Saturday Night Live showed no mercy when it came to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who is currently under fire for wearing blackface in a college yearbook photo.
“Making jokes about the news can get a little redundant, but every so often you see picture of a governor in blackface and you’re like, ‘This will be fun,’” Weekend Update co-anchor Michael Che said at the top of the segment.
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That intro set the tone for what was an onslaught of jokes at Northam’s expense. Che was first up, pointing out the absurdity in the situation, which also involved a similar scandal with the state’s attorney general.
“First, the governor of Virginia admitted to wearing blackface in college for a Michael Jackson costume—by the way, making that the least accurate Michael Jackson costume of all time,” Che said. “Sounds crazy enough, but then the attorney general was like, ‘You too? Blackface is my jam!’”
Jost was up next, blasting the photo and Northam’s excuses for the image.
“Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is still refusing to resign after a racist photo from his school yearbook surfaced. O.K., but if it was in a yearbook, I mean, how bad could it be?” Jost said before showing the image on-screen. “So pretty bad. I knew it was a yearbook, but I didn’t know the year was 1870.”
He continued, “And by the way, this yearbook is from medical school. These two men are doctors. And Northam says now that neither of these guys are him. Which, do you know how much crazier it is to have that photo on your yearbook page and you aren’t in it? You just put it on your yearbook page like it’s part of your vision board. Like, what was your inspirational quote, ‘Dress like no one’s watching?’”
Jost then tied the wishes for a new Virginia leader to the similar search for a new Oscars host following Kevin Hart’s scandals.
“Democrats are calling for Northam resign, but the second-in-line is now embroiled in two sexual assault scandals. And the third-in-line also did blackface,” Jost said. “So at this point maybe Virginia should just take a queue from the Oscars and just go without a governor this year. Or they could just come full circle and make it Gov. Kevin Hart.”
Just when you thought the Weekend Update duo had moved on, they circled back around two more times. Che took a shot during an Apple bit, and Che used the Grammys to deliver another burn.
“Apple has introduced a new line of emojis to represent people with disabilities, such as a person in a wheelchair or someone who is deaf, or the Governor of Virginia,” Che said, showing a photo of a smiling dark-grey moon emoji.
Jost quipped, “Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino have all turned down offers to perform at the Grammys over complaints that the Recording Academy has not done enough to diversify the membership. In fact, the Academy’s blackest member is Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.”
Saturday Night Live airs weekly at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
Photo Credit: NBC
