Punchline star Tom Hanks finally returns to stand-up in this cut SNL sketch

By Sam Barsanti | October 24, 2016 | 9:02pm

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Though it wasn’t the sequel to the 1988 David Seltzer film Punchline that fans have been clamoring for, NBC has now released a cut segment from this weekend’s Saturday Night Live that would’ve actually featured Hanks’ return to the world of stand-up comedy. The bit was part of Weekend Update, and it featured Kyle Mooney’s hacky New York comic Bruce Chandling introducing Hanks’ similarly hacky New York comic Paul Cannon for some Halloween humor.

As you can see, Bruce’s jokes continually fail to land while Paul gets a few laughs, which Bruce chalks up to the fact that he’s just so unbearably ugly. Mooney’s character goes into a heartfelt speech about the death of his dog (which he killed by being so ugly), and the whole time Hanks just keeps straightening his tie and making funny faces. It’s all good and weird, but apparently it just couldn’t live up to the tour de force that is David S. Pumpkins.