Colin Jost and Michael Che reprised their Joke Swap tradition in which each “Weekend Update” anchor is forced to read jokes the other has written for them. Once again, it was Che who dealt the final blow.
“I’d like to apologize,” Jost said, after being forced to read a joke where he claimed rapper Kanye West was “right about Hitler.”
Jost continued, “To apologize, I’d like to sacrifice the most important thing in my life: my beautiful, award-winning, world-famous... hair.”
At first the joke simply seemed like a reference to Jost’s wife, actress Scarlett Johansson. Back in the season 50 Christmas episode, Che made Jost squirm with a series of NSFW jokes about the two-time Oscar nominee.
However, Jost continued, “That’s right, I’m shaving it off. Send in the barber!”
A barber walked on stage, and Jost seemed prepared to commit to the bit before Che put a stop to it.
“No no!” Che said. He told Jost, “You were really gonna do it?! Man, you are the greatest comedian of all time.”
Jost got a few good hits in himself throughout the segment. His darkest jokes for Che focused on the late pop singer Michael Jackson, whose legacy remains clouded by multiple child sex abuse allegations.
“Since a few members of the Jackson family are actually in the audience tonight, I wanted to take a moment to tell everybody what I really think,” said Che.
“Michael Jackson did nothing wrong!” Che declared. Then, with a panicked look as he read the next cue card, Che added, “He was right to molest all those kids.”
Che continued, “When I was 10 years old, Michael Jackson molested me, and the only thing it gave me was a fetish for middle-aged white women.”
Che adlibbed, “That is not why I have that.”
The Joke Swaps first started in December 2018, and have since become a biannual tradition. Although Jost rarely comes out on top in these segments, he has pointed to the season 49 finale Joke Swap as one where he managed to truly rattle Che.
“The time I feel like I got him the most nervous, because he’s such a Kendrick Lamar fan, [was] when I started getting him weighing in on the feud, like talking directly to Kendrick,” Jost revealed in Wednesday’s episode of the New Heights podcast.
“I could tell he was really, really genuinely worried about what I was going to make him say,” Jost said. For the season 51 finale, however, Che seems like the clear winner.
