The photo above is of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson’s 29-year-old son, Chet Hanks. Tom and Rita have two sons, Chet (née Chester) and Truman. Colin and Elizabeth Hanks are Tom’s kids with his first wife, Samantha Lewes. At Northwestern University, Chet began a rap career, going by the name Chet Haze. But Chet has had a bumpy time of it. Chet was infamous at Northwestern for some antics and a general whiff of entitlement. He also developed very sad addiction to drugs that crushed his parents. In 2015, Chet really went off the rails and made news regularly for all the wrong reasons. He used and then defended his right to say the N-word, he allegedly trashed a hotel room and got into a Twitter battle with Howard Stern for calling him out for cultural appropriation. In 2016, though, Chet finally got sober when his girlfriend, Tiffany Miles, got pregnant with their first child, a daughter named Michaiah. In 2018, he joined the cast of Empire. It seemed like Chet finally shed all the negative press that followed him around like a bad smell.
But I guess he missed it, because on the night his father accepted the Cecil B. DeMille award at the Golden Globes, Chet decided to do this on the red carpet:
Right, so Chet thought the best way to honor his dad was to exclaim his joy for the event in patois. Chet is not from the Caribbean. Tom and Rita are not of Caribbean decent, nor are any of Chet’s siblings. I think we can rule out “honoring his Jamaican heritage” as his reasoning for this. I can’t hazard a guess as to what motivated him, except maybe he was just really proud of his patois? Whatever it was, he is clearly not bothered by the attention it’s brought him. He posted a headline from CNN to his Instagram page with the following caption:
Average citizens: damn this is scary I can’t believe we’re on the verge of WW3 let me check the news smh
@CNN:
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Given Chet’s history with cultural appropriation, at best, this was a questionable choice. At worst, this was an insensitive ploy for attention in which he held no regard for its offensiveness or how it detracted from his father’s night. Because of his dedication to remain sober for his daughter, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. But I can’t do that when, instead of addressing the public’s questioning of his performance, he wrote it off as a joke.
Rumor on Twitter is that Chet texted throughout the whole GG ceremony. Wonder what dialect he texted in?
Photo credit: Instagram and Getty Images
He’s deeply embarrassing, and should not have done the accent, but he weirdly does it well? ugh.
Ew! No he doesn’t! Doesn’t even sound like patois AT ALL!!!
But I do wonder what is his girlfriend’s family background (besides being black) is? Are they from Jamaica/Caribbean, but judging from video clips he post with his daughter on Instagram, there’s no hints of any island influences in any of them!
Lol and Ricky Gervais was the one that made Tom Hanks go stroke??
Look even if you do it well, read the room buddy.
What annoys me the most about this is not the shytty Patois but rather the fact that he just couldn’t allow his father to have his moment and be honoured for his 40+ years in the industry as the Cecil B Demille recipient.
If you look on Chet’s Instagram it’s clear that he has issues and more specifically to do with his dynamics in the family. He views himself as the black sheep which suggests a level of un-love-ability. That may have zero to do with Tom and Rita but rather just issues he has himself.
Chet is defo a prime candidate for the Smith’s Red Table Talks.
“Average citizens?” Ugh…the entitlement is obviously still pretty strong. How did Tom & Rita produce *that* when the rest of their kids seem fairly normal and down-to-earth?
Well it’s well known in hollywood that Rita Wilson Is not a nice person. She’s known for being mean and being a bully. So Hanks is also complicit in this because he has stayed with her all these years.
Ooooh! Never heard that! More details? I mean, she surely produced a complete a$$wipe, so it’s not surprising!!
They got together while he was still married as well.
Really? The nice family man is just an act. Huh that’s disappointing. He may not be awful but isn’t as nice as his image
His oldest children lived with their mother, not with tom and rita, and their other son was sent to boarding schools, so chet was really their only ‘full time’ kid
Did not know that, very interesting.
I thought Tom and Rita’s other son is younger than Chet? Anyway, I have also heard that The Hanks are not as nice as they put on. I know Henry Winkler does not like Tom and The Fonz has always seemed like a bona fide good dude so I trust his judgement. Tom got him fired from his directing gig on Turner & Hooch.
Tom doesn’t have strong genetics, lol, none of his kids look anything like him! I’m kinda shocked!
I think Colin looks a lot like Tom – but agree about the others!
Colin looks startlingly like his dad. I’ve always thought this.
I see some Tom in Colin but IMO he looks a lot like his mom, Tom’s first wife.
leaving aside the fact that Colin Hanks looks very much like Tom – why exactly are you shocked? Is, as you put it “strong genetics”, an indicator of something important?
I don’t know which one is Colin because none of those humans look anything like him. Chill out please.
Good strategy – say something vaguely stupid or offensive, then tell people how to feel about it. I am all chilled out now, you are welcome.
TANG, how on Earth is it offensive or stupid that I don’t think any of his kids look like him? It’s my opinion but thank you for wanting to fight with me about my opinion. SHESH. You must be fun at parties. 😂
Colin doesnt have the same nose…but you can definitely see Tom in the mouth/jawline.
Lol, why so touchy about Hey There’s opinion about something so unimportant???
His kids look very much like him in the picture of the family, including Chet’s daughter. In the GG pic, his sons resemble him very much & while Chet is the one that resembles Tom the least, it’s definitely still there.
Is it weird that I’m wondering who held the camera/phone and recorded the video for him? It would seem likely that it was a family member. I guess it could be anybody though, since he grew up in Hollywood and probably knew a lot of people on the red carpet, including any of the numerous behind the scenes types.
Ugh, West Indian here. He’s copping an accent, not speaking patois, which is a language. Either way, he’s an idiot.
West Indian here as well. Yeah, that’s an accent (a really shitty one that actually doesn’t exist in the WI. It’s very ‘white person does what they think a West Indian (read: Jamaican) accent sounds like.’
That’s not patois or even a dialect. That’s a jackass.
Yes. A jackass who quit maturing when he was about 13. He honestly thought it would make him look cool, and is too self-centered to use the opportunity to honor his father.
Total jackass. Insulting and embarrassing.
@mazzie
That’s not patois or even a dialect. That’s a jackass.
Hahahahahahahahhahaha!
Mess. And I’m of Caribbean descent.
Attention seeking trying to be funny. But is more annoying than anything. Ugh.
Oh that little girl in the pic is adorable.
That is his daughter. I wonder what the current state of his relationship is with Chet-money?
He has narcissistic douche vibes.
SO douchey. He makes me grateful for my kids.
He just won the top of my “douchebag punchable” faces, it’s amazing how obnoxious this person looks. And I’m only saying this because I read the whole thread about his behavior, because it kinds confirms his place in my list.
As a native french speaker, where “patois” means any local dialect, I was so confused by this headline when I first saw it – I’ve searched online and I now understand, on top of the comment, that “patois” in Anglo-Saxon culture usually means Jamaican creole. In which case Chet is an absolute tit
Lol @ “tit”! I’m going to have to start using that term!
Yeah, I was also confused…
yeah, i’m in france & here “patois,” as i know it, refers to a dialect in the auvergne region.
found that confusing too.
Even the “nice” guy rich guys raise their kids as entitled douchebags.
B/c what an asshat this guy is- and has been. Did anyone catch the alumni tweets from his people who experienced his douchiness while attending the same college?
Also, in his speech, Hanks talked about his 5 children- did I mishear that- b/c I only count 4.
I just read the answer to my question- Tom Hanks thinks of his son Colin’s wife Sam as a daughter, so he included her as one of his children. Very sweet.
He still raised at least one entitled, richboy douchebag.
I don’t want to say meh, and I only have three kids, all younger than ten, but they seem to come out fully loaded in terms of who they are, how they respond to things, etc. I used to believe that parents had mega input; I’m not so sure anymore.
re: Betsy’s comment- i don’t have kids, but that how it starts to seem to me- that having children can kinda be like playing the lottery
The late Rob Ford the infamous mayor of Toronto used to do the fake Jamaican patois. Bizarre. Crack is whack.
Oh that is so awkward and embarrassing! I could hardly watch. And to steal the spotlight from his dad! Yuck.
As someone of Jamaican heritage, Shaba Hanks needs to cut it out.
lmao
Shaba Hanks!!! LOL!!
Tom Hanks always gave me vibes that he is very aware of his status and is the kind who just loves to mansplain all day long.
He is the epitome of a stuffed shirt to me. I’ve accepted that I’m in the minority on this, but I can’t stand him.
I remember years ago when Tom Hanks was getting an award from AFI. In the middle of the broadcast, this kid was acting up and I think it was his sister who kind of put the smack down – not in a horrible way, but he was definitely seeking attention and it was caught on camera and she shut it down. I remember thinking: This kid is trouble.
That said, Golden Child has been a problem for years. He knows it and has admitted it, but nonetheless, he continues to attention-seek and do isht that any armchair psychiatrist can see is a subconscious need for sabotage. I mean, he’s arguably the best looking of all those kids, but came into an already existing situation with older siblings. Also, he has a global icon for a father and, from what I hear, a pretty ambitious mother. “Bobcat” is her nickname around Hollywood, I am told, who more or less bought herself a musical career (Come on, does anyone think she’d be able to break into one of the most competitive music scenes in the world – Nashville – in their 60s unless 1.) her husband is Tom Hanks and 2.) she didn’t throw a ishtton of money into musicians and co-writers? Also, it apparently pays to be friends with Scooter Braun. Unless you’re Taylor Swift, but that’s another story altogether.)
At any rate, on the one hand I feel for him. On the other, what actual eff? Dude needs to quit embarrassing himself with these dumb focus pullers and get a real job or create a company or whatever. Clearly, he’s got family money. Use it for good and not dumbisht.
Ha until I read this I had totally forgotten about Rita Wilson’s “musical career”.
I mean. She’s not like, horrible as a singer. She is a middling talent supported by a tremendous amount of (well paid) musicians, arrangers, producers and songwriters to help her with her hobby.
So let’s just stipulate that her enormous wealth and privilege allows her to pretend she’s a country singer. If she was 63-year-old Margaret Wilson from Springfield, Illinois, no GD way would she be allowed in the front (or back) door of the Grand Ole Opry.
That said, I do appreciate her willingness to try something new as a woman of a certain age. But there are a lot of talented women out there who actually play their own instruments and write their own shit who will never, ever get the kind of shot that Rita Wilson got from her adjacent status.
Blech. He just had to pull focus. And pull negative focus for controversy conversations. What an embarrassment. If his family is monstrous at home with no cameras, I might lean into latitude, but as it stands, douche needs to be leashed in the basement next family outing.
This guy seems so strange to me. Like his life is just a game or something. Not even anything on his IG looks completely real. Weird, weird vibes…
Based on the comments on here about Rita Wilson, I’m going to guess there’s a lot of complicated family dynamics going on there about jealousy of Tom’s success and stature. Rita was egging Chet on, saying his video was the funniest thing all night.
Boy, this guy is going to get the rude awakening of his life when he gets out into the real world and finds out his dad is a good man he should emulate and his mom has been the one holding him back. That’s my guess!
Somebody needs to tell ‘Shaba Hanks’ (brilliant @HK9) that a two-week all inclusive vacation in the islands doesn’t make him a ‘native’. And that Blackness isn’t sexually transmitted, so being with a Black woman doesn’t make him a Black man.
What he IS, is ignorant, disrespectful and clearly untalented. I’m not surprised his mother thinks this foolishness is funny. I’ve heard a lot about her. But it’s a shame that he didn’t have enough respect for his father to cut the bullshit for one night.
As a woman of Caribbean descent, I’m proud of what my people created out of slavery and oppression. Trinidad created the steel drum. Trinidad gave the world calypso and Jamaica gave the world reggae. West Indians went to England in the 50s and worked their asses off to bring the UK back from the misery of WWII. They also brought colour, music, great food and a respect for cleanliness. Mr. Hanks doesn’t have what it takes to be mistaken for a West Indian.
Amen, Kerwood.
He needs to cut the bullshit alllllll the way around. And she needs to stop enabling him and coddling him. Sure, maybe dad was gone all the time on movie sets, but so what? Lots of people in the real world have absentee parents due to their work, i.e., military, oil industry, and so on. But that does not give him a pass to act like a jackass.
Dude is almost 30. No excuses. He needs to grow TF up.
I feel your anger Kerwood, and I’m an old(ish) white woman. This kid (a 30 year old kid) is the worst of the worst of a Hollywood bi-product who doesn’t have an ounce of talent but a million lbs of arrogance and entitlement. If he were my son I’d be embarrassed and angry and publicly apologize for his disgusting behaviour. Douche should go back to living in his enabling parents’ basement and shutting the eff up.
Meh. Awkwafina does the same thing.
As a Caribbean person, I too feel insulted by this fool who BTW isn’t speaking patois (which is a language) but attempting miserably to copy a Jamaican accent which is different to how persons from Trinidad, Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, Cuba, Haiti or any of the other islands speak. We are all united by Caribbean brotherhood yet we are all individually unique. As Kerwood said, we have contributed so much to the world in terms of our music (reggae, calypso, soca, ska, salsa) and sport (Usain Bolt, Brian Lara, Sir Gary Sobers, etc.) literature (Dereck Walcott, Vidia Naipaul, etc.) and so much more culturally that this clown needs to take several seats and stop trying to mimic us with his fake accent ass.
Oh man.
There are a lot of nice stories circulating about Tom though on Twitter (real life encounters)
(https://www.buzzfeed.com/mikespohr/meeting-tom-hanks-irl)