Tom Hanks has triggered a full-blown MAGA tantrum after reprising his role as a Trump supporter on Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary special. The beloved actor’s return to Black Jeopardy!—one of SNL’s most popular sketches—has sent conservatives into an absolute tailspin.
Tom Hanks brings back ‘Doug’—and MAGA loses it
SNL celebrated its milestone episode by bringing back some of its biggest hits, including Black Jeopardy!, a satirical game show that first aired in 2014. The sketch puts a white contestant in a trivia contest designed for Black culture—usually with hilariously awkward results.
Enter Doug, Hanks’ character from 2016, a Trump supporter clad in a MAGA hat and American Eagle shirt, speaking in a thick Southern drawl. Last time around, Doug shocked audiences by actually nailing many of the answers, proving that—shock horror—there might be some common ground between Trump supporters and the Black community.
That nuance, however, was completely lost on conservatives this time around.
Doug still refuses a handshake—eight years later
Hanks’ Doug once again hesitated to shake hands with host Darnell Hayes (Kenan Thompson), before reluctantly giving in.
“Don’t like that, whoa, whoa, whoa,” he muttered, as though eight years hadn’t taught him a thing.
And then came the kicker—Doug, clearly still not getting the point of the game, suggested:
“Maybe I’ll start a show for you to come on, and we’ll call it ‘White Jeopardy.’”
At this point, conservative America exploded.
Right-wing outrage: ‘Hollywood still doesn’t get it’
Within minutes, right-wing commentators were frothing at the mouth.
- Benny Johnson, a MAGA commentator, fumed: “Donald Trump just won a landslide election and has never been more popular. They have learned nothing.”
- Clay Travis, founder of OutKick, ranted about how SNL was still stuck in 2016 while Trump’s support among minority voters had grown.
- Mario Nawfal, another right-wing voice, branded the sketch “tone deaf”, claiming Hollywood was still portraying Trump supporters as racist caricatures despite his “record” minority support.
‘SNL is for snobbish liberal elites!’
Meanwhile, Link Lauren, a former aide to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., seethed:
“This show wonders why their ratings are in the gutter. Trump won the popular vote. This tired trope that MAGA is racist is disgusting. SNL is an unfunny show for snobbish liberal elites!”
It’s worth noting that Trump did not win the popular vote in either 2016 or 2020, but let’s not get bogged down with facts.
‘No one was laughing!’ MAGA influencers furious at Tom Hanks
Over on X (formerly Twitter), MAGA influencers piled in:
- Dominick McGee (dom_lucre) raged that Hanks “just disrespected every Republican” by dressing up as a Trump supporter.
- Another user whined: “No one in the audience laughs as Tom Hanks appears on SNL as a racist Trump supporter that refuses to shake hands with a Black man.”
- A Trump fan account added: “Tom Hanks and SNL thought it would be hilarious to stereotype half the country in a desperate attempt to cope with Democrats’ crushing defeat in November.”
Clearly, satire is still lost on some people.
SNL ratings ‘in the toilet’? Not quite…
Despite the outrage, SNL remains one of the longest-running and most influential comedy shows on TV. And if history tells us anything, it’s that the more conservatives rage about a sketch, the funnier it probably was.
As for Hanks? Something tells us he’s not losing any sleep over MAGA’s latest meltdown.
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