After Michael Che Was Dragged For Sharing Jokes About Simone Biles, He Declared, “I Was Hacked!”
This week, we saw gymnast GOAT Simone Biles withdraw from both her scheduled team events and individual all-around events at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, as a personal choice to put her mental health and overall well-being first. Lots of people applauded her for trusting her gut instincts and choosing to back out. “I wonder if any assholes who can’t touch their damn toes will also have something to say about this” wasn’t a question anyone had to ask themselves because of course, they came out in record numbers to throw hate at Simone Biles’ decision. One person who seemed to really want to talk about Simone Biles was Saturday Night Live’s Michael Che. He even went so far as to suggest he’d be talking about Simone Biles in an upcoming stand-up set, which was followed by sharing a few jokes on his Instagram Stories. And after he got shit for it, Michael joked that he was hacked.
If you happen to click on Michael Che’s Instagram page today, you’ll see that there are zero posts for his 628,000 followers to enjoy. But Michael Che regularly wipes his Instagram clean. The Wrap reports that Michael’s recent Instagram wipe came after several jokes about Simone were posted to his Instagram Stories. But since something called “screenshotting” exists, Michael’s posts live on.
The Stories start with a post about how Michael Che really wanted to make some jokes about Simone Biles, and that he planned to try them out at The Comedy Cellar later that evening. Instead, he re-posted some DMs he received showing two jokes about Simone, the basis of one being a really gross joke about her abuser, Larry Nassar. Shortly after, Michael Che threw up an excuse about being hacked.
— BallerAlert (@balleralert) July 30, 2021
Good call with the hacking excuse. Forget the fact that the “hacker” just so happened to use the exact same font and format as Michael Che, and that the “hacker” writes in a perfect copy of his own diction and vernacular. But it’s just technical enough to confuse his 76-year-old boss, and lord knows Michael Che don’t want to risk getting demoted from his chair at the Weekend Update desk. I mean, who else could make Colin Jost giggle like Michael Che does?
The Wrap reached out to NBC for comment, but they didn’t have anything to say about this mess. Meanwhile, I’m over here violently refreshing the Instagram accounts of Bowen Yang and Aidy Bryant for the real statement on this all. But while we’re waiting on that, here are the reviews from the internet, which were predictably unfavorable. And Colin Jost was dragged into it as well as if he’s not already having a terrible week!
How nice for Michael Che never to have been denied the sanctity of his own body because of his gender.
How nice for him not to be judged and gaslit repeatedly because it is routine to treat an entire gender and their experiences with disregard and contempt.
How lovely for him.
— A Shady Dame From Seville (@SorayaMcDonald) July 30, 2021
Yes @nbcsnl @nbc is on hiatus, but doesn't Michael Che have an @HBO deal too? It'd be a great time to act on all the big talk of listening to Black women, and drop that talent-free wastrel who constantly maligns us. We have receipts for years but this latest stunt is inexcusable.
— @PiaGlenn (@PiaGlenn) July 30, 2021
colin jost opening twitter to see both scarjo and michael che trending pic.twitter.com/3RBSnWLpcP
— rickie (@wafflesknope) July 30, 2021
This is the perfect excuse for Michael to pull out the next time he tells the kind of jokes that has NBC’s PR team scrambling to do damage control. And of course, there will be a next time. A new season of SNL is coming back in the fall, isn’t it?
Pic: Wenn.com