SNL Black Jeopardy!
Elizabeth Banks in Colorblind Theory
Everyone knows about Jeopardy, but do you know about Black Jeopardy? It is an iconic sketch that is done on SNL (Saturday Night Live). It’s like normal Jeopardy but just with a different atmosphere and better categories. In most of the Black Jeopardy sketches, there are two Black contestants and a white one. They have had Tom Hanks, Louis C.K, and Elizabeth Banks as those White contestants in the past.
In the Black Jeopardy with Elizabeth Banks, Banks plays a character by the name Alison and when Darnell Hayes, the host, asks why she is there. She responds that she has dated a black guy before and she doesn’t see color. When people say that they don’t see color they normally say it, so they don’t sound racist. However, it has the complete opposite effect. It can be seen when the host follows up with an “Ok well we will see how that goes” because we all know that that’s not true. Then the game begins. The categories in this episode are “Shakin My Head”, “It Ain’t Like That”, “I Don’t Know You”, “What Had Happened Was”, “White People”, and “Whos Try’na?”.
They start off with “I Don’t Know You”. As one would assume the Black contestants, Amir and Keeley, get their question correct and Allison doesn’t. When she tries to answer, “The Man In The Bus Station Says He Needs To Use Your Phone Due To A Personal Emergency”, she replies I don’t know you or what you have been through so I have no right to judge your experience. She obviously gets it wrong. With this category, they are either making fun of those who are judgmental, and her answer was not judgmental or those who don’t judge others. It is obscured for people to say that they “don’t judge others”. Everyone at one point has judged someone.
A thing about SNL is that they like to poke fun at events, people, and moments that were big at that time and the next categories shows that. After “I Don’t Know You” they move on to “Who Try’na?”. The clue is “They try’na act like Jesus doesn’t exist” and Keeley answers Starbucks. It’s funny because you wouldn’t think that Starbuck and Jesus would ever clash with one another but in 2015 they did. There was a scandal with the Starbucks holiday cup because it didn’t have Christmas decorations on it. Who would think that not adding a Christmas tree on a cup that you throw away would have such an impact. Starbucks was just trying to be inclusive during the holiday season. People blew this out of proportion and went crazy and even Donald Trump said that maybe they should boycott Starbucks. One cannot help but laugh at such a “controversy” especially when worse things were happening at the time.
Then Allison tries to answer again. Her clue is, “After Everything He Did, He Try’na Act Like He Don’t Owe Us An Explanation” and she answers Bill Cosby but wrong its actually Tom Brady. They might have made this joke because their last names sound similar, yet one committed a greater scandal than the other. In 2015, there were allegations that Bill Cosby had raped multiple women and being part of the Black community, it was hard for them to acknowledge this. Since it is Black Jeopardy, that might be why the answer wasn’t Cosby. Tom Brady had a scandal at that time, the Deflated Ball Scandal. Everyone wanted to know if Tom Brady had used deflated footballs and at the end he got suspended. Both Cosby and Brady seemed like innocent celebrities but then the curtains fell.
After getting the Bill Cosby answer wrong, the main punch line is said. Allison says, “As a white person I just don’t know how to answer these question”. Then Darnell says “oh you’re White, I don’t see color” which is making fun of her and everyone else who says that. When you ignore the color, race, or ethnicity of someone, you are being colorblind. Although, they claim that they say it to end racism, by not looking at their race they are ignoring their heritage and who they are. In the sketch, they even show that we have different dialects. Allison can’t even try to answer because she can’t say “what had happened was”. She is just too white. Also, other races don’t know exactly what the other race has gone through and it is usually easier for White people to get their way. Allison is a good example of that. She ends up winning which makes it even more funny because she never got an answer correct. She wins by just saying “that no matter how hard she tries she just doesn’t win” and that is the blackest thing she has said so she wins. There is some truth to her answer being Black because it is harder for Black people to win in life.
There is something about stereotypes that makes them so funny. It might be that they are exaggerations yet relatable and we can’t help but laugh at ourselves. This sketch is full of black stereotypes from the music to the answers and even the prizes. Some of the prizes are long ass wire and a white formal suit. Since Allison wins she get tickets to Love and Hip Hop on Ice and the fact that she doesn’t know what that is shows how uncultured she is which funny in the sketch because we like to think that there are not people like her but sadly there are and sometimes all you can do is laugh.
