‘SNL’: ‘Weekend Update’ Anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che Set Each Other up With Surprise Offensive Jokes

Saturday Night Live capped off its 2019 with a holiday themed episode hosted by the legendary Eddie Murphy, and the “Weekend Update” segment included one of the show’s annual highlights. Each year, anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che deliver a segment where they write jokes for one another without telling the other what they are ahead of time. This usually ends up with the comedians delivering dicey or tasteless jokes they would not say otherwise, with hilarious results.

“Tonight is our Christmas show, and we have a tradition where Che and I like to give each other jokes to read,” Jost said at the top of the segment.

Che replied, “Yeah, we’re make each other read the jokes live on-air that the other person has never seen before.”

Jost said, “Yes, and the idea this year is make it fun and not try to ruin anyone’s career or get them stabbed on the subway or backstage at the Eddie Murphy show.”

Che joked that “we’ll see what happens” and told Jost to go first. Che penned a joke for Jost about presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s unpopularity with black voters, and it included a racial stereotype.

“Recent polls shows that Pete Buttigieg has only 4 percent support among African Americans. But that’ll change once Pete announces his running mate, the Popeyes chicken sandwich,” Jost said.

Che was up next with dicey Jost-penned joke about late disgraced financier Jeffrey Esptein, a convicted sex offender.

Che said: “An interview with England’s Prince Andrew is being called a ‘total disaster’ after he said his friend Jeffery Epstein conducted himself in a matter ‘unbecoming.’ I don’t know. From what I’ve read, it sounded like he’d be coming all the time.”

Che struggled to keep it together, saying “That’s terrible, man.”

Jost was then forced to deliver another racial joke, this one involving Babe Ruth.

Jost said: “The bat used by Babe Ruth to hit his 500th home run was auctioned off this week. Also, I’ll be auctioning off the bat I use to keep my neighborhood white.”

Jost got one off one more shot at Che with a joke implying Che had a sexually transmitted disease.

“Researchers are testing a new method to treat cancer by injecting the cells with the herpes virus,” Che was forced to say. “So good news if you’ve ever had sex with me, you might have the cure for cancer.”

The final joke of the bit was a but meta. Che had Jost read a script that made it seem like he was flipping out and going off-script over having to read a cue card held by a black man.

“It says: ‘OK time out. I refuse to read this last joke. Not because it’s racist but because there’s a black man holding by cue card,” Jost relayed. “It says: ‘I can’t work like this. Merry Christmas, homeboy. You’re fired.’”

The camera then cut to black man holding up a false cue card, pretending to be the target of Jost’s outrage. The pretend cue card holder even had a racist joke ready to go for Jost that read: “The Harriet Tubman biopic Harriet was released last month, and then luckily, re-captured and returned to its owner.”

Che reacted in faux shock, writing, “Firing the man on Christmas, Colin!

Saturday Night Live airs weekly on NBC. New episodes will return starting on Jan. 25. Adam Driver will host and Halsey will serve as the musical guest.