Joy Behar has long been a vocal critic of Donald Trump and those who support him, but on Tuesday morning, the host of “The View” actually defended Trump voters, slamming “SNL50” for how they were portrayed.
Behar was, of course, referring to the “Black Jeopardy” sketch, which ended with an appearance from Tom Hanks as Doug, a lone white contestant wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. As Doug gives the correct answer, host Kenan Thompson approaches to give him a handshake, which makes Doug panic.
The sketch earned scorn from conservatives, including the hosts of “Fox & Friends,” and perhaps surprisingly, Behar agreed with them on the implications of the sketch.
“The fact remains that they’re making anyone who voted for Trump look like a racist, and that’s why they’re mad,” she said. “And 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. They thought that grocery prices would come down, they’re up,” she continued. “They thought inflation was coming down, it’s up. They thought their 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 gonna be insulted!”
Host Sunny Hostin had a different take though, pointing out that the sketch was one of the returning bits on the show, after Hanks first played the character in 2016.
“I think it’s a very subversive sketch, in fact. It’s about Black culture being American culture,” Hostin said. “And so, when you have the regular ‘Jeopardy!’ it’s basically the white Jeopardy. It already exists.”
Host Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed that the “outrage over it is a little overblown,” but as the conversation continued, Behar drilled down.
“Just to continue on my point, because I do believe that politics is a big part of ‘Saturday Night Live’ for the past 50 years, and when it’s done correctly, it’s very effective,” she said.
The host immediately called out Steve Martin’s monologue, in which he referred to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Steve Martin, and called ICE on Martin Short for crashing the stage.
“I mean, those are political points that don’t insult individual people,” Behar said.
“The View” airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET on ABC.