Why SNL's "Black Jeopardy" Sketch with Tom Hanks Was Called "Sneakily Profound"
This SNL sketch from 2016 is a must-watch.
In the weeks leading up to February 16's three-hour 50th anniversary celebration on NBC, the team behind Saturday Night Live has selected one sketch from every single season — 50 seasons in 50 days — to reflect the show's rich legacy across five decades. Presenting the sketch that represents Season 42: "Black Jeopardy" starring Tom Hanks.
"Black Jeopardy" originally debuted on the March 29, 2014 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by comedian Louis C.K. The game show parody returned for the November 14, 2015 episode hosted by Elizabeth Banks, and then again when Drake hosted on May 14, 2016.
On October 22, 2016, Tom Hanks returned to the SNL stage to host for a ninth time. The episode was not only notable for the debut of Hanks as David S. Pumpkins but also for a memorable installment of "Black Jeopardy" where Tom Hanks played a contestant named Doug. Wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat, Doug looked out of place on the "Black Jeopardy" stage — but he ended up having more in common with the other players than anyone could have anticipated.
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For Hanks' "Black Jeopardy," Kenan Thompson reprised his role as the game show's host, Darnell Hayes, with Sasheer Zamata as Keeley, and Leslie Jones as Shanice, the two other Contestants going up against Doug.
"Doug, you sure you ready to play 'Black Jeopardy?'" Darnell asked him after he introduced the players.
"They told me a fella could win some money, so let's win me some money, get her done," Doug replied in a Southern drawl.
Darnell read off the categories, and after Keeley and Shanice each rang in with a right answer, Doug buzzed in, surprising everyone with a correct answer — the first of multiple, which was a twist on the "Black Jeopardy" premise.
How Tom Hanks' "Black Jeopardy" changed the game on SNL
"Previously it was always white people not getting it. And then it was like, what if [Hanks] gets the answers right and shows that we do come from the same things?" SNL co-head writer Michael Che said in a 2018 "Black Jeopardy" oral history for Vulture.
"It’s not really 'Black Jeopardy'; it’s a community of people who get these things. We wrote pages and pages of jokes and then picked the best ones," he continued.
Thompson told Vulture how they didn't want to let Tom Hanks down. "You don’t want this to be, like, the one weird thing in the show just because there’s a tough situation going on with the country," he said, referring to the divisive 2016 presidential election, which was happening when the episode aired.
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"Tom Hanks is incredible at taking any character and making him human. And at the time, there was a very large division in the country. So him playing a character that was so far on the other side of the aisle, it was super-bold," Thompson added.
It's been almost a decade since it originally aired, and Hanks' "Black Jeopardy" is still a fan favorite, with the sketch racking up more than 83 million views on YouTube alone. Paste Magazine called the sketch "sneakily profound, quietly subversive, and sweetly optimistic." Even Oprah Winfrey was a fan.
"Tom Hanks told me that Oprah called him about [the sketch]," SNL writer Bryan Tucker — who created "Black Jeopardy" with Che — told Vulture. "Which was cool."
