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…
