Chet Hanks Clowned After Updating On His Parents’ COVID-19

Social media exploded last night (March 11) when Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks revealed that he, and his wife Rita Wilson, had been diagnosed with COVID-19 while in Australia shooting a movie. 

But once his son, Chet Hanks appeared on Instagram to add his commentary, bare chested and tatted up, he drew ridicule from several corners.

Hanks, 29, has been widely criticized and accused of cultural appropriation for assuming a Jamaican patois during an interview on the red carpet of the Golden Globes Awards. It opened up a debate on whether he was debasing West Indian culture or showing appreciation. He even went as far as comparing Black people snowboarding to cultural appropriation. 

But Black Twitter wasn’t having it this time and laid into him:

On his parents’ condition, Hanks did say they seem to be doing fine, as Tom Hanks remarked in his original tweet. “What’s up everyone? Yeah, it’s true. My parents got coronavirus. Crazy,” the sometime rapper said in the clip, but without the accent. “They’re both down in Australia right now because my dad was shooting a movie down there.”

“I just got off the phone with them. They both are fine,” he continued. “They’re not even that sick. They’re not worried about it. They’re not trippin’ but they’re going through the necessary health precautions obviously. But I don’t think it’s anything to be too worried about.”

Coronavirus has spread to six of seven continents with more than 124,000 recorded diagnoses and 4,600 deaths globally, according to the World Health Organization. 

A federal ban on travel from Europe — with the exception of the United Kingdom — goes into effect midnight Friday, President Trump announced Wednesday night.

Also, the NBA suspended its season indefinitely Wednesday night in response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

The NCAA announced that its men’s and women’s Division I basketball tournaments would be played without spectators in attendance at games.