‘The View’ Cohosts Split on ‘SNL’ ‘Black Jeopardy’ Controversy

Saturday Night Live‘s big 50th-anniversary celebration was a star-studded affair that paid tribute to the highs and lows of the show’s half-century on air, but one part of the special has certain audiences talking more than others: “Black Jeopardy!”

Yes, the fan-favorite sketch returned for another segment on Sunday, with Kenan Thompson hosting and Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, and Eddie Murphy starring as contestants. Tom Hanks also dropped in to reprise his role as MAGA hat-wearer Doug — a role which he originated back in 2016 — and some Donald Trump supporters took that personally, it seems.

In the sketch, Hanks appeared as Doug in the final moments, answering a question about “The Church Lady” character and contending that “we wouldn’t be in this mess” if more people went to church, earning a handshake offer from the host, which he appeared scared to accept at first. After that moment of awkwardness passed, with the host saying Doug is welcome anytime, he returned with, “Maybe I’ll start a show for you to come on, and we’ll call it, ‘White Jeopardy!'”

“Some conservative viewers were not laughing at that part,” Whoopi Goldberg explained after reviewing a clip from the segment. “I guess they thought this was new. There was a new addition, but this is a callback.”

“The fact remains that they’re making anyone who voted for Trump look like a racist, and that’s why they’re mad,” Joy Behar added.

“I personally would never do that because I don’t believe that any group is one thing. A lot of these people, in my opinion, have been misled,” Behar continued. “They thought that grocery prices would come down; they’re up. They thought inflation was coming down; it’s up. They thought that Medicaid was safe; it’s not. They thought Social Security was safe; it’s not. So it’s not only racism that caused Trump to be in office. We have to remember that. So, of course, they’re going to be insulted. We were insulted by Bill O’Reilly when he when he had a broad stroke on my folks. In the same way, it’s the same thing. And if they can do it to them, they can do it to us.”

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“I have a different take on that,” Sunny Hostin then countered. “The first Doug was in a 2016 sketch, and in fact, that was the most popular installment of ‘Black Jeopardy!’ was with Doug as the Trump supporter in 2016. I think it’s a very subversive sketch. In fact, it’s about Black culture being American culture. And so when you have the regular Jeopardy! it’s basically the ‘White Jeopardy’ that already exists because I’ve been on it and lost.” She went on to say that the near-handshake-refusal echoes what happened to Kamala Harris when Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer’s husband refused to shake her hand during the swearing-in ceremony earlier this year.

Sara Haines thought the sketch was funny… but only until the Hanks bit: “If you watch the sketch, Eddie Murphy did Tracy Morgan better than Tracy Morgan. Tracy Morgan,” she said. “My problem with it was when it went from that pinnacle of hilarity when I was rolling on the ground. It was just the Tom Hanks part died a little so it’s more like as a high critic of comedy and as a consumer, I was like, ‘Oh end with Eddie Murphy, it was so brilliant!'”

“I liked the ending with Tom Hanks,” Hostin countered. “So it appealed to us in different ways.”

“I thought we were talking about our favorite moments from SNL50, I did not prepare properly,” Alyssa Farah Griffin said to jump in before adding her two cents. “I thought the original was funnier, just to be honest, but I personally think the outrage over it is a little overblown.” She went on to play her favorite moment from the night, which was Goldberg being interviewed on the red carpet on the challenges facing young comedians today, which she answered keenly with, “It’s the same obstacle that’s been facing comedians forever: being funny.”

Goldberg herself went on to discuss another segment of the show, an in memoriam to those sketches that didn’t age well, and said that SNL‘s true politics is how it reflects the changes afoot in the country as a whole.

This sparked a rather testy exchange between Behar and Goldberg. After Behar said that when she was made fun of as a child for being Italian, she’d snap back at people who’d relate her to the mafia and say, “Wait, let me get my Renaissance files out, okay?” She added, “It’s the same with every other group.”

“No it’s not,” Goldberg replied. “Because we don’t get the benefit of all that [being widely known]. That’s why we have Black History Month.”

She then course-corrected back to the subject of SNL and concluded with, “They get accused of doing stuff, when they’re just a reflection of what’s been going on in the world, owning it.”

The View, weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC