Saturday Night Live’s 51st season ended with the show pulling out the big guns last night. Beloved former cast member and major movie star Will Ferrell hosted. Former Beatle and arguably most accomplished musician alive Paul McCartney was the musical guest, and of course Weekend Update ended with one more joke swap, which has arguably become the entire show’s most popular recurring segment. Last night’s bit was a good reminder why it works so well too, as the madness got so out of control Michael Che had to stop his co-anchor Colin Jost from going too far.
Stopping each other from going too far isn’t typically an act of mercy you see on the joke swaps. Inflicting maximum humiliation is normally the point and is also why both Che and Jost can get away with reading ridiculous jokes they’d normally get cancelled for. We all get the joke is on them for having to say whatever they’re saying out loud. In this case, however, this specific bit had the potential to do more long-term damage, at least to Jost’s glorious hair.
Che had him read a joke about Kanye being right about Hitler, then apologize to everyone and make up for it by cutting off his “award-winning” hair. A barber then came on stage and got ready to shave it all off. Jost seemed ready to reluctantly embrace it before a shocked Che shouted, “no no no” and “you were really going to do it?” You can watch the crazy segment below…
For the record, I think he was absolutely going to do it. My guess is Che thought he was going to back down and thus, effectively lose the joke swap, but in previous versions, he’s been forced to read horrible things about his wife Scarlett Johansson literally in front of her. If he was going to power through that nightmare, I’m pretty sure he was going to get rid of his hair. It’s not like it would take him a full year to grow it back anyway. He’d have a few months of discomfort and be back in business by the start of Season 52.
Besides, it’s not like getting through the rest of the joke swap was a picnic for either of the friends. Che had to read a joke about how being molested by Michael Jackson gave him a fetish for older white women. Jost had to volunteer the use of the ferry boat he co-anchors with Pete Davidson to all Black people for free rides back to Africa. Even by joke swap standards, it was all pretty extreme.
Of course, every time there’s a joke swap now, most fans are quietly wondering if it’ll be the last one. The bit has been an every now and again thing for more than a half decade and always follows the same format. The two write jokes that the other is forced to read live on the air for the first time. Invariably, they include punchlines or are about subject matter that would normally be off limits, and the audience can’t get enough of the cringe factor.
The bits really show off their chemistry and make it pretty obvious why Jost and Che are now the longest serving Weekend Update anchors in SNL’s glorious history. Every summer, there are rumors about one or both of them leaving the show. To be perfectly honest, I thought they were probably done after last year, given it was Season 50 and ended with Johansson hosting the final episode. It felt like a fitting send off.
They ended up returning, and I’m so thankful they did. Not only did the duo have another spectacular season on Weekend Update, Jost really broke out for the first time by appearing in more conventional sketches. His impression of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth became a pretty regular thing, and he even started appearing as unrelated characters in some sketches. He clearly has a talent for it, and if he would like to do more acting than writing in the future, it’s now a lot easier to see a more traditional Hollywood path in his future.
Expect to hear more about Jost and Che’s future, as well as the rest of the cast as no one had an obvious goodbye-to-the-show moment during the season finale last night. Typically we start to hear what’s going on later in the summer. Fingers crossed we have at least a few more joke swaps in our future.
