Tom Hanks has been under fire from Megyn Kelly, who says that during his most recent Saturday Night Live appearance, he depicted Trump fans as “worthless racists.”
There has been some debate surrounding SNL’s 50th anniversary special, to be sure.
To begin with, Ryan Reynolds allegedly alluded subtly to the ongoing legal dispute between Justin Baldoni and his wife, Blake Lively.
The late Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, who notoriously tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II during her 1992 appearance on the show, was then criticized by Miley Cyrus.
Another celebrity who has caused division among the public is Tom Hanks, who made a comeback to the show as Doug, his MAGA-voting character.
When Doug first appeared on the show in 2016, he took part in a comic Kenan Thompson-hosted spoof game show comedy called Black Jeopardy.
In the spoof, the 68-year-old, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, started to lose his mind as Thompson’s character attempted to shake his hand.
“I don’t like that, whoa, whoa, whoa,” Doug said after finally administering the greeting. We’ll name it White Jeopardy, and I might start a program for you.
After being aired last weekend (February 15), Hanks’ performance went viral and was criticized by 45-year-old political analyst Kelly.
On Tuesday, February 18, the former Fox News anchor acknowledged that she was not entirely satisfied with the way the celebrity portrayed Trump voters in her SiriusXM podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show.
About his SNL sketch, she remarked, “Shame on him.” Do you know who got it for Tom Hanks? He’s probably worth a billion dollars.
“All of us… who watched entertaining Tom Hanks films like Big, Forrest Gump, and others and never once imagined that he was condemning them as worthless, ignorant, rural racists.”
It was “shocking,” Kelly continued, to watch someone who supposedly “tries so carefully not to be too divisive in his choices” come out and “suggest he thinks Trump supporters are racists.”
As she went on, the mother of three criticized SNL for its long-running “anti-conservative programming” in an interview with Sky News.
“For 12 years and more, they have been openly promoting leftist, anti-conservative, and anti-Trump programming,” she told the site.
Kelly’s podcast guest, novelist Walter Kirn, said that he didn’t believe Hanks would ever “stoop to this kind of thing.”
The 62-year-old said, “He was the big loser, and it is terrible writing, it was a terrible skit.”
Social media is replete with comments along the lines of, “I don’t think I’m going to be watching him again anytime soon.”
Another X user said, “They’re still playing the same card,” in response to Hanks’ portrayal of the “redneck.” It’s quite exhausting.
Many admirers, however, have given the actor high marks.
A social media user said, “I realize I’m late to this, but Tom Hanks’ portrayal of the average racist MAGA voter on SNL was spot on and deserves every award.”
Another commented, “MAGA should ask themselves why they get upset with Tom Hanks in this SNL ****skit.” and then take a look at themselves.
Tyla has been in touch with Tom Hanks’ agent to get further information.
