# SNL Black Jeopardy with Tom Hanks **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 24, 2016, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559 "2016-10-24T00:46:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2016, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/41 "2016-10-25T22:44:19Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > We can argue about what constitutes “doing this before” (I disagree with you), but the poster I was responding to seemed to never have seen any version of “Black Jeopardy” other than this one. Hence my response. Didn’t Chappell used to do a similar bit? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2016, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/42 "2016-10-25T22:56:38Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Didn’t Chappell used to do a similar bit? Chappelle’s “how can black people overcome?” game show skit was what came to mind for me when watching the Tom Hanks SNL piece. Not identical by any means, but the later one surely owes something to the earlier one. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/43 "2016-10-26T02:13:53Z")
Is it okay if this old white guy likes this bit? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/44 "2016-10-26T10:40:35Z")
NPR just did a piece on this skit. They haven’t posted it on [NPR.org](http://NPR.org) yet but I am sure they will. SPOILER! Nice analysis of it, with nice insights about how the Final Jeopardy topic - Lives that Matter - completely re-contextualizes the whole skit. Worth listening to. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/45 "2016-10-26T11:48:21Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > NPR just did a piece on this skit. They haven’t posted it on [NPR.org](http://NPR.org) yet but I am sure they will. Here it is: ['Black Jeopardy' Sketch Is Compelling Analysis, 'Slate' Correspondent Says : NPR](http://www.npr.org/2016/10/26/499409086/-black-jeopardy-on-snl-is-compelling-political-analysis-slate-s-bouie-says) ---
**Author:** ![planetcory](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/planetcory/32/1032_2.png) [@planetcory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planetcory)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/46 "2016-10-26T13:00:35Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Didn’t Chappell used to do a similar bit? His [I Know Black People](http://www.whoisthemonkey.com/videos/26chappelle-s-show-i-know-black-people) is a similar idea except using real contestants. So, not so much a sketch. More of a funny exercise. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/47 "2016-10-26T14:29:21Z")
> [@planetcory](#): > > The white contestants sometimes stumble into a right answer, but not often. The joke, however, is not that they’re clueless but that the questions are (cartoonishly) culturally impenetrable. [For example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWuJHbVZBQg). Interesting to see the evolution of a skit. That one, while funny, isn’t anywhere as good as the Hanks one. It’s trying too hard, and doesn’t quite make it over the top. I’m a white guy. Can I say that? ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/48 "2016-10-26T15:25:09Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Here it is: ['Black Jeopardy' Sketch Is Compelling Analysis, 'Slate' Correspondent Says : NPR](http://www.npr.org/2016/10/26/499409086/-black-jeopardy-on-snl-is-compelling-political-analysis-slate-s-bouie-says) That was awful. He was reviewing a sketch he wished aired and not the one that did. There is no empathy for the Tom Hanks character, he is a paranoid idiot with horrible taste in movies and is probaby a racist. The joke is that so are the black contestants. The sketch is about making fun of lower class people. The only innovation is that it makes fun of lower class blacks and whites at the same time. Middlebrow people such a NPR’s audience and apparently Mr. Bouie recognize some pop Marxism in the sketch and so they want it to be about that instead of paranoid mindset of lower class people. ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/49 "2016-10-26T15:30:01Z")
… yeah, okay. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/50 "2016-10-26T15:37:09Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > That was awful. He was reviewing a sketch he wished aired and not the one that did. > There is no empathy for the Tom Hanks character, he is a paranoid idiot with horrible taste in movies and is probaby a racist. The joke is that so are the black contestants. The sketch is about making fun of lower class people. The only innovation is that it makes fun of lower class blacks and whites at the same time. > Middlebrow people such a NPR’s audience and apparently Mr. Bouie recognize some pop Marxism in the sketch and so they want it to be about that instead of paranoid mindset of lower class people. Wow. I really didn’t interpret it that way. Not saying you are incorrect, only that YMMV’s for sure! 😉 I saw it as the reviewer did: starts off as a fun way to show how folks have more in common than we thought, but with the FJ topic, pointing out that those commonalities can’t bring us together if we can’t agree on more fundamental issues that exist in our society, such as whether African Americans have a legit issue that is currently framed as the Black Lives Matter meme/movement. I did not see it making fun of lower class people and the types of beliefs they would have. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/51 "2016-10-26T17:14:29Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > That was awful. He was reviewing a sketch he wished aired and not the one that did. > There is no empathy for the Tom Hanks character, he is a paranoid idiot with horrible taste in movies and is probaby a racist. The joke is that so are the black contestants. The sketch is about making fun of lower class people. The only innovation is that it makes fun of lower class blacks and whites at the same time. > Middlebrow people such a NPR’s audience and apparently Mr. Bouie recognize some pop Marxism in the sketch and so they want it to be about that instead of paranoid mindset of lower class people. 180˚ opposite of how I took the whole sketch. I mean completely and totally opposite. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/52 "2016-10-26T17:21:39Z")
Yeah, **Puddleglum** I think you’re in the minority (ahem) with that take. I think the skit was actually pretty affectionate for both the Hanks character and the black characters. An outside observer might judge them based on their political paranoia or tastes in movies, but that’s on us and not the skit. I actually felt a twinge of empathy for the Trump supporter, and that takes some doing. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/53 "2016-10-26T19:40:44Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > That was awful. He was reviewing a sketch he wished aired and not the one that did. > There is no empathy for the Tom Hanks character, he is a paranoid idiot with horrible taste in movies and is probaby a racist. The joke is that so are the black contestants. The sketch is about making fun of lower class people. The only innovation is that it makes fun of lower class blacks and whites at the same time. > Middlebrow people such a NPR’s audience and apparently Mr. Bouie recognize some pop Marxism in the sketch and so they want it to be about that instead of paranoid mindset of lower class people. I’m part of the minority who agrees with puddleglum. What the sketch characters were bonding over was their distrust of Those In Charge; clearly not one of them believes they are a part of the American democracy. They see themselves as the victims of the elites, just trying to get by. > [@](#): > > HOST: They out here saying every vote counts. > DOUG: What is, come on, they already decided who wins even before it happens. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/54 "2016-10-26T19:43:15Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > I’m part of the minority who agrees with puddleglum. What the sketch characters were bonding over was their distrust of Those In Charge; clearly not one of them believes they are a part of the American democracy. They see themselves as the victims of the elites, just trying to get by. Yes, they are bonding over distrust of the elites, but does that mean the viewers are _laughing_ at them for doing so, as **puddleglum** states? I don’t see it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/55 "2016-10-26T19:51:14Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Yes, they are bonding over distrust of the elites, but does that mean the viewers are _laughing_ at them for doing so, as **puddleglum** states? I don’t see it that way. Weeeelllll… I don’t know about\*\* puddlegum\*\*, but that’s why\* I\* am laughing at them. Unless you think that the SNL staff thinks the Illuminati really controls the election, so are they. Do you think Madea films deserve Oscars? Do you think iPhones send our fingerprints to the gubmint? If not, they why aren’t you laughing at their shared ignorance and distrust of the world? Unlike the other BJ sketch linked earlier, where I laughed because the questions were so inscrutable and seemingly random to me that I felt I was watching a different language. But in that case, I was laughing at _myself_ for being deaf and blind to such a large part of American culture. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/56 "2016-10-27T16:12:17Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Weeeelllll… > > I don’t know about\*\* puddlegum\*\*, but that’s why\* I\* am laughing at them. Unless you think that the SNL staff thinks the Illuminati really controls the election, so are they. Do you think Madea films deserve Oscars? Do you think iPhones send our fingerprints to the gubmint? If not, they why aren’t you laughing at their shared ignorance and distrust of the world? > > Unlike the other BJ sketch linked earlier, where I laughed because the questions were so inscrutable and seemingly random to me that I felt I was watching a different language. But in that case, I was laughing at _myself_ for being deaf and blind to such a large part of American culture. Part of the disconnect is that Trump and his supporters have been mocked as racists so much, any depiction of one that doesn’t have a hood on and isn’t screaming racial epithets is thought to be sympathetic. That is why a slow talking hillbilly whose vet and mechanic are the same person can possibly seen as a kind portrait. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/57 "2016-10-27T17:04:41Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > …It was brilliant, the very people Trump’s supporters fear, are possibly the ones they have the most in common with. Awesome. Huh. I didn’t see an illegal immigrant or a Muslim terrorist anywhere in that sketch. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/58 "2016-10-27T23:36:45Z")
Is there a difference? d&r ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/59 "2016-10-28T00:14:31Z")
That was a _great_ acting job by Hanks. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559/60 "2016-10-28T00:42:42Z")
Are the answers to these questions readily apparent to black people, generally? They were certainly an impenetrable fog to this white person, but I wonder if they really are that obvious if you’re black, or to what extent the obviousness is exaggerated for the purposes of the skit. [QUOTE=puddlegum] There is no empathy for the Tom Hanks character, he is a paranoid idiot with horrible taste in movies and is probaby a racist. The joke is that so are the black contestants. The sketch is about making fun of lower class people. The only innovation is that it makes fun of lower class blacks and whites at the same time. [/QUOTE] I thought that a major part of the skit was to demonstrate how both stereotypes of lower-class white and black people were absurd. I didn’t find any of the characterizations particularly sympathetic or realistic, but that wasn’t the point of the skit. [QUOTE=Drunky Smurf] People of the same economic class have a lot in common regardless of race. [/QUOTE] That was the point of the skit - that many behaviors and lifestyles are driven by economic insecurity, and that this insecurity is deeply felt by many people who may find themselves on opposite sides of the issues. **Drunky** , I wish you posted serious more often. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snl-black-jeopardy-with-tom-hanks/769559.md?page=4)