Tonight on SNL, Weekend Update hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che cracked every Will Smith joke they’d caught over the past week after Oscar winner Chris Rock hit at the 94th Academy Awards.
“Intelligence officials say that Vladimir Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about how poorly the Russian military is doing in Ukraine,” Jost said above, “that’s like Will Smith’s agent telling him, ‘You got it at the Oscars screwed up !”
Jost said he saw Smith’s actions as “disgraceful” — particularly because his actions “set a terrible precedent for having to defend your wife at awards shows.”
Che noted that during his acceptance speech after winning the best actor award, the King Richard star said, “Love will make you do crazy things.”
“You know what else makes you do crazy things? Crazy,” he joked. “But I understand where Will comes from. I mean, you can’t expect him to sit and watch another man attack his wife without signing a non-disclosure agreement.”
Yesterday, Jost continued, Smith resigned from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences before the awards board could expel him. “He didn’t want that,” said Jost, “but then Jada gave him this look.”
If Smith had been expelled, Jost noted, he would have joined “a small group” of people kicked out of the academy, including Bill Cosby, Roman Polanski and Harvey Weinstein. “Or, as they are also known, ‘Bad Boys For Life’.”
Che went on to talk about alopecia, the medical condition that served as the basis for Rock’s joke at the expense of Jada Pinkett Smith, which in turn led to the comic’s altercation with her husband. “Can we stop pretending everyone knows Jada has alopecia? I mean, as much as we’ve heard about Jada and Will’s personal lives, you can’t expect us to keep everything,” he said. “It’s like Kanye saying, ‘Don’t pretend you don’t know I have psoriasis!'”
Selfishly, Che said as a comedian he is “tired” of people “blaming their own insecurities” on his joke intentions. “I mean, I can’t make a joke about how cold it is outside,” he said, “without someone yelling back, ‘Stop making fun of my small penis! Keep my little penis out of your mouth!’”
Part of what was notable about the Oscars situation for Jost was that Smith was allowed to stay in the audience (and even collect a trophy) after beating Rock simply because the comic said it was in it’s okay to do this. “So we’re just going to ask the victim right after they’ve been hit in the head? “Hey, are you alright if the guy who just attacked you stays around for a while? You don’t want to make him mad again,'” he joked. “I can’t believe the academy has a worse concussion record than the NFL.”
But honestly, Jost continued, he “can’t even blame” the academy for not knowing what to do. “No one knew what to do. Even people at the Oscars googled, ‘Did Will Smith just slap Chris Rock?’” he noted. “I think we should just acknowledge that this was one of the craziest things we’ll ever see in our lives. It really is like the Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction, but if Janet [Jackson]The nipple smacked [Justin] wood lake.”
Not to mention, Che said Rock has been “very public” about dealing with a nonverbal learning disorder, making it “hard for him to understand nonverbal cues.” “When he saw an angry Will Smith rushing at him, he put both hands behind his back, smiled and said, ‘Uh oh!’
Later on Update, the presenters welcomed OJ Simpson (Kenan Thompson) to the desk to offer his take on the Oscar debacle, and Che asked him whose side he was on.
“Oh, now Michael, you know me. i hate conflict They both seem like good guys,” Simpson said. “But honestly, I didn’t even get Chris Rock’s joke. I mean, what the hell is GI Jane?”
Che pointed out that it’s a ’90s movie, with Simpson exclaiming, “The ’90s? Oh, I don’t remember anything from the ’90s.”
Simpson said that in his humble opinion, Smith may have overreacted by hitting Rock. “I mean, Will, I’m not saying you have trouble with anger, but if the glove fits,” he said flatly. “I’m just saying.”
Che then wondered if Simpson was actually on Rock’s side.
“I didn’t say any of that. Chris isn’t exactly innocent either,” Simpson noted. “No one likes to make fun of him. I mean, you may be too young to remember, but people used to make a lot of mean jokes about me.”
When Che asked what these jokes were about, Simpson simply said, “All sorts of things.
“The point is that sometimes jokes can go too far, especially when it comes to another man’s family,” Simpson said, “because like Will Smith said in his speech, love is supposed to make you do crazy things.” “
When Che pointed out that there had been discussions about taking the Oscar away from Smith, Simpson yelled, “You’re not taking my trophies away!”
Also, Senator Marsha Blackburn (Cecily Strong) stopped by the update desk to break down Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Excerpts from today’s issue can be found above and below.