The 50th-anniversary special of ‘SNL’ aired on Sunday. The veteran actor was one of dozens of SNL alums who appeared on the sketch show’s 50th-anniversary special. In one skit, Hanks appears as a man named Doug on a parody game show called Black Jeopardy hosted by Kenan Thompson. The sketch originally aired in a 2016 episode. For the part, Hanks wore a red “Make America Great Again” hat in addition to a flannel shirt and T-shirt with a bald eagle on it. Despite not being part of the game show’s demographic, the Southern man is hilariously still capable of correctly answering the questions.
![[Hanks played Doug in ‘SNL50’s’ Black Jeopardy sketch]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/02/17/15/34/tom-hanks.jpeg)
In the initial sketch, Doug backs away from the show’s host when he tries to shake his hand before eventually caving in. Once again, Doug hesitated before shaking the host’s hand in Sunday’s episode. “Don’t like that, whoa, whoa, whoa,” he tells Thompson’s character Darnell Hayes, adding during another point of the sketch, “Maybe I’ll start a show for you to come on and we’ll call it White Jeopardy.”.
On X, prominent Republicans tore into the sketch over Hanks’s portrayal. “Tom Hanks went on SNL dressed like a slob mocking millions of Trump supporters - portraying them as dumb, racist, rednecks,” one post began. “Keep it up libs. You'll never win another election again.”. Popular right-wing commentator Benny Johnson raged: “Donald Trump just won a landslide election and has never been more popular with Americans. They have learned nothing.”.
Former Robert F. Kennedy Jr. aide Link Lauren also weighed in on the sketch, claiming that Hanks’s character is why the show isn’t receiving higher ratings. “Tom Hanks just came out on SNL in a MAGA hat for a bit where he acted like he didn’t want to shake a black man’s hand,” his post began. “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. The current Republican Party is a big tent coalition compromised of many former Democrats. Good riddance, SNL!”.
Elsewhere in the episode, Meryl Streep won praise for her performance in the recurring Close Encounters sketch, in which Pentagon officials played by Jon Hamm and Aidy Bryant interview characters who claim to have been abducted by aliens. Fans claimed Streep did such a good job playing the mother of Kate McKinnon’s Colleen Rafferty — who often regales her explicit rendezvous with extraterrestrials — that she deserved an Emmy.
