SNL's 'Weekend Update' says 'mathematically,' Trump's COVID-19 hospitalization is clearly funny

SNL&#039;s Michael Che on Trump and COVID

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Saturday Night Live)

published 5 October 2020

The cold open for this week's Saturday Night Live hinted at joking about President Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis, when Jim Carrey's Joe Biden wondered if maybe "science and karma could somehow team up to send us all a message about how dangerous this virus can be." "Weekend Update" just went for it.

"I gotta say it's a bad sign for America that when Trump said he tested positive for a virus, 60 percent of people were, like, 'Prove it,'" Colin Jost said.

Michael Che started telling a few jokes, then addressed the elephant in the room: "Okay, look, this is weird. Because a lot of people on both sides are saying there's nothing funny about Trump being hospitalized with coronavirus, even though he mocked the safety precautions for the coronavirus — and those people are obviously wrong. There's a lot funny about this — maybe not from a moral standpoint, but mathematically, if you were constructing the joke, this is all the ingredients you need. The problem is, it's almost too funny, like it's so on the nose. It would be like if I were making fun of people who wear belts and then my pants just immediately fell down."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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