MAGA supporters have been throwing a fit over Tom Hanks’ recent appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” where the “Forrest Gump” actor reprised his character as Doug. The comedy show recently celebrated its 50th anniversary and brought back some of its most famous sketches including “Black Jeopardy!” in which Hanks appeared. “SNL” alums Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, Eddie Murphy also appeared in the segment.
The character donned a MAGA hat and an American Eagle shirt — and refused to shake hands with Kenan Thompson’s character, Darnell Hayes, before eventually agreeing.
“Thank you, my brother,” Doug said during the awkward exchange. “Now maybe I’ll start a show for you to come on and we’ll call it ‘White Jeopardy.’”
“The View” host, Joy Behar, sympathized with Trump supporters — including former co-host Meghan McCain — who felt disappointed with the sketch.
“Tom Hanks always wants to pretend he’s the likable everyman but he’s as hate mongering of regular Americans as any host on msnbc,” McCain stated on X. Behar echoed this sentiment on the Tuesday episode of the popular daytime show.
“The fact remains that they’re making anyone who voted for Trump look like a racist, and that’s why they’re mad,” Behar said, as reported by Variety. “I personally would never do that, because I don’t believe that any group is one thing. A lot of these people [who voted for Trump], in my opinion, have been misled...it’s not only racism that caused Trump to be in office. We have to remember that.”
However, co-host Sunny Hostin reminded that Hanks first played the Doug role in 2016 and it was extremely popular at the time.
“I think it’s a very subversive sketch,” Hostin explained. “In fact, it’s about Black culture being American culture.”
Hostin also compared Hanks hesitating to shake Thompson’s hand to Republican Sen. Deb Fischer’s husband refusing to shake Vice President Kamala Harris’ hand earlier this year.
Behar’s “The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin — who once worked in Trump’s administration — agreed with Hostin and said she “personally thinks the outrage over it is a little overblown.”