Tom Hanks has hosted SNL nine times over the course of his career, and Alec Baldwin has hosted the show a staggering sixteen times; they know how a Saturday Night Live sketch should pan out, and they definitely don’t need any of the cast members to appear alongside them and help move things along.
Tom Hanks and Alec Baldwin (uncharacteristically playing the straight man of the sketch) do a phenomenal job riffing with one another, and consistently deliver laughs.
The simplest Saturday Night Live sketches often provide some of the best laughs, and this is one of the simplest skits in recent memory.
Much of this has to do with the fact that both of them are incredibly experienced on the sketch comedy series.