‘That’s Ridiculous!’ Fox News Hosts Lash Out Over Tom Hanks Trump Fan Bit On SNL
Fox News hosts lashed out over a Saturday Night Live sketch in which they claimed a Trump fan played by Tom Hanks was portrayed as “racist” and which they called “ridiculous” and “not funny.”
On Sunday night, the long-running sketch show celebrated its 50th anniversary with a three-hour SNL50 special that included a bit in which Hanks is frightened by Black Jeopardy! host Kenan Thompson’s offer of a handshake, interpreting the greeting as an act of violence.
The joke drew condemnation from MAGA fans on social media, and from Lawrence Jones and Kayleigh McEnany on Monday’s edition of Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends.
Jones refuted the bit by recounting his experiences at Trump rallies:
CARLEY SHIMKUS: Actor Tom Hanks joined in on the celebration with this interesting MAGA portrayal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM HANKS: I know exactly who that is. The church lady!
KENAN THOMPSON: Yes. Yes, that is correct, Doug! That is the church lady. $400 for you!
TOM HANKS: Thank you. Speaking of church, can I say something? If more folks went to church, we wouldn’t be in this mess we’re in now.
KENAN THOMPSON: You know what? I agree with you, Doug. I’d like to shake your hand, sir. Here we go.
TOM HANKS: (HANDS UP — BACKING AWAY FEARFULLY) No, no, no!
KENAN THOMPSON: No, no. It’s just a handshake.
TOM HANKS: Oh all right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLEY SHIMKUS: The show ending with a memorable performance by Beatles singer Paul McCartney, who performed an Abbey Road medley. Guys, that SNL 50 is making getting a lot of attention even as we enter this week. It happened over the weekend. Of course.
LAWRENCE JONES: I don’t censor comedy, but that wasn’t funny.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY: No, They must have gotten the script from Don Lemon. Remember when he made fun of MAGA voters, or his guest did for not being able to point out a country on the map? That’s ridiculous!
STEVE DOOCY: I did. I watched the first hour. It was great. It was very funny. Steve Martin was very funny.
And the funny thing the funny thing about that particular skit and Tom Hanks came in at the end of a game show they called BlackJeopardy.
The funniest part was they had Eddie Murphy return. They had a lot of returning alums of SNL come by.
He came in and he did a dead on impersonation of Tracy Morgan, who is standing right next to him. It was hilarious.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY: Hilarious. But that was SNL in its Wonder Years, right, when you had Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy, the new SNL. I mean, I don’t.
LAWRENCE JONES: Watch the clip, but the implication of that last part that we played was, is that the Trump voter didn’t want to shake the black.
STEVE DOOCY: They’re racist!
KAYLEIGH MCENANY: Yeah.
LAWRENCE JONES: And I mean, as someone that is probably cover more Trump rallies than anyone at this network, especially when I was a correspondent for Sean Hannity. There’s a lot of love there.
And I think one of the underreported stories is the Black voters are in poor neighborhoods, working class neighborhood, and the white voters in the Trump coalition, how they felt left behind.
And that’s what Trump went after this last election. So this whole notion that they’re distant from minority communities, that this election just disproved all of that, that’s well-said.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY: That’s a really underreported storyline and a beautiful one when you really look at it.
Watch above via Saturday Night Live.
