Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly blasted Hollywood star Tom Hanks over his portrayal of a Trump supporter in NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” 50th anniversary special, calling the Oscar winner an “absolute effing snob” for mocking MAGA voters.
“In thanks to a nation of audiences that included those guys who look like that, with a T-shirt, without the sleeves,” she said.
They “are maybe a little rough around the edges and aren’t as coiffed as he is ,with the perfect three-quarter zip sweater with their MAGA hat on, and yeah Tom Hanks, their southern rural accent — you absolute effing snob — went to your movies and made you a billionaire and your thanks to them is to mock and belittle them,” Kelly said.
The controversy stems from Hanks’ reprisal of Doug, a MAGA-supporting character from the recurring “Black Jeopardy” skit, where he appeared alongside Kenan Thompson, Eddie Murphy, Tracy Morgan, and Leslie Jones.
The character, first introduced in 2016, wears a MAGA hat and American flag T-shirt while speaking with a Southern accent.
“I’m sure Tom Hanks is worth a billion dollars,” Kelly said on her SiriusXM podcast. “And you know who got it for him? All of us… who went to see ‘Forrest Gump,’ ‘Big,’ and all the fun Tom Hanks movies and never once thought that he was judging them as stupid, rural, worth-nothing racists.”
Journalist Matt Taibbi criticized Hanks portrayal as well.
“This is an old trope in media and in comedy. It’s the urban sophisticate picking on the rural hayseed,” he said. “The caricature has to be true in some way, not just some stereotyped idea you picked up by not observing people in real life.”
Author Walter Kirn, appearing on Kelly’s podcast, predicted a large audience backlash against Hanks movies
“I didn’t know that Tom Hanks would stoop to this kind of thing. It is terrible writing, it was a terrible skit, and he was the big loser,” Kirn said. “I see people all over social media saying, ‘I don’t think I’m going to be watching him again anytime soon.'”
Kelly also targeted NBC, stating “Saturday Night Live hates conservatives. NBC hates conservatives. They’ve been doing programming that has been anti-Trump, anti-conservatives, pro-leftist causes in the open for 12 years now.”
The 68-year-old Hanks has not publicly responded to the criticism of his performance in the anniversary special.
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