Even though SNL does a full dress rehearsal just hours before going on the air, cast members are never quite sure how things are going to land. The audience is made up of entirely new people, and they’re going to have different reactions, sometimes for the positive and sometimes for the negative. Last night’s SNL was a good reminder of that, as Weekend Update co-anchor Colin Jost was so amused by the response to one joke that he stopped and roasted people in the front row for it.
The joke in question was delivered by Michael Che, and it was about an airline seat cushion. The Japanese Airlines version apparently has a cheek splitter designed to go in the middle, which attracted a lot of attention on social media. The Weekend Update anchor showed a picture of it and then turned the curiosity into an unexpectedly graphic joke about Heated Rivalry.
A passenger on Japan Airlines posted a picture of a seat cushion on the plane that features a cheek splitter wedge in the middle, which is very confusing because ‘Cheek Splitter’ is also the Japanese title for Heated Rivalry.
The joke got one of the bigger laughs of the entire Weekend Update segment, but it apparently killed in particular with some people sitting in the front row. Colin Jost couldn’t get past how over the top their shocked faces were; so, he stopped the segment and called out the people sitting directly in front of him by showing them what their expressions looked like…
The best SNL cast members are always the ones who are calm and witty enough to respond in the moment to what’s going on. I’m not saying the average sketch should be a call and response with the audience, but sometimes a bit, especially on Weekend Update, can be improved by acknowledging the crowd responding in a way that feels out of the ordinary.
Sarah Sherman showed that earlier this season when she called everyone out for not giving any woos to her coat reveal. Ego Nwodim had an all-time example last season after several members of the audience swore, and she said they’re going to get fined. Back in the day, Weekend Update anchor Norm Macdonald used to say jokes a second time if he didn’t feel like people laughed enough. Che and Jost are clearly both comfortable doing that, and if you watch enough Weekend Update bits, you’re bound to see them doing some editorializing if a reaction is unexpectedly good or unexpectedly bad.
You can watch the portion of the Weekend Update segment in question below, which begins roughly at the 4:15 mark...
Not surprisingly, the rest of the SNL episode was expectedly good. Ryan Gosling hosted for the fourth time, and he jumped into some outrageous characters including a cyclops. He also broke character a few times in funny and unexpected ways, which is basically what people want to see from him at this point. It’ll be fascinating to see how long he has to wait to get his Five-Timers Club jacket. My guess is it’ll happen next season or the year after at the latest.
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