Michael Che just can’t catch a break. One week after catching backlash for “deadnaming” Caitlyn Jenner with a “transphobic” joke on Saturday Night Live, the Weekend Update host is once again under fire for a joke made during the weekly segment.
Che was joking about a story from China where a 67-year-old woman gave birth, and his punchlines didn’t sit well with some viewers.
This time around, Che was called “sexist and ageist” for his comments.
“The birth set a record for most friction,” Che joked. He also said that he had a number of other punchlines but NBC deemed them “too dirty.” Of course, that didn’t stop Che from sharing them with the audience.
“Like, at first I was gonna say, ‘Well I hope that kid likes his milk chalky!’ But they said, ‘You can’t say that on TV,’” Che added. “It was my second favorite punch line! My first favorite being, ‘She can breastfeed just by standing over the crib.’ That’s a good one, right? Nope, NBC said, ‘Too gross,’ which is ridiculous. Too gross would be like if I said, ‘Doctors described the birth as pulling a penny out of a wad of gum.’”
On the surface, Che’s comments were just silly jokes about a wild story.
But, you know how the internet gets.
Despite some of the backlash, there was plenty of support for Che on social media as well.
“I love Michael Che and think he’s very funny. I didn’t particularly find his older mother jokes funny, but people are too sensitive. I mean, I love South Park, so that says what you need to know about my sense of humour,” one Twitter user wrote.
Some viewers called for Che to be fired or suspended following his Caitlyn Jenner jokes, and the angry mob is once again coming for his head. However, we have seen that Saturday Night Live seems to firmly back Che and it’s hard to imagine his latest jokes will land him in any hot water with producers.
