Michael Che Might Have Subtly Addressed The Backlash From His Caitlyn Jenner Joke
It’s Michael Che’s job to read the news on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update segment. But for the second week in a row, he is the news. Last week, Michael Che pissed off viewers with a transphobic joke about Caitlyn Jenner. This week, he delivered a series of jokes that appeared to be self-aware of the backlash.
This went down during a story about a 67-year-old woman from China who gave birth after getting pregnant naturally. First 70-year-old Caitlyn, now this? Someone should warn Michael that it’s never a good idea to piss off grandma culture. If anyone will swat you with their purse in the grocery store and tell you to smarten up, it’s them. But Michael Che went at it, because cracking jokes is his job. via Entertainment Tonight:
“The birth set a record for ‘Most Friction.’ See, you guys don’t realize this but that joke took me like four hours to write. I had much better punchlines but the fellas at NBC standards said they were all too dirty.”
You don’t have to go through Michael Che’s trash can to find those rejected jokes. All you’ll find in that can are the Caitlyn Jenner jokes that didn’t make the cut from last week. Michael saved us the trouble of wondering what kind of jokes NBC thought were too dirty by just coming out and telling them anyway.
“Like, at first I was gonna say, ‘I hope that kid likes his milk chalky!’ But they said, ‘You can’t say that on TV.’ It was my second favorite punchline. My first favorite being, ‘She can breastfeed just by standing over the crib.’ That’s a pretty good one, right? But NBC said, ‘Too gross.’ Which is ridiculous, because too gross would be if I said, ‘Doctors described the birth as like pulling a penny out of a wad of gum.’ Now that is too gross. Even I wouldn’t tell that joke on TV.”
Can you believe that people on the internet were not feeling Michael Che this week?
weekend update, did you mean: michael che misogyny hour
— LADIES…. I’m boiling (@runawaywithmani) November 3, 2019
We are so tired of Michael Che. We’ve been trying to be diplomatic but now we just can’t. It takes us half way through Colin’s next joke to recover from each of his offenses. Please for the love. @nbcsnl #snl #weekendupdate
— Raine LaChance (@rainelachance) November 3, 2019
@nbcsnl Michael Che is a misogynist dick. Always a white woman joke or an attack on women's physicalities. So boring.
— ItinerantEpiscopal (@EpiscopalHeart) November 3, 2019
However, there were some people who came to Michael Che’s defense.
Michael Che and Colin Jost doing Weekend Update is the only thing funny on SNL.
— Woody (@Woody0823) November 3, 2019
I’m not sure where Michael Che will go from here. Will he double-down next week with a joke about the California fires being the result of Mother Nature raging out on her period? Or maybe he’ll stick to some Lorne-approved Trump jokes. Who knows. One thing is for sure, and that’s that four hours will be spent writing a joke that makes Colin Jost bust out a tight-lipped “I shouldn’t, but I will” smile directly into the camera. And I know I joked up top about Michael Che being 2019’s version of Sinead ripping that Pope picture, but I was wrong. I think if Michael Che is the 2019’s version of anything from 1990’s SNL, it’s Toonces the Cat. Both are known for appearing only from the waist-up behind a set prop, and the second they appear on camera, you know you’re just moments away from a messy car wreck.
Pic: NBC