An Ode to the ‘SNL: Weekend Update’ Joke Swap Tradition

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A wonderful thing happened at the end of 2018. “SNL: Weekend Update” hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che wanted to have some fun with each other, at the expense of each other. The “Joke Swap” was born — kind of.

Jost and Che actually first made each other blind-read one joke apiece way back in November 2015. It was … forgettable. Jost’s joke for Che wasn’t really meant to embarrass Che, it was just kind of a lame pun that suggested Che might be a Hitler fan — or perhaps just a history buff. Che’s joke for Jost to read better punctuated the intended point of the new idea, and it got laughs, but they were cheap laughs.

“A team of doctors will soon perform a surgery that uses muscle and skin from a man’s arm to give him a new penis, which he was born without,” Jost read off cue cards he had not previously seen. “And before the man with no penis goes into surgery, let me just say this: Good luck, Colin.”

The punchline was met with a visual inset of Jost’s headshot.

The Colin-has-no-dick joke was made a bit more embarrassing by Colin having to read it himself, but the fact that Colin read it aloud himself to himself actually makes the punchline nonsensical. The moment was over, not memorable, and there was no reason to return to the well. Until it did.

The Christmas 2018 show made more space for the swap. It was hit and miss, but memorable for Che discovering the magic formula to roast Jost with Jost’s own face and voice. You see, Jost is white — very white. Che is Black. He can tell Black jokes. And because of hundreds of years of history of people who look like Colin oppressing people who look like Michael, Che can also tell white jokes. It’s a social contract that we all agree works, even publicly.

So Jost, for example, cannot tell jokes about Rosa Parks. Unless Michael Che makes him.

“Last week was National Rosa Parks Day,” Jost read off the cue cards on December 15, 2018, “Or as we call it in my house, Uppity Bus Passenger Day.”

A tradition was born.

Jost’s jokes for Che were still kind of soft and/or generic “Weekend Update” jokes that either man would write and say each week. To be fair, and to use a metaphor I probably shouldn’t, Jost had (and still has, because of that social agreement) fewer bullets available for his gun.

Jost came better prepared five months later, when the guys swapped jokes for a season-finale episode for the first time.

“Doctors in Iowa have confirmed a dog disease that can be passed on to humans,” Che read what Jost wrote. “Fine, I’ll wear a condom.”

I don’t love the joke, it’s fine, but it was now game on.

As the tradition continued, Jost, who introduces the segment, routinely set up his partner (and the audience) for his and Che’s different attitudes (storyline, at least) about what the joke swap was intended to be. For Jost, it was meant to present to his good buddy the gift of humor; no one is supposed to get “canceled” or “stabbed.” Che doesn’t quite see it that way.

That isn’t to say that Jost is handing over knock-knock jokes. The same year’s Christmas episode featured his best shot at Che up until that point.

“Researchers are testing a new method to treat cancer by injecting the cells with the herpes virus,” he had Che read. “So good news if you’ve ever had sex with me, you might have the cure for cancer.”

Jost had found an available topic: Michael Che has STDs.

He has since doubled down on his partner’s sex life with some very strong jokes about Che only dating white women. Jost has also since clawed back some momentum with the concept of making Che say some things about rappers that maybe you would not want to say publicly, like calling Kendrick Lamar a “bitch,” or weighing in on Diddy’s sex parties. Jost also dinged Che good once by making him defend Michael Jackson against pedophilia accusations, a stereotype of the Black community’s supposed stance on the issue.

All good stuff, smart stuff. But it still pales in comparison to what Che can consistently pull out of the race well.

“Recent polls show that Pete Buttigieg has only 4 percent support among African Americans,” he made Jost read in the Christmas 2019 edition. “But that will change once Pete announces his running mate, the Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich.”

A very good joke at a time when that chicken sandwich, which is indeed delicious, was a thing.

By this point, it was clear that Che wrote the better barbs with the better-available topics. But Jost also sold Che’s jokes so much better. Where Colin could keep a straight face and do the read, Che often stepped on his reads with laughter and/or a cheap (even if genuine) level of discomfort that kind of negates the risk factor.

It’s not a fair fight, but both men hold their own in their own ways. Not only is Jost white, he’s an Izod model and married to Scarlett Johansson. He went to Harvard. He is either the All-American boy or the poster boy for white privilege, it just depends on your POV. Jost knows this. His own memoir is titled “A Very Punchable Face.”

None of us felt particularly privileged in April 2020, when Jost and Che (remotely) brought us the best COVID-19 distraction they could conceive of: “Weekend Update” via webcam.

Like so many attempts to entertain during the pandemic’s lockdown period, the Zoom delivery was tough. The episode, if you could call it that, landed like jokes in your own virtual staff meetings — only if your Google Meet had a Vanessa Bayer laugh track. They tried, and Che turned a personal tragedy into a triumph that lives on YouTube for us all.

“As you know, Colin, I lost my grandmother this week,” Che said after their “Update” segment limped to a close. “Coming back to work really made me feel better, especially with you.”

Jost was legitimately moved — and then he was legitimately cornered.

“Her favorite part of the show was when we would do joke swap,” Che continued. “You have no idea but, I dunno, maybe you would like to do one right now?”

“She would have really liked it,” Che added, imploring Jost to open his email and read the new joke he found.

“For her, then, I’ll say this,” Jost said, dedicating the moment to Che’s beloved grandmother’s most-beloved recurring segment.

“Two professors at the University of Oklahoma have been cited for using the N-word in class,” Jost read. “In their defense, the students were being pretty lazy.”

Back to the well, well done. Oh, and there was one more thing.

“My grandmother has never seen this show,” Che said, “I just wanted you to do that.”

Though it was a forgettable non-episode, the awkward moment demonstrated why the bit works. Che and Jost are close friends, and the joke swap is exactly what guys would do with/to their best guy friends if they had the talent and the platform.

Don’t believe me? Google “Fantasy Football Loser Punishments.” The more men platonically love each other and the worse we are at expressing that love, the more we do stupid, embarrassing shit to each other — like this. Ultimately the “Weekend Update” joke swap is: Jost and Che are entertaining themselves, and the fact that we love it is a bonus.

By Christmas 2020, things were (mostly) back to normal (in both the U.S. and in “SNL”-land), with Jost against forced to tell Rosa Parks jokes to a live studio audience and millions of viewers at home.

“This week marks the 65th anniversary of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on an Alabama bus. And I just wish that all Black people could follow her example — of sitting down and shutting up.”

Che didn’t fix what definitely wasn’t broken, and I’m here for it. But then he found a totally different topic to use against Jost.

In October 2020, Jost and Johansson got married. Two months later, Che weaponized their nuptials. The December 20, 2020 “Update” featured our first Scarlett Johansson joke in the swap. It wasn’t good, but it was precedent-setting.

Do not think for a moment that this newly available option brought Che away from his go-to stuff. For that season’s finale episode, in May 2021, Jost had to read this two-parter: “Warner Bros. is producing a new movie in which Superman is Black. And a Black Superman actually makes a lot of sense when you remember that Superman was abandoned by his parents as a baby.”

And: “Well, I knew you’d like that one. Here’s another one: Warner Bros. is producing a new movie in which Superman is Black. In this version, Superman’s kryptonite is an honest day’s work.”

Jost’s kryptonite was still his mouth on his face telling jokes at the expense of Black people. Also, the two-jokes-for-the-price-of-one play became a proven commodity for Che.

The element of surprise is, of course, absolutely crucial to this entire bit. So Jost upped that when he sprung a few jokes on Jost while live on the air in the show’s Season 49 premiere episode (October 15, 2023). The topic was California’s new “Ebony Alerts” system, a call for the public to be on the lookout for missing Black children. As Jost was made to read, the missing Black children are definitely “not with their fathers,” Jost had to read. This poor guy.

(Blame COVID for no joke swap on “SNL’s” Christmas 2021 episode, a modified show with a limited cast. That night, Tina Fey joined Che for “Update.” There also was no swap on that season’s finale episode, in the following Christmas episode, or its own subsequent season finale. Those three “were due to time,” we’re told.)

Che’s next surprise for Jost was that Christmas (2023), when he brought “civil-rights activist Dr. Hattie Davis” (unbeknownst to Jost, it was actually just an actress, Daphne Skeeter) to the “Update” desk, seated nice and close to his buddy Colin.

With the embarrassment of riches (leading to the embarrassment of Jost) at his disposal, Che combined his two favorite topics for Jost. It was a bit of a slow burn to greatness.

“New York State now allows movie theaters to serve alcohol,” Jost read, “which is how I’m finally able to enjoy my wife’s little art movies.”

A graphic of Scarlett Johansson in “Black Widow” was displayed on screen. Stick with it here…

“I’m kidding honey,” Jost continued. “I love all of your movies. And if you ask me, you’re an even better Black Widow than Coretta Scott King.”

Imagine making that joke about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on live TV while seated next to an elderly Black woman in a wheelchair whom you believe to be a Black-rights activist. Jost didn’t find out until later that Che played him — the dude’s deviousness is just on a whole different level.

Che made good on that prank, sort of, for the season finale. This time, Che brought “an actual, practicing rabbi,” Rabbi Jill Hausman, to sit beside Jost as he was made to tell distasteful jokes about Jews. Rabbi Jill was the real deal. This time, however, Che’s bit lost the audience by the end. They were fine with a Jews-control-the-weather quip, but not with a Jews-operate-spacer-lasers one. It probably didn’t help that for the latter Jost was made to tell it through a puppet of a (male) rabbi. The balance between funny and shock went too far to the latter.

The bit ended with a thud, but the thud didn’t end the bit.

This past Christmas, joke swap was right on schedule. Che stuck to the combo of making Jost tell jokes that were simultaneously racist and offensive to his Hollywood A-lister wife. With Johansson backstage, mic’d up, and on-camera, Che had Jost read jokes in “Black voice.” Johansson seemed to be a good sport, but also a sport who couldn’t help herself from letting a few profanities slip.

Jost was forced to do “Black voice” and read more jokes about his wife… this time with his wife backstage and on camera. (At one point, she let at least one mic’d-up, audible “shit” slip.) Even though the installment definitely did not contain the best jokes, it continued the tradition of Che upping the odds on Jost.

For some fans of the joke swap, the heightening of the tension is the joke. For me, while I love the conceit of the sketch, I’d like to see Che return his focus to the punchlines (as much as the setups). As for when the “Update” bit itself will return, we’re right on schedule for May 2025 — or we may get a surprise installment with next weekend’s “SNL 50.”