On Wednesday, Mitch McConnell announced that he’ll be stepping down as Senate Republican Leader later this year. While he’ll remain in his current position until November, Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost and Michael Che came to “Weekend Update” ready to roast the hell out of the sometimes-glitchy senator from Kentucky.
Che began the running gag by announcing McConnell’s retirement, complete with a photo of McConnell smiling from ear to ear, which he described as a photo of the senator “catching up on news from the Middle East.”
“McConnell has been leader for almost 20 years,” Che said, “but he first got involved in politics back in 1968 when he lost a fiddle contest to the devil.”
Che went on to joke that while McConnell is apparently leaving his post due to a difficult relationship with Donald Trump, “just because you hate somebody doesn’t mean you can’t still have a very successful working relationship with them,” as the camera panned over to Jost.
The gag then shifted over to Jost, who showed the same beaming photo of McConnell, which he claimed was of Mitch “walking out of a theater after watching 12 Years a Slave” then shared it again, this time describing it as what McConnell might look like “after rearranging a blind woman’s furniture.” He joked that McConnell would soon be replaced by a “frozen embryo holding an assault rifle.”
Finally, he switched to a photo of a still-smiling McConnell giving an enthusiastic thumbs up, which Jost said was of the senator “watching a single mother sell her blood for diaper money.”
