but I have Jason at Sportress Of Blogitude to thank for the share. Former Midway creative director Mark Turmell talked about the video with GameTrailers.com and gave us just enough to believe Tim Kitzrow saying ‘boomshaka-f**kin-laka’ really happened:
He said through a conversation with Side Mission on Facebook that he saw the video the other day and recalled doing some similar audio recordings with voice actor Tim Kitzrow during the development of the arcade game.
“I can confirm that in the early days we did record tons of off-color stuff,” Turmell said.
Lines like “Get that **** out of here” and “He’s on ******* fire” were recorded when they worked on the arcade version of the game for Midway. Turmell said they actually tried to put the “Get that **** out of here” line into the final version with a “bleep” sound over the offending word, but the NBA objected and it was removed.
Kitzrow wrote to them shortly thereafter with an e-mail that read, “uhhhh, I don’t remember saying ‘shit’ so much” and Turmell turned around and denied the cursing to Kotaku, so the clip isn’t real. But ultimately, who cares? It’s hilarious, and you should show it to everyone you know.
Video is after the cut.
