“Saturday Night Live” used its 50th anniversary to bring back many of its most famous cast members and guest hosts and the show’s writers made the most of that opportunity. In a long night full of reprises for the series’ most beloved characters, only one managed to stick out in the minds of Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters.
Guest star Tom Hanks reappeared on the long-running sketch “Black Jeopardy” as Doug, a poor, Southern MAGA true-believer who finds a surprising amount of common ground with the show’s Black contestants. The sketch’s typical premise — in which white contestants are left stumped by clues that are lay-ups for the Black competitors — was first turned on its head by Hanks in 2016.
Hanks returned to the character at the tail-end of the Kenan Thompson-led sketch, which also starred former “SNL” cast members Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan and Eddie Murphy (who was impersonating Morgan). After Hanks shared that the world would be better off if more people went to church, Thompson approached to shake his hand. As Doug, Hanks recoiled in horror, before tentatively accepting the handshake.
The idea that a MAGA conservative might also be a racist — something borne out by the tweets of certain former DOGE employees if nothing else — was a bridge too far for right-wing commentators.
CNN pundit Scott Jennings said the sketch could be included in a book on why Republicans will never lose another presidential election.
“Unbelievably offensive,” he shared on X. “They’ve learned nothing.”
Benny Johnson, the noted plagiarist who failed to live up to the journalistic standards of boom-times Buzzfeed, echoed the idea that Democrats have a lot to learn.
“SNL decided it was a good idea to depict Tom Hanks as a ‘Racist Trump Supporter’ in a MAGA Hat afraid to shake a black man’s hand,” he wrote on X. “Donald Trump just won a landslide election and has never been more popular with Americans.”
The chirping managed to break its containment on X, making it to the airwaves via a shocked and aghast segment on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
“I don’t censor comedy, but that wasn’t funny,” said host Lawrence Jones.
Watch the sketch below:
