'Saturday Night Live' Star Colin Jost Comes Under Heavy Criticism Over 'Weekend Update' Comments

Saturday Night Live comedian Colin Jost has come under fire on Twitter for his 'Weekend Update' [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Saturday Night Live comedian Colin Jost has come under fire on Twitter for his "Weekend Update" joke about Amazon's headquarters coming to New York City, in which he suggested New Yorkers should be happy about the move.

"Only New Yorkers could complain about getting 25,000 new jobs," Jost said during this weekend's episode.

"All the cities who lost out must be like, 'Shut up you whiny b–.' New York basically won the lottery and we're like, 'But the subways might be slightly more crowded.' Meanwhile, people in West Virginia are like, 'Well, back to the mines.'"

Jost continued, "Yeah, I know it's going to raise housing prices, but it's a little late for New Yorkers to complain about rent. I mean, even Amazon had to move to Queens because it couldn't afford to live in Manhattan."

The joke was not well-received, especially by some aware of Jost's biography. The 36-year-old is a Harvard University graduate who was hired by SNL as a writer right after he graduated. His father is an engineer and Jost attended a private school in Manhattan.

"Colin Jost is the son of a doctor and engineer, went to a private school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, went to Harvard, was hired at SNL immediately after graduating and has never had another adult job," writer Jon Schwarz tweeted, along with a clip of the joke.

"Starting to think this show sucks extreme amounts of s–," writer Chase Woodruff wrote.

"Is Colin Jost the most unfunny human being alive?? (the answer is yes, obviously)," writer Carol Grant tweeted.

"No, Colin Jost, getting an Amazon HQ in NY is nothing like winning the lottery unless you had to pay to get that lottery ticket and pay more than it was even worth," writer Toure tweeted.

"If Colin Jost is so down for Amazon coming here he should go work there and give his job to someone who can actually write a joke," one Twitter user wrote.

On Nov. 13, Amazon announced it chose the Queens neighborhood Long Island City and Crystal City, a neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia, as the sites for its second headquarters. The company plans to invest $5 billion and create a combined 50,000 jobs in the two locations. Amazon will also build an "Operations Center of Excellence" in Nashville, where 5,000 jobs will be created.

While politicians and Amazon touted the deal's benefits, there have been plenty of critics of the announcement. According to The New Yorker, New York City and New York State offered Amazon at least $1.5 billion in tax breaks and other grants. In addition, Amazon already had offices in New York and Northern Virginia.

"The idea that [Amazon] will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here," Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the newly-elected U.S. Representative of New York's 14th Congressional district, tweeted after the announcement.

Photo credit: Will Heath/NBC

0comments
Start the Conversation

of