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SNL: Black Jeopardy with Tom Hanks

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Every black man in this room knows what Doug's fearful hands up and step back meant. Most of us have had that exact response from a terrified non-black at some point (and multiple points) in our lives. Getting into an elevator alone tends to trigger the fear reflex until the ice is broken and you or them say an awkward hello.

The reactions to this sketch remind me why so many sketch comedy shows often pander to the low hanging fruit crowd. Any attempt to do something clever or subtle, or requiring a little big of in depth comprehension goes over a lot of people's heads. For me, the sketch was clear as day the moment that Doug answered his first question, and Keenan reacted in surprise. They even let the skit go on for 9 and a half minutes to really drill it home the point they were trying to make. If it went over people's heads, that's on them, and not on the SNL writers.

Oh, and I watched that David S. Pumpkins sketch and...come on, GAF. It was stupid. It was funny in how weird and early 80's SNL is came off as (as in, you watch the sketch and think, "How much coke did they snort before they wrote this?"), but the Black Jeopardy sketch was the best sketch of the episode. Although the drunk Halloween costume party was pretty great, and accurate (my wife was like, "I think I know those girls..."). Even so, Tom Hanks being in the best sketches of the night doesn't surprise me. Damn I wish he would regularly show up on it. I love seeing him do comedy.
 
People are docking points from Pumpkins because it's absurdist, but honestly I think it's more impressive than the Black Jeopardy because its absurdist.

Successfully pulling off absurdist humor is much harder than successfully pulling off political satire, which is why most of SNL's political sketches are good and most of SNL's absurdist sketches are trash.
 
The best part of the Pumpkins skit is that McKinnon and Bennett's characters are convinced that there must be something more to Pumpkins than just a random guy in a suit with pumpkin designs and weird skeleton dancers. They spend most of the bit wondering if he's from something or is a local celebrity, and they stop caring about the other characters and just focus on figuring out Pumpkins (but there's nothing to figure out). Their increased frustration makes the absurdity of the character even funnier.
 
TS-08 said:
The best part of the Pumpkins skit is that McKinnon and Bennett's characters are convinced that there must be something more to Pumpkins than just a random guy in a suit with pumpkin designs and weird skeleton dancers. They spend most of the bit wondering if he's from something or is a local celebrity, and they stop caring about the other characters and just focus on figuring out Pumpkins (but there's nothing to figure out). Their increased frustration makes the absurdity of the character even funnier.
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100% Agreed. The best part in that sketch is Bennett's delivery on "YES! SEVERAL! I mean...he has a middle initial now!?"

Both incredible sketches for completely different reasons. What a great episode.
 
Figboy79 said:
Every black man in this room knows what Doug's fearful hands up and step back meant. Most of us have had that exact response from a terrified non-black at some point (and multiple points) in our lives. Getting into an elevator alone tends to trigger the fear reflex until the ice is broken and you or them say an awkward hello.

The reactions to this sketch remind me why so many sketch comedy shows often pander to the low hanging fruit crowd. Any attempt to do something clever or subtle, or requiring a little big of in depth comprehension goes over a lot of people's heads. For me, the sketch was clear as day the moment that Doug answered his first question, and Keenan reacted in surprise. They even let the skit go on for 9 and a half minutes to really drill it home the point they were trying to make. If it went over people's heads, that's on them, and not on the SNL writers.

Oh, and I watched that David S. Pumpkins sketch and...come on, GAF. It was stupid. It was funny in how weird and early 80's SNL is came off as (as in, you watch the sketch and think, "How much coke did they snort before they wrote this?"), but the Black Jeopardy sketch was the best sketch of the episode. Although the drunk Halloween costume party was pretty great, and accurate (my wife was like, "I think I know those girls..."). Even so, Tom Hanks being in the best sketches of the night doesn't surprise me. Damn I wish he would regularly show up on it. I love seeing him do comedy.
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I loved the sketch, but I don't really think it's anything all that subtle at all. It's pretty obvious, honestly.
 
Lord Frieza said:
I loved the sketch, but I don't really think it's anything all that subtle at all. It's pretty obvious, honestly.
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It doesn't seem that obvious to some people, looking at this thread, and comments on the video. But yeah, I'd have thought it was obvious too, as me and my wife were in stitches the entire time. I didn't realize there were conflicting viewpoints as to the meaning/intention of the sketch until I came online (go figure).
 
TS-08 said:
The best part of the Pumpkins skit is that McKinnon and Bennett's characters are convinced that there must be something more to Pumpkins than just a random guy in a suit with pumpkin designs and weird skeleton dancers. They spend most of the bit wondering if he's from something or is a local celebrity, and they stop caring about the other characters and just focus on figuring out Pumpkins (but there's nothing to figure out). Their increased frustration makes the absurdity of the character even funnier.
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The ending wraps it up in a brilliant bow. The couple are convinced there is nothing scary about David S. Pumpkins, but he delivers the greatest scare.
 
MagnaderAlpha said:
The ending wraps it up in a brilliant bow. The couple are convinced there is nothing scary about David S. Pumpkins, but he delivers the greatest scare.
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What's great is that in his first sentence he says he's going to scare the hell out of them.
Then they think there's nothing scary about him.
Then he carries through on his promise with a classic jump scare, wrapping up the premise.

It's a great little sketch, absurd, unique premise, excellent comedic timing and delivery, and a nice structure.
 
I kinda chuckled a couple of times at David S. Pumpkins. "Lives that matter" had me cackling out loud. Cackling. Black Jeopardy wins hands down.
 
Mike Works said:
I'll be honest, the moment-to-moment jokes made me laugh, but I don't get what this sketch is trying to accomplish. Here's my thought process while watching it, maybe someone can fill me in as to what I'm missing:

1. Sketch sets up a Jeopardy where black people should excel; it's revealed that not only is the third contestant white, but he's a Trump supporter, so things are going to go REALLY bad.

2. Trump supporter starts answering questions correctly, surprising black people. At this point I'm thinking the sketch is going to make a point about how these two seemingly opposing sides actually have more things in common than they'd like to admit.

3. Trump supporter's answers are all personal-life based (I like my women like this, etc), throwing any political slant out the window.

4. Sketch winds down showing that the white person is not allowed to discuss Black (or All) Lives Matter, so we're back to square one. Sketch ends.

As I said, I thought the lines were funny, but I never quite understood what the sketch was attempting to accomplish.
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I gotta say, this post made me laugh out loud
 
Can someone please give me hope? Please tell me there's a chance for me to buy a David S. Pumpkins suit somewhere before Halloween?
 
People who don't find David Pumpkins funny - are they the same crowd who also don't find Napoleon Dynamite funny? That's my theory.

Loved Black Jeopardy and David Pumpkins sketches. That Larry David one somebody posted was absolute comedy gold, though.

Speaking of which, check the outtakes for that Kevin Roberts skit. Like honestly, try to watch this and not laugh. It's impossible. I'm dying here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfMG4VE_l7E
 
FyreWulff said:
Literally everyone on SNL is reading off cue cards. It's not possible to memorize material written a day ago and often gets changed up until the last minute
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Fun fact: Janine Garofolo got into a lot of trouble when she first started because she would memorize her lines. It is actually frowned upon. Or was in the 90s
 
Just watched the rest of the Black Jeopardy skits.

"C'mon Darnell , Black people live all over the world, G. You can't just put us all into one category."

"Hey, maybe so, Jared. I'm gonna go ahead and let you tell that to our American police."

Clearly, I need to start watching more SNL.
 
Staccat0 said:
Fun fact: Janine Garofolo got into a lot of trouble when she first started because she would memorize her lines. It is actually frowned upon. Or was in the 90s
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I can imagine why - if you memorise your lines and there's a last-second change to the script you run the risk of derailing by saying the wrong thing. Bill Hader talked about it on the Adam Buxton podcast, they're known to introduce changes up to the moment the sketch is on air.
 
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