“Black Jeopardy,” one of Kenan Thompson’s fan-favorite sketches on Saturday Night Live, made a return during the show’s 50th anniversary special on Sunday. As usual, Kenan hosted as Darnell Hayes, aka Alex Treblack, with former cast members Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, and, most notably, Eddie Murphy as contestants.
The biggest laughs of the night came from Eddie Murphy, who nailed an impression of Tracy Morgan, while Tracy played Darius and Leslie played Shanice.
Kenan kicked things off with a shoutout to Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance: “Welcome to ‘Black Jeopardy,’ the only ‘Jeopardy’ where every single viewer fully understood Kendrick’s halftime performance.”
When Eddie Murphy was introduced, he immediately hit us with a hilarious “Big dog gonna make some big money!” doing his best Tracy Morgan impression.
Kenan asked, “Wait a minute, Tracy. Don’t you already have a lot of money?” Murphy shot back, “You gotta have a lot of money if you live like I live. I eat four-cheese lasagna. If they only got three cheeses, I ain’t eating it.” As Kenan tried to move on, Murphy doubled down: “I refuse to ingest three cheeses!”
Once the game started, Kenan joked that Eddie and Tracy might be related, prompting Eddie (still in character) to say, “Well, James Earl Jones is my biological father. James Earl Jones impregnated my mother on the set of ‘Claudine.’ You know what? We might be related.” Tracy, looking confused, replied, “I don’t see it.”
Then, Chris Rock popped in to give a guest clue, joking that he’s been watching “Black Jeopardy” since the ‘70s, when it was called “Mama’s Got Questions.” He showed a picture of Dana Carvey’s Church Lady and asked the contestants to identify her. After Leslie guessed Madea, the correct answer came from none other than Tom Hanks—who showed up with a Make America Great Again hat and a Southern accent.
Tom Hanks chimed in, “Speaking of church, can I say something? If more folks went to church, we wouldn’t be in this mess we’re in now.” Kenan agreed and reached out to shake his hand, but Hanks recoiled before reluctantly accepting. Kenan, still in character, told him, “You’re welcome on ‘Black Jeopardy’ anytime.” Hanks responded with, “Thank you, my brother. Maybe I’ll start a show for you to come on, and we’ll call it ‘White Jeopardy.’”
Kenan quickly shot back, “We don’t need it!” and rushed to a commercial break, adding, “When we return to ‘Black Jeopardy,’ we’ll see if anyone’s watched any of this year’s Oscar movies. I doubt it!”
