Saturday Night Live gave us its last episode before Christmas last night. The stacked ninety minutes included cameos, a ton of Kate McKinnon greatness and Billie Eilish performing “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie, but for many watching at home, the annual Christmas Joke Swap was the biggest takeaway. Every year, Weekend Update hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che write jokes for the other person to read, and this year, they were even more mean-spirited and tough to get through than usual.
The way Weekend Update ordinarily works is Che and Jost write jokes and plan out the segment as a team; so, they’re always well aware of what’s being said and have veto control over the jokes they’re delivering. During the annual Christmas Joke Swap, however, they write jokes for the other person, which they’re forced to read live on the air. These, of course, tend to be particularly vicious, and this year may have been the wildest yet, as we got very politically incorrect jokes about everything from Barack Obama to Michael Jackson to The Middle East. Jost was even forced to talk about his wife Scarlett Johansson. You can watch the segment below…
Not surprisingly, the Christmas Joke swap attracted some criticism online about a few or all of the comments being over the line, but by and large, the reaction seems to have been extremely positive, with many praising how far the performers were willing to go. It’s by far the most popular clip on YouTube from last night’s episode, and it’ll definitely be shared widely in the coming days on social media, probably because it’s so much fun watching Jost and Che visually scan the cue cards for the first time, knowing they’re going to have to say them out loud.
It’s impossible for me to pick a single favorite joke, but I will point to a few of my favorite moments. First, I love Che bringing out Dr. Hattie Davis, a woman he described as a poet, author and activist to sit next to Jost for all the racially-charged jokes he wrote for him. That was expert level trolling. Second, this felt like the first year where Jost really punched back as hard. He’s always written good, funny jokes for prior swaps, but it has sometimes felt like Che has been the only one to really take the gloves off and swing. Not this year. The jokes about The Middle East and Michael Jackson were especially uncomfortable and on the same level as what Che gave him, which included the Coretta Scott King Black Widow joke and sexual abuse survivors joke.
You never know how long people are going to stay on Saturday Night Live. I certainly hope Jost and Che will both be back next year to deliver another Christmas Joke Swap, but as Kate McKinnon reminded us last night, even the all-time greats need to move on at some point. So, my fingers are crossed this won’t be the last Christmas Joke Swap we get, but just in case this is, I’m going to watch this one a few more times to fully appreciate it.
