If you’re not hearing the jungle drums beating from 30 Rock, you might want to have your cultural antennae checked for low sensitivity.
The message rumbling out from the building’s seventeen floor offices occupied by Saturday Night Live is that change, truly significant change, is coming. Again.
If this week doesn’t bring the final performance for Colin Jost and Michael Che, the longest-running anchors of “Weekend Update,” there may be loud charges of “fake news!” about the fake news.
When you have current cast members responding publicly to questions about becoming an anchor (Sarah Sherman says she’d “love to”), the embargo on commenting on possible changes behind that movable desk seems to be off.
And what are folks supposed to think when Jost’s movie star wife, and frequent Che target, Scarlett Johansson, turns out to be the host for the season finale of the 50th season, when even more attention than usual has been lavished on the show and its stars?
Survey says: It’s farewell time for two of the biggest players of the last of the show’s five decades.
If true, it would be cause for both recognition and a darn shame.
“Weekend Update” has endured because it has been among the most reliable ten or so minutes of laugh-out-loud comedy on television since we first learned we were not Chevy Chase.
It was never a totally original concept—the Brits did That Was the Week That Was in black and white—but if you want to trace the evolution of what constituted acceptable edginess in political and social satire on television over the past half century for your doctoral thesis—and surely some poor soul has—“Update” would have a central role.
Every memorable “WU” anchor has pushed the line forward: Dan Aykroyd pushed it with “Jane, you ignorant slut”; Norm Macdonald pushed it with his news that OJ masks were the most popular Halloween costume and the most popular Halloween greeting was “I’ll kill you and that guy who’s bringing over your glasses—or treat;” Tina Fey pushed it with “Bitch is the new black.”
But Jost and Che, unfettered like no other anchors in the segment’s history, have trampled that edginess line pretty much to dust:
On a record twelve US states having female governors, “The other 38 states will have dinner made on time.”
On Liz Cheney accusing Republicans of enabling white supremacy and antisemitism, “House leadership rejected Cheney’s attacks, calling them ‘Cheaper than a black rabbi.”
On Donald Trump criticizing Lincoln for not settling the Civil War. “Well, it was settled—until you showed up.”
And most recently, on Trump saying Catholics liked him dressing as the Pope, “I just find it hard to believe that anyone in the Catholic Church would be into something so juvenile.”
Certainly, the Jost-Che pairing has set a record for most “oohs” and “whoas” from SNL‘s studio audience. (Norm might be close if NBC hadn’t fired him.) And that’s not counting the duo’s regular tour-de-force “joke swaps.” (Can’t even imagine how far they’ll go Saturday if this is, in fact, their finale.)
On nights when the host didn’t have the best comedy chops (no names), or the writers came up with nothing but what used to be the arcane ten-to-one premises, or relied too heavily on seltzer-down-the-pants material, Jost and Che almost always came through with elegantly composed, laughable (in the right way) jokes.
Jost and Che did not seem like an ideal match in their earliest performances, but they quickly found a thrust-and-parry rhythm that enhanced their regularly outstanding material.
Jost has been especially effective playing with his privileged, insufferably blessed image, as guests to the desk have abused, insulted and spit-taked him into sputtering shock. He summed up this unusual talent well in his memoir, “A Very Punchable Face.”
Maybe the rumors will be laughed away in the finale. Few would be unhappy about that. These guys have put their own original stamp on this matchless comedy segment.
And maybe Lorne Michaels will speak up for continuity, which is certainly his own hallmark, despite persistent chatter surrounding his own exit.
But change has been an essential factor in the long success of SNL. New players for new generations of viewers has been a mantra Michaels has relied on to keep his creation going.
If this weekend really is the definitive goodbye to the “Update” team of Jost and Che, they will be missed—at least until the anticipation and subsequent schadenfreude about a new team trying to somehow follow their act kicks in.
Scarlett Johansson hosts SNL‘s Season 50 finale with musical guest Bad Bunny this Saturday, May 17 on NBC and Peacock.
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I purposefully didn’t read this article until now, because I wanted to see what the finale would look like, but yeah. It looks like both of them are staying put at the show. Which doesn’t surprise me. I know Lorne once said the reason why cast members started staying on longer is because of COVID. But with the pandemic over in a sense, and Jost and Che seemingly returning for season 51, it just makes it seems like a fluke, somewhat.