‘SNL 50’: Tom Hanks Delivers “In Memoriam” Semi-Tribute To “Characters And Sketches That Have Aged Horribly”
In addition to acknowledging the stereotypes it has reinforced, Saturday Night Live sought to make people laugh at the passing of time in its 50th anniversary special.
At Sunday’s SNL50: The Anniversary Special, a sober Tom Hanks in a tuxedo took the dimly illuminated stage in a parody of awards-show “in memoriam” portions. “We must remember those who have passed away while we commemorate the accomplishments of the last fifty years,” he emphasized. We lost countless members of the SNL family far too soon. Naturally, I am referring to SNL characters and sketches that have deteriorated greatly over time.
“Even though these accents and personas and … let us just call them ethnic wigs … were obviously in horrible taste, you all laughed at them,” he said as the audience laughed. Therefore, as viewers, should not you be the ones canceled if anyone else is? Something to consider.
He then cut to a montage of troublesome characters, beginning with the samurai played by John Belushi and moving on to several awkward successors. The clips, which were occasionally in slow motion, were accompanied by on-screen graphics, just like in the award-show “in memoriam” segments. One read, “Ethnic prejudices,” while others criticized “child abuse” and “sexism.”
As captions for “I can not believe this was on TV” video clips, the graphics grew more incisive. “WHOA” was the only description for footage from 2003 that showed Adrien Brody welcoming Sean Paul, a Jamaican musician, in an allegedly improvised scene in which Brody wore dreadlocks.
The lettering read, simply, “YIKES,” while a picture of Mike Myers in a bathtub with Macaulay Culkin, who was a character from Home Alone, making jokes about “my bum” changed from color to black and white.
Other chyrons yelled “homosexual panic,” “animal brutality,” and “body shaming.” However, as the episode progressed, the on-screen text’s “voice” became less reprimanding. “Maybe this was okay?,” read a “Gay Hitler” segment from Weekend Update in the early 2000s, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. I am not sure.
Additionally, the sequence admitted to “difficult guests,” including O.J. Simpson, Subway’s Diddy, R. Kelly, Robert Blake, and Jared Fogel. (Donald Trump, who made an appearance on his way to the White House in 2015, was left out.)
