Michael Che Roasts Colin Jost In This 'Cut For Time' Weekend Update Bit
There are lots of reasons why a joke or sketch gets cut from Saturday Night Live. “Cut for time” is the most common one. Maybe two bits are too similar. An overly sensitive host might ask for an edit if a punchline offends their sensibilities. But your guess is as good as mine as to why Lorne Michaels axed this Zohran Mamdani joke from last Saturday’s Weekend Update.
Colin Jost delivered the fake news: “New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that she would block Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s plan for free bus service in the city, saying that ‘they can’t take money away from the struggling MTA.’ But I got to say, that makes no sense. I mean, the bus has always been free. Just walk on with a knife.”
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The punchline got a decent laugh, but co-anchor Michael Che’s reaction got the bigger audience response. “That’s how you hold a knife??”
As Jost doubled over in laughter, Che imitated his partner’s dorky attack stance. “You have never committed a crime, have you?”
“Don’t do me!” Jost protested.
“This is a stick up!” countered Che, wielding an imaginary knife like the Statue of Liberty holds her torch.
“Colin holds a knife like a precocious preteen in a Wes Anderson movie,” noted u/BlackLeader70 in the LiveFromNewYork subreddit.
Fans there clamored for more Weekend Update jokes, not fewer. “They should have kept it in,” argued u/dead_ahead. “WU is getting shortened and it’s a shame. WU is the one part of the show I genuinely look forward to.”
“Me, as well,” agreed u/Natural_War1261. “It was too short last week.”
But if anything, Jost and Che got in more Weekend Update jokes than usual last weekend. The segment usually devotes time to wacky characters joining them at the desk to deliver goofy monologues. With Epstein’s emails leaking the previous week, the show dedicated the entirety of Weekend Update to straight jokes.
So why cut the Mamdani bit? Maybe there was a time crunch thanks to veteran cast member Will Forte returning to the show for three sketches. In the words of u/swazal, that punchline probably got “MacGrubered.”