Michael Che and Colin Jost joke around a lot on “Weekend Update,” but one joke went too far.
After 10 years as co-host of Saturday Night Live While putting together a newscast sketch, Che recalled an earlier joke by Jost that had left him “so frustrated” that he almost quit the show.
“Yeah, I think the jalapeños thing made me pretty angry,” Che said on the Fly on the wall Podcast, to which Jost joked: “They were just annoyed that it worked so well.”
“I remember the run-through when you did it because I’d never heard it before. I don’t remember the intro, but the punch line was ‘jalapeño business,'” Che recalled. “And I was like, ‘If you tell that joke live, I’m leaving. I’m leaving the show.’ And he did it live and it was awesome. And I was so frustrated. I was so frustrated. I was like, ‘I don’t even know what we’re doing anymore.'”
Jost added: “I would have honestly cut it out if it didn’t upset you so much. And then I thought to myself, ‘I’m definitely doing that, definitely.'”
In the final episode of season 40, in May 2015, Jost and Che told their jokes, which were cut from an earlier episode. “Ohio police arrested a woman who allegedly stabbed her boyfriend because he ate all her salsa,” Jost said. “But you’d be mad too if your boyfriend had something against jalapeños.”
Saturday Night Live returns to NBC for its 50th season on September 28, after Che and Jost co-hosted Peacock’s first live comedy special New York after dark on Thursday.
