On a latest episode of Saturday Night time Stay, the solid member Sarah Sherman dropped by the “Weekend Replace” desk in character because the accountant Daybreak Altman, the most recent in her repertoire of high-strung weirdos. Altman was theoretically there to provide one of many co-anchors, Colin Jost, some dangerous information about his tax returns. As a substitute, she proceeded to accuse him of utilizing cocaine, permitting his private airplane for use for ICE deportations, using the monetary companies of Jeffrey Epstein, and, lastly, operating some kind of sex-slavery ring proper behind the “Replace” set. All of the whereas, Jost endured this barrage by biking via a variety of pained, embarrassed responses—sighing, shaking his head, muttering “Okay, okay,” and ultimately placing his head in his fingers.
When Jost first took the job as a “Weekend Replace” co-host in 2014, he got here off like a cocky prep-school child doomed to find that the remainder of the world doesn’t share the excessive opinion he has of himself. Some armchair critics and social-media customers sighed that after all Lorne Michaels had given the present’s most prestigious job to a different “bland white man,” an indication that this most hidebound of establishments was unable to adapt to a altering world. However ultimately, Jost appeared to seek out that he might win the general public’s goodwill by acknowledging its disdain. Leaning into his unlikability gave Jost a particular comedic vitality—and, funnily sufficient, made him much more likable.
“Default punch line” might be not the place Jost thought he’d find yourself after becoming a member of the satirical information section. When he first began on the “Replace” desk, Jost tried to channel the vitality of previous anchors, an effort that didn’t do him any favors. He had stable chemistry along with his co-host, Michael Che (who typically performs the a part of a perpetual scoundrel, a counterpoint to Jost’s straitlaced have an effect on), and will capably land a punch line, however he had a “replacement-level participant” high quality that he struggled to shake.
He additionally had a bent to stay his foot in his mouth by making tone-deaf jokes, or flatly seem to be a jerk, or possibly even just a bit bit lazy in his joke writing. Take a bit from early in his tenure about how America is like a curler coaster that solely the privileged ought to take pleasure in. “I simply need it for me and my ethnicity, after which it’s closed without end,” Jost mused, a blunt criticism however delivered with sufficient smugness that it additionally made him seem to be a man who might hover above the nation’s misfortunes. That second got here a couple of weeks after Donald Trump had hosted SNL, which invited criticisms that the present had helped normalize his political ascent by treating him like a sideshow.
To his critics, Jost’s smug humor felt noticeably anachronistic at a time when the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter actions had been calling for a better consciousness of society’s deep inequalities, and for ostensibly liberal establishments to do higher. Jost’s central flaw as a comic book was that he might come throughout as flippant; he typically appeared like a human embodiment of a newspaper op-ed telling you to relax. He might crack jokes about Trump’s corruption or Hollywood’s panicked response to the Harvey Weinstein revelations, however you by no means actually bought the sense that he handled these topics as way more than easy fodder—and though, to be truthful, his job is to inform jokes, the jokes he tended to select typically appeared a bit of lazy.
Each nice “Weekend Replace” anchor should ultimately put their stamp on the desk. Tina Fey communicated ethical authority by shredding the misogyny of the 2000s; Seth Meyers introduced a wry humanism whereas additionally coming off just like the world’s most exasperated MSNBC addict; Norm MacDonald crossed each doable line and didn’t appear too fearful about it. Jost, in the meantime, discovered his groove by showing to just accept that many individuals had been keen to inform a man like him off. He didn’t precisely shed his entitled persona, however he settled into a task as a kind of pressure-release valve—a manner for others to course of their cultural anxieties.
For instance, Sherman, who joined the present’s solid in 2021, is his best tormentor. I virtually known as her a sparring companion, however that might indicate that Jost ever will get a phrase in edgewise. From her earliest appearances, Sherman demonstrated a expertise for nimbly turning each innocuous factor Jost stated in opposition to him, at one level insisting that he kiss Che and accusing him of being a homophobe for refusing—and, when he lastly agrees, accusing him of now mocking the queer group by pretending to be homosexual. Her jokes depict him as consultant—pretty or not—of an antiquated mindset (his discomfort in regards to the thought of him kissing a person) that Sherman’s open-minded friends are perpetually butting up in opposition to. However she additionally paints Jost as somebody who can’t win, as a result of he’s unable to maintain up with the pace of her humor—and the extra she piles it on, the funnier the trade turns into.
A part of the stress is instinctively visible. Jost is clean-cut and buttoned-up; Sherman is younger and hip. Throughout SNL historical past, the present has poked enjoyable on the institution and counterculture alike. However of their working relationship, Jost is the institution—and by taking it on the rhetorical chin, he and the present subtly show an understanding of why counterculture sorts like Sherman get enraged.
It’s not simply Sherman who will get in on the flogging. Che likes to insist that each one of Jost’s worst detractors are utterly legitimate of their assumptions, equivalent to when he lately famous (as was rumored on the time) that if the following pope got here from Africa, he’d “should journey over Colin’s lifeless physique.” Bowen Yang instructed Jost to introduce him as “Asian Forged Member”—then feigned indignation when it truly occurred, earlier than gleefully boasting, “I set your ass up.” Invoice Murray, the final word lackadaisical blue-collar man, took his flip with the whip throughout the Saturday Night time Stay fiftieth Anniversary Particular by pointedly not together with Jost on his listing of the very best “Replace” anchors of all time, whereas Jost appeared on.
In actual life, Jost has stored his private politics a secret. However his precise beliefs, no matter they’re, don’t actually matter on this position. All of the jabs boil right down to the concept he’s a stand-in for white males in positions of energy—and that mocking him is known as a approach to mock them. To Jost’s nice credit score, none of it might work with out his willingness to face there and function a punching bag, one thing that earlier smug anchors, equivalent to Dennis Miller, would have by no means allowed. He’s discovered some ways to sigh and sign his pained realization that that is actually what they consider me, as he telegraphs with each look—a forbearance that counterintuitively makes him extra sympathetic. (The title of his memoir, A Very Punchable Face, additionally communicates this self-awareness.)
Jost is now the longest-running “Weekend Replace” host in historical past, and it’s rumored that he may be leaving the job quickly. If that’s true, then I’ll miss him. However in opposition to all expectations, he achieved greatness—by embracing his picture. His legacy is safe.
