Here’s the ‘SNL’ Scouting Text Michael Che Received from Colin Jost
Michael Che and Colin Jost have helmed Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update longer than any other hosts in the show’s history. Since 2014 the pair have been teaming up to deliver roasts of each other and our increasingly bizarre political reality. Jost and Che have covered the exit of Obama, Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump, the first era of Trump, COVID, Biden’s presidency and the second era of Trump. They’re undeniably trauma bonded by this, and despite constantly baiting each other into saying heinous jokes, seem quite close.
Now, even though Che keeps joking about leaving SNL, it’s been reported that the duo will continue through Season 51. In a post recirculating on Reddit, we get a peek behind the curtain to revisit the very beginning of his time at SNL, and how Jost reached out to Che via message for the gig.
In a screenshot, Jost messaged Che, “Hey man, great set the other night at Hannibal’s show. I was wondering if you had any interest in submitting to SNL as a sketch writer. You’d have to get a packet together pretty quick, ideally by next week. But it’s not that extensive. I can give you the guidelines, but wanted to see what you thought first. Let me know.”
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Che responded, “Hey Colin! Yea man, I’d love to. Thanks for hitting me up. What do I have to do?”
Che posted the photo to his Instagram account, looking like he had it printed out actually framed. Such affection for the start of his SNL career definitely contradicts his more flippant public attitude.
It’s not too much of a surprise that, despite Che’s nonstop nefarious joking writing for Jost and his pretty incessant threats to leave SNL, that something like this would be framed by Che. It also doesn’t mean that Che isn’t going to spend a random afternoon roasting Jost mercilessly on his Instagram post in the near future. Honestly, you’ll never know what will happen when you click into Che’s social media.
Redditors mostly wanted to know: “What kind of stuff goes into a packet? Always been curious. Just original jokes and concepts? Any questionnaires you have to fill out?” The guidelines are now pretty public, though in today’s world your best first step might be getting TikTok famous.
All we do know is that for Season 51, we won’t have the iconic Ego Nwodim getting the audience to say “shit” to the amusement and horror of Che and Jost during an Update segment. That, and Jost used to sign his texts.
