The 50th Anniversary special for Saturday Night Live brought back some of the most memorable cast members and skits from its 939 episode history. Since the first episode in October of 1975, SNL has made fun of…well pretty much everyone. In a special segment hosted by Tom Hanks, the show called out some of its more problematic skits. In his opening monologue for the skit he said:
“As we celebrate the achievements of the past 50 years, we must also take a moment to honor those who we’ve lost, countless members of the SNL family, taken from us too soon. I’m speaking, of course, about SNL characters and sketches that have aged horribly. But even though these characters, accents and, let’s just call them ethnic wigs, were unquestionably in poor taste, you all laughed at them.”
He went over racist skits like Rob Schnieder in brownface for his “Mexican Stereotype” skits, as well as skits like the sexualization of underage character Hermoine from Harry Potter as played by Lindsay Lohan. They also featured the “gay panic” skit of Chris Kattan as “Gay Hitler”. Of course, gay fans loved a special skit featuring the viral character “Domingo”, a suave latin man who has repeatedly appeared in skits where he seduces character “Kelsey” and leaves her husband Matt bewildered. At a vow renewal for Kelsey and Matt, Domingo crashes the party with his two hunky brothers played by Pedro Pascal and Bad Bunny. In a twist it turns out that Renaldo, played by Pascal, is actually Matt’s ex lover, a revelation that sent the internet into a frenzy.
