In recent articles, I’ve written about the basic elements of comedy sketches and also about subtlety in political and satirical sketches. In this article, I’m going to incorporate what I wrote into an analysis of one of my favourite Saturday Night Live sketches: Black Jeopardy, featuring Tom Hanks as Doug, written by Michael Che and Bryan Tucker.

Black Jeopardy is a recurring sketch on SNL. It uses the basic format of the game show Jeopardy to lampoon working-class black American culture. Typically the host, Darnell Hayes (played by SNL veteran Kenan Thompson), and two of the players are totally clued into the questions.

DARNELL: (asking from the category ‘I don’t know you’): The waiter wants to know if you got allergies.

KEELEY: What is, I don’t know you. If I’m itchy that’s my business?

DARNELL: Damn right. What, I can’t even itch when I wanna?

The third player is the odd one out due to their ignorance of black American experience. Examples have included the honourably naive King T’Challa from Marvel’s Black Panther, a very white Professor of African-American Studies, and Allison, a girl who ‘dated a black guy once.’

DARNELL: The man in the bus station says he needs to use your phone due to a personal emergency.

ALLISON: What is, I don’t know you… or what you’ve been through, so I’ve no right to judge your experience.

DARNELL: (beat) Might be a long night for you, Allison.

For this article, I’m going to focus on arguably the most popular instance of this sketch, the one featuring Tom Hanks as the third player, Doug. That’s because I think this sketch is not only a great demonstration of both respecting and bending the rules of sketch comedy, but also how it’s a masterclass in subtle political sketch writing.

Let’s proceed through it and analyse as we go. Remember, even something as short as sketch follows a three-act structure.

Act 1 – Setup and Reveal (0′ 00″ – 2′ 10″)

As usual, host Darnell welcomes us and then introduces the players. The clued in ones are Keeley and Shanice. The third, Doug, is revealed to be a MAGA hat-wearing white dude with a Southern accent. This immediately sets up the conflict and the situation – or at least hints at them. After all, we can sense where this going, right?

The categories are introduced and a couple of questions are asked. Keeley and Shanice answer them without difficulty.

The presence of three players renders any Jeopardy parody a natural fit for the classic rule of three. Accordingly, the third answer comes from Doug. To everyone’s surprise, he gets the answer right.

DARNELL: They out here saying, the new iPhone wants your thumbprint for your protection.

DOUG: What is, I don’t think so, that’s how they git yer.

DARNELL: (astonished) Yes!

Hang on. Is this sketch going where we thought?

(Note: Notice how the sketch maintains a steady stream of gags, right from the opening line: ‘Welcome to Black Jeopardy, the only game show where the audience are wearing church clothes.’ The category names are gags. The answers are gags. Darnell’s responses are gags.)

Act 2 – Escalation (2′ 10″ – 6′ 00″)

The rule of three again: a couple more questions answered by Keeley and Shanice, then Doug nails another. Darnell is even more astonished. When Doug throws in a comment about enjoying Tyler Perry movies (‘If I can laugh and pray in ninety minutes that is money well spent’), an overwhelmed Darnell goes to shake his hand in appreciation.

Soon enough, there’s a tentative bond building between Doug and the others as he continues to answer correctly. He especially impresses his fellow female players when he answers yet another question right:

DARNELL: Skinny women can do this for you.

DOUG: What is, not a damned thang?

SHANICE: That is my man, right there!

(Note: At around 4’ 45”, there a short interval to describe the special prize. This sketch clocks in at about six and a half minutes, giving it a longer than average duration. The cutaway helps by briefly adding a bit of variety, and does so without derailing the sketch.)

We’ve been wrong-footed. The conflict is not as we expected for a comedy sketch. Darnell is not struggling to keep his game show on track. Doug isn’t failing, although some cringe-making setbacks (like being momentarily startled when Darnell offers his hand) help keep up the gag rate. Everything seems to be going right. That’s not supposed to happen in comedy.

If anything is maintaining the comic tension, it’s one question: how long can this last?

Act 3 – Payoff (6′ 00″ – 6′ 27″)

The answer is: until the third act, where everything must come crashing down.

Darnell unveils the twist, the Final Jeopardy category: ‘Lives That Matter’. He looks at Doug wistfully. ‘Well, it was good while it lasted, Doug.’¹

The jubilant mood collapses. All eyes are on Doug. ‘I got a lot to say about this—’ he begins, before Darnell cuts him off.

The end.

Subtle?

When I said this sketch has subtlety, you might have thought, ‘Subtlety?! There’s a white man on Black Jeopardy wearing a MAGA hat!’

Fair enough, so I’ll be clear what I mean by subtlety. I previously contrasted subtlety in a satirical sketch to obviousness, where issues are referred to explicitly. The characters in an unsubtle sketch tend to go beyond just caricatures of the target, instead acting out of character and having words put into their mouths by the writers. But the characters in this sketch remain true to themselves. They don’t step out of character. They don’t take a moment to hang a sign on something for the benefit of the audience. The attack of the sketch — that ordinary working class Americans have more in common with each other regardless of race than they do with upper-class people who happen to be of the same race — is clear yet also never spelled out. The revelation of the final category, ‘These Lives Matter’, highlights the artificial dividing line, the thing obstructing that commonality being realised.

Like I said previously, no satirical sketch can be completely divorced from its context. Someone who knows nothing about class and race relations in the USA might find it hard appreciating this one. But just a passing familiarity is enough. It’s a sketch that’s funny on its own terms: a fish out of water is awkwardly dropped in an environment where we expect him to fall flat on his face, but he unexpectedly thrives – albeit briefly. The deeper meaning is there if you want it, easily accessible, but the writers of this one aren’t going to spoon-feed you.

I think they made the right choice.

1. Despite not being the very last line, this is arguably the punchline because the sketch could easily end right there. However, the makers chose to fully preserve the parody and run right to the ‘commercial break’, which necessitated adding a couple more lines. ↩︎