Tom Hanks’ appearance on SNL’s 50th anniversary special stirred up controversy. He played a White Trump supporter wearing a MAGA hat and using a rural accent.
In the skit, Hanks was a contestant on "Black Jeopardy." When he got an answer right, host Kenan Thompson congratulated him. Hanks’ character hesitated before shaking his hand.
"For its 50-year anniversary special, SNL had Tom Hanks play a racist Trump supporter afraid to shake a black man’s hand," Clay Travis wrote on X. "Fun fact: Trump’s 2024 election win was the LEAST racially divisive American election since 1964."
Hanks played the same character in 2016. That skit aired just days before Trump’s first election victory.
Link Lauren, a former political advisor to RFK Jr., called the bit a "tired trope." He blamed it for SNL’s declining 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," Lauren wrote. "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."
Conservative influencer Kevin Dalton also slammed the skit. "Tom Hanks in a MAGA hat, horrified at the idea of shaking a black man’s hand, tells you everything you need to know about what the left has learned since November," he wrote.
Three former SNL cast members weighed in on the state of comedy. Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealon, and Siobhan Fallon Hogan said that comedy has become sharper and more snarky in recent years.