SNL Issues a Satirical Apology for 'Problematic' Sketches

Full disclosure: I meant to watch the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special on Sunday night, but I totally forgot about it. Over the past half-century, SNL has had plenty of funny moments that would have been worth revisiting, so maybe I'll catch it on streaming.

The original cast was revolutionary; even when their sketches failed, they still somehow managed to make the audience laugh. I’m a particular fan of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s cast that included so many greats like Dana Carvey, Victoria Jackson, Tim Meadows, and the late Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks.

Of course, the show’s political bias has overshadowed the comedy in recent years. Here’s an example: eight years ago, Tom Hanks appeared in one of the show’s “Black Jeopardy” sketches as a Donald Trump voter named Doug. The sketch was funny and effective at demonstrating how much rural Americans and black Americans have in common.

However, at one point, the host (Kenan Thompson) walks over to shake Doug’s hand, and Doug bristles. It’s the hoariest of stereotypes: the conservative who is standoffish and fearful of black people.

Unbelievable
Tom Hanks in a MAGA hat refusing to shake hands with Keenan Thompson is a call back from eight years ago on SNL… https://t.co/aQZS1SyRsK pic.twitter.com/ztGqVsiq7w
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) February 17, 2025

SNL brought Doug back for a guest appearance on the 50th anniversary special and repeated the dumb jump-back-from-a-handshake moment.

Tom Hanks in a MAGA hat, horrified at the idea of shaking a black man’s hand, tells you everything you need to know about what the left has learned since November and why they will thankfully continue to lose landslide election after landslide election for the foreseeable future pic.twitter.com/igcPmKhKTM
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) February 17, 2025

It was a bad joke eight years ago, and it comes across as ridiculously tone-deaf after an election in which Trump captured so much of the black vote.

At one point during the special, NBC trotted Hanks back out to do what started out sounding like an “In Memoriam” segment. Hanks might be the only person who could embody the amount of gravitas and humor to set up the video, and he balanced it well.

“As we celebrate the achievements of the past 50 years, we must also take a moment to honor those who we've lost countless members of the SNL family taken from us too soon,” Hanks began. “I'm speaking, of course, about SNL characters and sketches that have aged horribly. But even though these characters’ accents and — just call them ethnic — wigs were unquestionably in poor taste, you all laughed at them.”

“So if anyone should be canceled, shouldn't it be you, the audience?” he continued. “Something to think about.”

The video is obviously tongue-in-cheek, and many of the quick clips came from forgettable sketches that aren’t funny simply because they’re not funny. In 50 years of trying to make people laugh, some jokes and scenes are bound to fall flat.

Some iconic moments show up as well. Dan Aykroyd’s famous line, “Jane, you ignorant slut” falls under the “slut-shaming” category, while Chris Farley’s hilarious Chippendales audition finds itself in the category of “fat shaming.” The sequence also mentions some of the questionable celebrities who appeared on the show, including OJ Simpson, R. Kelly, and Jared Fogle of Subway infamy. Oddly enough, the montage didn’t include Sinead O’Connor ripping up a photo of the pope or any clips that skewered conservatives.

Weirdly, the video blurs out clips of cast members appearing in blackface and other ethnic makeup even as it uses those moments as examples of "problematic" comedy. It concludes with Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor calling each other racial epithets and Chase calling Pryor the N-word (bleeped in the montage, of course).

In Memoriam #SNL50 pic.twitter.com/8aUmE6nHgy
— Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) February 17, 2025

Here’s what’s weird about it all. Even though it was a satirical “apology,” framing it as an apology at all massively caves to the left’s visions of what is and isn’t acceptable speech — which SNL has done a lot of in recent years, anyway.

Some jokes and sketches don’t age well for a plethora of reasons, and not everyone is going to find every bit funny. However, these days, too many people are quick to take offense at jokes from earlier eras rather than moving on to find something different to laugh about. (And yes, I realize I’m saying this after I called out the Trump voter schtick in the SNL sketches.)

Not everything is for everybody, but anybody can find something to laugh about. That’s what makes humor so great.