“Saturday Night Live” fueled outrage and roaring laughter during its Dec. 16 Christmas episode, which saw comics Michael Che and Colin Jost trip each other up with controversial jokes.
The latest “SNL” Weekend Update segment pulled off its annual joke swap bit, but this year it seemed to take things a step too far for some viewers. As a result, critics have blasted Che for laughing his way through the wisecracks that Jost wrote for him. More than a few social media users have declared the banter as “racist.”
The first offense ensued as Che addressed the recent backlash Beyoncé received after fans disputed her lighter complexion and platinum blond hair. “In fact, Beyoncé looked so white, that I was finally attracted to her,” Che said as laughter began to bubble up.
The singer’s mother, Tina Knowles, and her fans came to her defense, hitting back at the comments claiming that Beyoncé made a conscious effort to appear more white or to resemble the Kardashian family at the premiere of the “Renaissance” film in Los Angeles earlier this month.
The “Black is King” vocalist even seemed to issue a subtle response to the chatter with a photo of herself dressed in all white, making it evident that her skin is obviously melanated.
You know the point of this is for them to make each other look bad by making one another say the most controversial thing possible. Che always tries to make Collin say a racist joke and Collin retaliates.
— ChaosMoogle (@ChaosMoogle) December 18, 2023
Ya'll be laughing when they do it to Michael Jackson so let's not act…
Other jokes between the men included likening former President Barack Obama to an African “dodo” bird, stating that Muslim and Jewish people “need Jesus” amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, and laughing off a punning punchline declaring Scarlett Johansson a better black widow than Coretta Scott King.
A naysayer of the skit wrote, “Michael Che is the same person who got called out for making r*pe jokes about Simone Biles on Instagram. When he got called out for doing so, he lied and said he was hacked and deleted his Instagram. This ‘joke’ about Beyoncé isn’t surprising. He’s a nasty person who loves belittling Black women.”
Another said, “The fact that a black man said the joke makes it worse, so lame.”
In 2021, the “Top Five” actor sarcastically quipped that his Instagram was hacked after posts rating jokes about Simone Biles sexual assault were shared on his account.
Another critic of the “SNL” season 49 year-end episode wrote, “That was simply racist. Like what, “She finally looked so white that I was finally attracted to her!” How was that even allowed? @nbcsnl is simply disgusting!”
While Che has not directly addressed the response to the joke swap, he did post a screenshot of Jost attempting to dab “activist” Hattie Daniels during the segment. Screen Rant confirmed that Daniels, played by an elderly actress, was a way of Che to troll his co-star as he delivered controversial takes about Obama and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s wife.
