SNL's Hot New Sketch? What Is Black Jeopardy

Some say it's the 'best sketch in recent memory'
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 25, 2016 7:51 AM CDT

SNL may have opened Saturday's show with a spoof of the latest presidential debate, but it saved its best skit for later. A black host, two black contestants, a white guy named Doug wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat, get together for an episode of Black Jeopardy. But as Doug (Tom Hanks) answers various clues, the contestants (Sasheer Zamata and Leslie Jones) learn he isn't so different from them: He, too, has suspicions about the iPhone's thumbprint key and elections, as well as a love of curvy women, Tyler Perry, and lottery tickets. All goes well until the final category: "Lives That Matter." "It was good while it lasted," the host (Kenan Thompson) declares. What people are saying:

  • Paul Schrodt at Business Insider credits Michael Che and Bryan Tucker for writing the show's "best sketch in recent memory" and "the best comedic take on the current presidential election we've seen on TV this year."

  • Dan Zak at the Washington Post calls it the "best political sketch of the year." In previous shows, Black Jeopardy has "embellished black stereotypes and mocked white people's political correctness," he writes. "This time around, it found common ground between African Americans and rural white conservatives."
  • "Portraying the many subtleties of the American electorate in a sharp, hilarious, and different way this far into the campaign cycle is hard—and like Doug on Black Jeopardy, SNL crushed it," writes Caroline Framke at Vox.
  • Yes, the sketch "is as good as everyone says it is," writes blogger Jason Kottke. "And it's not just funny either… it's the rare SNL skit that works brilliantly as cultural commentary. Kudos to the writers on this one."
  • But Crystal Wright has a very different take. "If you like blacks being mocked for every stereotype under the sun, I guess you'll find the 6 minutes a real howl worth gittin' down wit," she writes at Mediaite.
(More Saturday Night Live stories.)

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