Late Monday night, Seth Meyers welcomed Michael Che onto his Late Night couch for a rare in-person interview.
Che, who shares head writing duties on Saturday Night Live with his “Weekend Update” co-anchor Colin Jost, was complimented by former SNL head writer Meyers on the pandemic-stricken 46th season of the sketch-comedy series, calling it “a weird season” and “an incredible accomplishment,” given the circumstances.
“We’ve had some really, really cool guests. We had [Dave] Chappelle, we had [Bill] Burr, we had Daniel Kaluuya, we’ve had Issa Rae, we had Regina King. We’ve had an amazing season of guests, I think,” replied Che.
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Meyers chimed in, “And now Elon Musk is gonna be on.”
Yes, Elon Musk will be hosting this Saturday’s episode of SNL. When the news was announced, cast members Bowen Yang and Aidy Bryant quietly criticized the move, given the Tesla billionaire’s penchant for spreading dangerous COVID-19 misinformation during the pandemic and his ruthless union-busting.
But Che poured cold water on a dubious New York Post report alleging SNL cast members “won’t be forced to appear” with Musk on the show, posting a screenshot of the story on his Instagram accompanied by the message: “Does this rule mean I won’t be forced to appear next to Colin [Jost] anymore?!” Che joked, adding, “#CancelJost.”
And he expanded a bit on the post to Meyers, saying of Musk’s hosting stint, “Yeah, you know, that’s gonna be exciting, too. He’s the richest man in the world, how could you not be excited for that?”
Meyers then mentioned how former President Barack Obama had “a stand-up cadence” while former President Donald Trump, who infamously hosted SNL in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, has “stand-up material.”
“Can we laugh at him now?” Che asked of Trump. “Can we laugh with him?”
