Michael Che and Colin Jost are used to roasting each other on the air at this point. Their semi-annual joke swaps are about as vicious as you can get on network television. No family members, eccentricity or social taboo has been off-limits over the years. If you ask Che, it’s all been on the right side of the line, but upon further review, he did admit one prank he pulled on Jost was “really mean.”
The conversation in question happened during an appearance on Working It Out with comedian Mike Birbiglia. Che was first asked about the joke swaps and whether there was ever a joke or a moment he felt went too far or that he pulled back on. He said no but said the writers did ask him to pull back on a bit he did for April Fools’ Day. As a prank, he told the studio audience not to laugh at anything Jost said during Weekend Update. His original plan was to just let it go on the entire segment, but other people “negotiated” with him to tell his co-anchor what was going on after a few jokes.
I remember at one point, no one laughs and then I tell my first joke and it gets a huge laugh. Then he goes again and no one laughs again and it’s like real real tepid. And then he writes down in his book, as I’m telling my joke I can see him writing, ‘This is the worst Update I’ve ever done.’ He’s like spinning.
If Che had followed his original plan, Jost would have been spinning for several more jokes, but instead, he let him off the hook after just a few minutes. Initially, he thought that would lessen the impact of the prank. Maybe it did, but in retrospect, he was happy it didn’t go on any longer. He told Birbiglia he was ultimately glad they didn’t take it any further because it was “really mean.”
And then finally, we let him in on it because I had someone yell, ‘You stink’ from the audience. And then we let him in, and it was a tough one for him to recover from. I remember thinking afterwards I’m glad we only did it for 2 or 3 jokes… That was really mean. It was really mean.
If you’ve never seen the bit before, I cannot recommend watching it enough. You can tell the lack of a reaction is messing with Colin’s head during the first few jokes, and it almost throws off his timing as he’s figuring out what’s going on. He’s a professional and works through it, but it’s also obvious he’s down bad. You can watch the prank below…
Perhaps the funniest part of this conversation is what wasn’t discussed. Che and Jost have forced each other to say and do some outrageous things during their decade long tenures on Weekend Update. Jost has been forced to read absolutely vile comments about his wife Scarlett Johansson directly to her face. Che has been forced to roast himself about his dating habits and say outrageous things about race. None of that was too far, but interfering with a comedian’s laughs is considered psychologically damaging.
We still don’t know for sure if Jost and Che will be back for Season 52 of Saturday Night Live. There are rumors about the two every summer, but fans are cautiously optimistic they will return. Che seems to still be enjoying his place on Weekend Update (even if he says otherwise), and Jost has started appearing in a ton of regular sketches. The fanbase clearly wants them back, and in a perfect world, wants to see a few more of these epic pranks.
