'The View' split on Tom Hanks' MAGA 'SNL' character, from empathy to 'overblown' outrage

When it comes to Tom Hanks' controversial Trump supporting character in the "Black Jeopardy" sketch that aired during "Saturday Night Live's" 50th anniversary special over the weekend, the ladies of "The View" are divided.

On Tuesday's episode of the talk show, Joy Behar said, "The fact remains that they’re making anyone who voted for Trump look like a racist, and that’s why they’re mad. I personally would never do that, because I don’t believe that any group is one thing."

Hanks' character, Doug, sported a Southern drawl and wore an eagle shirt to complement his red "Make America Great Again" cap.

Sunny Hostin, meanwhile, called it "a very subversive sketch, in fact; it's about Black culture being American culture." And former Trump administration official Alyssa Farah Griffin found "the outrage over it is a little overblown."

Whoopi Goldberg pointed out the backlash is against a caricature that's been on the show before, noting Hanks' Doug was "a callback" to his 2016 debut just weeks before Trump's first presidential election win.

Hosted as usual by Kenan Thompson's Darnell, the "SNL50" version of "Black Jeopardy!" featured Leslie Jones, Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan and Eddie Murphy, who was showing off a pretty spot-on Tracy Morgan impression. The big punchline of this particular episode? None of the contestants knew what "SNL" was.

Mirroring his character's ignorance in the 2016 sketch, at the end of the segment Doug suggested that he make his own show called "White Jeopardy!" so Darnell can join him. No, "we don't need it. We don't need it," Thompson's Darnell said.

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Tom Hanks' MAGA hat-wearing Doug debuted on 'SNL' in 2016

"Black Jeopardy," created by "Weekend Update" host Michael Che and "SNL" senior writer Bryan Tucker, made its debut in 2014 and made a few subsequent appearances on "SNL" in 2015 and 2016.

Hanks' Doug first appeared in the Oct. 22, 2016, episode. The crux of the joke was that his MAGA hat-wearing character knew just as much about African American culture as the other contestants — played by Sasheer Zamata and Leslie Jones — who are Black.

In an oral history of the sketch published by Vulture in 2018, Tucker explained Doug's origin.

"I know people on the right, my family included. I was noticing a lot of overlap between what some people on the right think and what some Black people think. I texted Che and said, 'Maybe there’s something here,'" he told Vulture.

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Che chimed in: "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? It’s not really Black Jeopardy; it’s a community of people who get these things."

Tom Hanks came up with his character's racist background

At the end of the sketch, Hanks doubles down on his character's racist twist that was revealed when Doug disagreed with the answers in the "lives that matter" category. In a move that Hanks did a call back to in "SNL50," Doug initially recoiled from a handshake with host Darnell (played by Thompson). According to Vulture's oral history, the move was all Hanks'.

Leslie Jones told Vulture: "Remember when Kenan went to go shake his hand and (Hanks) stepped back? (Hanks) didn’t tell those people he was gonna do any of that."

Tucker said, "He discovered that handshake in the moment. And Kenan also made the choice to come around the podium to shake his hand to help with that joke."

Thompson had to think on his feet after the improvised act, he said.

"My host character reaching his hand out to somebody who might unnecessarily be afraid of him — I’ve experienced things like that, so when he did it, I laughed super-hard in my mind but played it off," he said. "It was the most natural ad-lib I’ve ever done."

Former 'The View' co-host Meghan McCain blasts Hanks' character as 'hate mongering'

Former "The View" co-host Meghan McCain was among those offended by Hanks' character.

"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," she wrote in an X post Monday. "Good luck becoming less and less culturally relevant by the second bro."

Contributing: Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'The View' debates backlash to Tom Hanks' MAGA 'SNL' character