During Sunday’s “SNL50,” Tom Hanks deadpanned the opening of what seemed to be an in memoriam segment, but instead of tributes to past cast members, it played tribute to comedy that didn’t age well and wouldn’t play well today.

“As we celebrate the achievements of the past 50 years, we must also take a moment to honor those who we’ve lost,” Hanks began. “Countless members of the ‘SNL’ family taken from us too soon. I’m talking 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. So if anyone should be canceled, shouldn’t it be you, the audience? Something to think about. Anyway, we now present to you this in memoriam.”

The segment was split until numerous subsections for the clips,...