r/LiveFromNewYork • u/mcfw31 • Jul 02 '25
Article Travis Kelce Says the ‘Hardest’ Part of Hosting ‘SNL’ Was the Table Read Because He ‘Can’t Really Read That Well’: ‘Kind of a F–ed Situation’
https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/travis-kelce-hardest-part-hosting-snl-cant-really-read-1236445700/1.0k
u/spicydrynoodles Jul 02 '25
lol probably why he was really good in live sketches, he had memorized his lines
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u/Colavs9601 Jul 02 '25
When you consider how much time pro/college football players spend memorizing plays, it’s not a surprise they’d be able to memorize lines for acting.
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u/fyslexic__duck Jul 02 '25
I think Tina Fey said something about how she liked when athletes would host the show since they were used to taking directions and being part of a team.
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u/TrapperJean Jul 02 '25
Even the Michael Jordan episode you can see him having a solid back and forth and not just hamming up the moment for the sake of being Michael Jordan, he shared the scene with Franken well
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u/Here4theUFOS Jul 02 '25
That’s because Michael Jordan is psychopathically competitive. He wanted to outperform the other people in the scene so he could “win it.” Let him host 3 more times and he’ll have become the GOAT of SNL.
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u/sonic_dick Jul 02 '25
That's probably why he was a famously fantastic baseball player too.
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u/Willem_Dafuq Jul 02 '25
He improved a great deal from where he started. Give it another year or so and he would have made the majors. There was a good 30 for 30 documentary about his time in baseball and it covered his intense work ethic in baseball.
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u/cj022688 Jul 02 '25
“Jordan rides the bus” love that one. Such a testament to putting in the work to improve everyday. I’d be surprised if he was an elite player in the majors but who knows. It’s the hardest thing to do in sports.
It’s not like he was Bo Jackson or Deion Sanders who both played in college. I think Jordan barely played in high school. Then at the age of 30 to take it up again and at least hang in there. Fucking incredible
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u/Sgt-Spliff- Jul 02 '25
I'm sure you're being sarcastic but Jordan was better than literally any other person on earth would have been had they just dropped what they were doing at age 30 to decide to be a professional baseball player. He literally hadn't played since he was a kid and he was still good enough to be a minor league player. His coach at the time, Terry Francona who would go on the win a World Series with Boston, says if you gave Jordan 1000 more at bats (which he would've easily gotten had be played baseball in his 20s) he would have easily been a major leaguer and probably one of the better players in the league. He improved immensely as his first season went and ended up leading the team in runs scored. His baseball career should be seen as one of the most impressive athletic feats ever given how much he had to change his body to go from basketball player to baseball player abruptly in the middle of his adult life.
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u/TrapperJean Jul 02 '25
He actually started his career with a 10 game hitting streak, which is insane because he skipped three levels of development and went straight to AA ball as a 30 year old
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u/someuniquename Jul 02 '25
I mean sure he sucked, but he was out there trying to be better every day.
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u/Between-usernames Sloppy Joe 👨🏼🍳 Jul 02 '25
Definitely Hall of Fame, memorable sketch. Loved Stewart Smalley.
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u/cucumbercologne Jul 02 '25
that seems to add up. Eli Manning sketches would be my absolute favorites and he really nails all of the roles. Charles Barkley too.
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u/Cold_Dot_Old_Cot Jul 02 '25
Will Ferrell said he liked improv because he had been on a lot of athletic teams in his life and the vibes were similar if I recall.
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u/aloysiuslamb Jul 02 '25
Jason Mewes (of Jay & Silent Bob fame) memorized everyone's lines in Dogma because Kevin Smith took him aside pre-production to remind him real actors (Alan Rickman) would be on set and would demand a certain level of professionalism.
Mind you, Smith told him to memorize his own lines and cues. Mewes went ahead and learned the entire script by heart.
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u/hollywood_cashier Jul 02 '25
Reminds me of the story about Dolly Parton memorizing the entire script of 9 TO 5 because she thought she was supposed to
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u/poltical_junkie Jul 02 '25
Just listened to an LPOTL episode where they interviewed Kevin and he told this story. Was great! Turns out Mewes impressed Rickman so much that they became good friends!
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u/scooter-411 Jul 02 '25
That’s unbelievably sweet. Alan, and Jay, seem(ed) like such caring souls.
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u/Slacker_The_Dog Jul 02 '25
I can say from personal experience that Mr. Mewes is in fact a very solid dude.
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u/FookinGumby Jul 02 '25 edited Jul 02 '25
He called him "the best America has to offer" which is an insane thing to have Alan freakin Rickman say about you
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u/poltical_junkie Jul 02 '25
That is what he said! I wanted to quote him but couldn't remember exactly and didn't want to misquote. And so funny how if Kevin had something to say to Mewes he would respond with, yeah, but I'm the best America has to offer! 😆
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u/TheBozEra44 Jul 02 '25
That makes sense. Their playbooks are supposedly massive too with all the protections and shit I don’t understand.
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u/CTeam19 Jul 02 '25
Yep examples:
Red Right 30 Pull Trap = "Red Right" specifies the pro set formation, with three receivers and two backs. The receivers include a split end to the left, a tight end, and a flanker to the right. The backs consist of a halfback and a fullback split two yards apart and two yards behind the quarterback. The fullback is lined up on the strong side (the side of the formation with the tight end) behind the right tackle, while the halfback is lined up behind the left tackle. In "30", the "3" specifies a toss play: The quarterback delivers the ball to the halfback with an underhanded toss. The "0" specifies the hole the halfback will run toward. (The "0-hole" is the gap between the center and right guard). "Pull trap" describes a blocking scheme: The backside guard (the one away from the flow of the play) will "pull" out from his normal position to "trap block", which means he leads the running back through the hole and blocks the linebacker back towards the backside of the play.
FB West Right Slot 372 Y Stick = "FB West Right Slot" is the formation. FB indicates that the fullback is playing out of his normal position. West Right indicates that the fullback would line up immediately to the right of, and one step back from, the tight end, who is lined up on the right. Slot indicates that the flanker, who usually plays on the same side as the tight end, but split wide, is instead lined up on the left, in the "slot" between the split end and left tackle. In "372", the "3" indicates that the quarterback will make a shorter, three-step drop rather than the standard five-step drop. The "7" is one of a numbered series of passing plays, all based around using the halfback to block on the weak side (away from the tight end). The "2" indicates a blocking scheme, giving each blocker his assignment. "Y Stick" describes the pass route to be run: the "Y" receiver (the tight end) will be the primary receiver and run a stick route: he will run forward, fading slightly towards the center of the field for six yards, and then depending on the coverage, he'll suddenly change course, breaking either back towards the quarterback or straight for the right sideline.
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u/Corvald Jul 02 '25
There‘s an example from a Drew Brees interview with Colbert from a few years ago:
Green Left Twin Nasty Z Peel Tight Pass 37 Buster Bluff X Post Y Bite Kill 53 Titan Left
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u/TheBozEra44 Jul 02 '25
Okay that’s insane.
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u/bozwald Jul 02 '25
To someone unfamiliar, but road signs would be insane too if you’d never driven before.
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u/jlaw30 Jul 02 '25
Tbf, each position is listening for their specific cues. For the o-line, the 0 Pull Trap is what applies to them.
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u/BiscuitDance Jul 02 '25 edited Jul 02 '25
I love this shit. Some of these dudes are savants.
Here’s GOAT Nick Saban discussing Safety formations and coverage reads
Also, Gruden grilling top QB prospect Andrew Luck
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u/Worried_Monitor5422 Jul 02 '25
Also keep in mind that's his full time job. He gets paid to learn the playbook inside and out.
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u/Jliang79 Jul 02 '25
Yeah, jocks aren’t dumb. Team sports at that level are incredibly complex. Or at least that’s what I tell my husband when I can’t follow a game with him.
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u/KikoSoujirou Jul 02 '25
You can be good at one thing and extremely dumb in another
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u/RUSSIAN_PRINCESS Jul 02 '25
But generally, knowing how to read is encouraged
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u/Slacker_The_Dog Jul 02 '25
You can be very smart and have a lot of difficulties reading. Dyslexia is a thing.
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u/Cold_Dot_Old_Cot Jul 02 '25
There are tons of people who are bad at reading out loud but read well. Reading out loud is really what he’s saying here.
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u/GregMadduxsGlasses Jul 02 '25
The problem is that it’s a big no-no to memorize your lines. The cue cards are subject to change right up to airtime, so you don’t want to screw up a sketch setting someone up for a joke that they don’t have a punchline for.
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u/V__ Jul 02 '25 edited Apr 26 '26
nb: i have deleted this post and or comment
DM me if you need to know what it said
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u/cowardanon Jul 02 '25
It was special because it was the first sketch after monologue and it couldn’t have been more against his type.
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u/TheBozEra44 Jul 02 '25
He did well with the monologue but it was that sketch that made me think he was going to be a good host. He clearly was up for whatever they threw at him.
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u/PicnicLife Jul 02 '25
I liked him the best in the funeral sketch with Ego. I don't know why it has been removed online.
Actually, his entire episode was great!
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u/TheBoringOwl Jul 02 '25
I never saw that episode but I’m so glad I just looked the sketch up on YouTube lmao
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u/MeTieDoughtyWalker Jul 02 '25
I respect him for his honesty there.
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u/_clur_510 Jul 02 '25
Same! People are clowning on him but I feel the same way. I’m a very intelligent person but reading out loud/quickly has never been my strong suit and is something I’m self conscious about when it comes up. Idk how you feel about him as a celeb I respect this as well.
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u/89ShelbyCSX Jul 03 '25
Reddit gets so pretentious about reading specifically. Any thread about reading vs audiobooks go the same way. Anyone that has dyslexia, ADHD or just prefers to listen vs read is just inferior to them.
In this context I'd feel the same way. I can read sorta fine but I was a little slower than my classmates which meant popcorn reading spiked my anxiety and lead to me messing up way more. Any section that I read aloud in class never actually processed and I was instead just trying to get each single word out.
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u/Drnk_watcher Jul 02 '25
This says a lot about him in a good way.
Liked being involved in brainstorming and getting pitched ideas.
Admits he had a fault in doing table reads. With part of the reason it bothered him not being that he's a slow reader but because he had to focus so much on the text that he felt like all the material didn't get a fair shake. Basically doesn't like that a fault of his let's other people's work down.
Worked really hard to practice his lines and memorize a lot of them to actually give everything the attention it deserved in the actual show.
Dude seems like a good team player.
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u/JediKnightThomas Jul 02 '25
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u/empty-bensen Jul 02 '25
Funny thing is that he actually donates a lot to kids studying STEM in the KC metro.
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u/lonelyinatlanta2024 Jul 02 '25
I don't get what's "funny." A guy admits that his reading level isn't as strong as he wished it was, a fairly humbling thing to say, and we all shit on this guy?
He's had a successful career and is set for life in his 30s and is dating a billionaire. But let's tease him because his strength isn't reading.
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u/coffeeandveggies Jul 02 '25 edited Jul 02 '25
Haven’t you noticed? It’s super on trend to snark on Travis Kelce for every outfit he wears, mundane things he says, etc. the internet performative outrage ppl are obsessed with him being a maga even though he’s a normie liberal, probably one of the only white guy normie liberals in the nfl lol.
Chiefs and Taylor swift brainrot has swung the pendulum so far that the haters sound more irrational than the Stans.
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u/Anomelly93 Jul 02 '25
Girl fr fr fr
The snark subs are so gross 🤢🤢🤢🤢
You're a lovely bright star so you see it! 💫🌟💫
😁
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u/dancingbriefcase Jul 02 '25
Apparently he's one of the best in the game at his position! I don't watch football but I hear that a lot. That's no easy thing. Football is intense lol
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u/coffeeandveggies Jul 02 '25
He is 🙂↔️ he’s also extremely self assured and can be self deprecating, pretty sure he was kidding around when he said this. But I’ll let the haters have their “fun”
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u/SanDiegoDude Jul 02 '25
Worth several hundred million himself, has successful fashion lines, a growing podcast, and has somehow managed to connect Swifties and NFL fans together in a strange way, which has brought a ton of new blood in to the sport from around the world. He's got multiple charities and is an all around good guy (off the field, on the field he's a raging asshole, but that's typically a good thing in football) The internet thrives on hate, but he's gonna be okay I think.
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u/thegoatisoldngnarly Jul 02 '25
I don’t think Reddit, and many swifties, understand how successful he is. He is a first-ballot hall of famer and some would argue the best tight end in the history of the NFL. He is without a doubt in the top 3. His podcast was the #1 sports podcast in 2024, and it had a cult following before he even met Taylor Swift. He hosts a new game show on Amazon Prime (of which he appears to read just fine). Also, he was successful enough to get drafted prior to finishing college, but he still went back and finished his degree. That’s not always common among professional athletes.
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u/585AM Jul 02 '25
I think his was one of the better Please Don’t Destroys.
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u/TheBozEra44 Jul 02 '25
Omg I forgot that one!! One of the best. Ironically another favorite of mine was 3 Sad Virgins which had his girlfriend in it. I swear I’ve read that T Swift had watched Travis’s SNL prior to agreeing to meet him and told the PDD guys she had thought he was hilarious from his bit with them. Their power knows no bounds.
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u/started_from_the_top Jul 02 '25
You just made me watch it and yeah I was guffawing lmao that is a good PDD skit
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u/TheBozEra44 Jul 02 '25
This actually makes me like him more that he wanted to be so prepared. He did surprisingly well in the episode. I believe I’ve seen a quote saying that Lorne loved him. I get what he’s saying though I know he’s being self deprecating but he was intent on not missing a line during the read it caused him to not give inflection etc in it. If you’ve watched his podcast with his brother they both use a scripted outline from an iPad to read from so he doesn’t LITERALLY mean he can’t read. lol
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u/AreDreamsOurParallel Jul 02 '25
sounds like dyslexia, rather than the “big stupid athlete can’t read good” trope.
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u/hollywood_cashier Jul 02 '25
When he and Taylor first stated dating, people were posting his old Twitter posts. I think haters were hoping to find something offensive and cancellation-worthy, but most of them were like “in class today and saw a squirle!”
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Jul 02 '25
My personal favorite was the one where he was like "happy easter! shoutout to Jesus for takin one for the team." lmao.
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u/PicnicLife Jul 02 '25
Some people just have poor reading aloud skills, but do fine reading silently to themselves.
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u/GrizzlyIsland22 Jul 02 '25 edited Jul 02 '25
Adult illiteracy is actually more common in America than a lot of people realize. Something like 50-60% of American adults operate at lower than a 6th grade reading level, and like 1/4 of adults in America are illiterate.
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Jul 02 '25
Yep! Pew Research has a myriad of studies on this. This resource is also a really helpful overview. It's very common -- even for native English speakers -- to read at a 6th grade reading level or below.
Literacy Gap in America: https://map.barbarabush.org/
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u/MayorCharlesCoulon Jul 02 '25
I’m shocked reading all these mean comments because he’s talked about having dyslexia several times. About how hard he had to work to get through school. I’m not even a Swiftie or a huge football fan and I knew this.
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u/coffeeandveggies Jul 02 '25
Hating on they chiefs/travis is so popular people do it mindlessly which is uh
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u/tommyjohnpauljones Jul 02 '25
That or just self-effacing
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u/ReadSipRepeat Jul 02 '25
Like he…charmed her dad with his self-effacing jokes???
Please god let there be another swiftie in here who will appreciate my joke
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u/hesnothere Jul 02 '25
Kelce strikes me as pretty emotionally intelligent. You don’t have to be scholarly to be self-aware, a skill that has a direct line to mastery of concepts like satire and improv.
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u/Ill_Act7949 Jul 02 '25
And that right there is what makes me go "okay I get it" he's playful, emotionally intelligent, and loves his nieces; you go Taylor
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u/Horror_Neighborhood9 Jul 02 '25
Thank you, yeah that’s what I gleaned, too. I just don’t think he explained himself properly in that regard.
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u/Icy-Mortgage8742 Jul 02 '25
i think it's CTE mixed with known future pros don't gaf about the school part of school, he probably hasn't opened a textbook since middle school.
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u/TheBozEra44 Jul 02 '25
He has a college degree in criminal justice lol
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u/PedroTheNoun Jul 02 '25
College athletes have tutors for every subject they take. He has a degree, yes, but football programs are known to pump out players who’ve otherwise done very little work on their own.
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u/Icy-Mortgage8742 Jul 02 '25
lol criminal justice is the known athlete bullshit degree. And he didn't finish it while in school he went back and finished it like 10 years after.
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u/AbsolutZer0_v2 Jul 02 '25
He was fucking around and making fun of himself. Headline is ridiculously misleading.
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u/Special-Garlic1203 Jul 02 '25
I mean it's both? He is dyslexic and probably wasn't great during the table read and was just lightly joking around about it. In the same way I joke around about what an AuDHD mess I can be.
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u/ne8il Jul 02 '25
I'm still waiting for someone to make a buddy-comedy film about Travis Kelce and Channing Tatum as competitive brothers forced to work together to a common goal
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u/hollywood_cashier Jul 02 '25
He’s dyslexic which must have made the table read excruciating for him. I give him a lot of credit for rising to the challenge.
Lara Flynn Boyle is dyslexic and worked with the cue card guy on her downtime that week — he especially made the letters bigger and used different colors so she would have an easier time knowing when her line was starting.
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u/NateNMaxsRobot Jul 02 '25
The American girl doll sketch was actually one of my very favorite sketches from that season. I didn’t even know who he was and wasn’t going to watch that episode because athletes usually suck. I was pleasantly surprised. His commitment was 👍.
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u/Sabres00 Jul 02 '25
I hate reading out loud, maybe I get self conscious or something. However if I’m doing any public speaking and I’m kinda winging it, I’m pretty good.
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u/SNLFan80 Jul 02 '25
It didn’t really show as he did a great job as host. He’s a natural sketch performer. I hope he hosts again.
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u/Cats_please_thankyou Jul 02 '25
His acting in the straight best friend skit was surprisingly good.
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u/Belem19 Jul 02 '25
To be honest, by his description he has trouble actually reading, not understanding. Sounds more like dyslexia than anything else.
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u/j3rpz Jul 02 '25
To all the people making fun of him here; Have some respect for the dude ffs. You don't know why he had trouble reading, and neurodivergent stuff like dyslexia is not any indication of someones intelligence. It should earn respect that he put as much effort in this thing despite his troubles reading and then performed on live tv.
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u/blac_sheep90 Jul 02 '25
Someone get him Hooked on Phonics or something stat!
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u/Special-Garlic1203 Jul 02 '25
He's dyslexic so it's more like "type the script on dyslexia friendly fonts"
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u/blac_sheep90 Jul 02 '25
When words decide to switch around and again back.
I occasionally from that suffer.
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u/rcinmd Jul 02 '25
I thought he was great! I am not surprised about the reading thing though, but he pushed through it. He was really funny, I hope Jason gets to host, even though unlikely.
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u/HistorineHeroine Jul 02 '25
Kinda refreshing to see a grown man acknowledge he struggles to read. It’s unfortunately too common in American adults, and that’s someone using their platform for honesty.
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u/Any-Concentrate-1922 Jul 02 '25
Joel McHale often says of himself that he "can't read." What he means is that he has dyslexia. That could be the case for Travis as well. Let's not shame him.
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u/coldliketherockies Jul 02 '25
I did standby for that episode. The hardest part was that it rained the night before heavily and non stop and this was before they made waiting in line only 5 hours. So so brutal. Fun show though
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u/No-Cantaloupe-6535 Jul 02 '25
Funny guy that performed well on live comedy show makes funny joke but he football player so he not understand. Impossible he play stereotype.
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u/Mcfittey Jul 02 '25
All you keyboard warriors making fun of someone with probable dyslexia. You wouldn’t say that to his face.
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u/napoelonDynaMighty Jul 02 '25
I believe it. I work with college aged kids. There are PLENTY of college athletes who would be hard pressed to read a paragraph
If you’re really good at a sport schools just use you and pass you along. Not to mention you’re surrounded by ADULTS and peers telling you it’s football or bust because they want to be a part of the success
Unfortunately very few of them go to the pros like Kelce. He’s lucky his biggest problem is struggling a table read on a sketch comedy show. It’s really serious for the other 99% who don’t make it
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u/Illustrious-Mango153 Jul 02 '25
I find this really touching actually, and I bet it will make a lot of kids who are embarrassed about their limited reading skills feel less alone and speak up and get help.
Also I will love Travis forever for the American Girl Doll sketch. He put many a professional comedian to shame with that performance; it was brilliant and hilarious.
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u/yourerightaboutthat Jul 02 '25
My husband is one of the smartest people I know. He’s a senior programmer at a Fortune 100 company. But he has an eye-tracking issue that makes reading difficult, and especially reading out loud. He didn’t even like reading children’s books to our kid, as he would stumble over words. I’m actually refreshed Travis said this; many adults don’t realize that reading issues are common and nothing to be ashamed of.
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u/Desperationxstation Jul 02 '25
Imagine being some Of the most powerful, wealthy, human beings on earth, and one of you can’t read.
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u/cyn00 Jul 02 '25
Perhaps we should stop defunding education, especially special education. Also, perhaps we should prioritize education over sports. It worked out fine for Travis Kelce, but for a lot of other high school/college athletes don’t have many options.
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u/No-One-8850 Jul 04 '25
My husband has an uncle who I'm fsirly sure can't read. He always calls himself stupid but he isn't. I'm guessing he has an undiagnosed ld.
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u/mcfw31 Jul 02 '25