Racism Row Erupts on Twitter Over Tim Allen-Tom Hanks Discussion of Card Game

Tim Allen probably didn't expect to be called racist after discussing card games during a "Toy Story 4" junket... but that's what happened anyway.

The drama kicked off on Tuesday when journalist Xilla Valentine posted a clip of his interview with Tom Hanks and Allen, where he commended the former on his knowledge of Spades, a cards game traditionally popular among black communities.

What Xilla probably didn't foresee was the reaction Twitter would have at Allen's lack of knowledge of same.

"Tom Hanks is so cool I tested his knowledge of black culture," Zilla tweeted along with the clip, which showed him and Hanks animatedly chatting about the game... while Allen looked completely befuddled.

"You don't know how to play Spades?" Hanks scoffed at his co-star, as he — casually dropping that he grew up in Oakland, California — easily verified he was entitled to carry the "black card". "I go deep baby," he boasted. "I throw deep."

"I don't know what you guys are talking about... I don't have any idea what you guys just said," a stoic Allen admitted. "I'm going to say I do just because I want to move on. Should I get a cup of coffee, or something...?"

But when podcaster Crissles retweeted the clip with the caption: "Tim Allen is openly racist now and I love seeing him squirm here" — Twitter kicked into overdrive, dragging up examples of the famously conservative actor being accused of racism in the past, such as his 2013 argument that he should be allowed to use the n-word during his stand-up.

"Tim Allen" quickly became the top trending topic, to a point that Crissles was forced to clarify that she wasn't calling Allen racist for not knowing how to play Spades — merely that she felt he already was one, and the video just made for enjoyable watching because of that.

"normally I try not to call y'all stupid but the number of people here who think I'm calling Allen racist because of this video is truly alarming," she later tweeted. "America really gotta work on teaching reading comprehension."

"never again want to be responsible for anything trending," she added. "the MAGAts have infested my mentions."

The person who came out on top of all of this of course was Hanks, who impressed just about everybody with his intimate knowledge of the game, so much so that he got invited to umpteen upcoming cookouts via retweets.

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