It’s long been an open secret that Colin Jost and Michael Che’s “Weekend Update” joke swaps haven’t always unfolded exactly as presented, with dress rehearsal audiences often reporting that at least some of the jokes read on air had been previewed earlier in the night.
But if anyone was skeptical about whether Jost was truly in the dark about Che’s surprise “Weekend Update” joke swap on this week’s Saturday Night Live, LateNighter can report that he genuinely was. In fact, show insiders tell us—as Jost indicated on air—that the two co-anchors had agreed not to do the segment this Christmas.
That left Jost reading a string of deliberately provocative jokes written by Che, starting with a punchline about a U.S. Mint coin “celebrating where black people actually come from—ships,” followed by a joke about the Archdiocese of New York’s abuse-victim fund that ended with Jost asking why he got nothing “for keeping my mouth shut and taking it like a champ.”
Throughout, Che needled Jost for having nothing to give back, telling him on air, “You should have wrote some jokes for me to tell,” and later adding, “Wow, Colin, I wouldn’t have done that one.”
First introduced as a Thanksgiving bit in 2015, the joke swap has since become a regular fixture of SNL’s Christmas episodes and season finales, trading on the anchors’ visible discomfort as they deliver often beyond-the-pale material touching on race, religion, sex, and scandal.
Over the years, the segment has grown increasingly elaborate, with Che frequently putting Jost at the center of the humiliation. That has included forcing him to read jokes about the Black community, the Catholic Church, and Woody Allen, as well as repeated jokes about his wife, Scarlett Johansson—at one point directly in front of her.
Watch Jost and Che’s latest joke swap—one-sided as it was—at the top of this post.
