It’s every comedian’s worst nightmare to bomb on stage, but imagine doing so under the bright lights of Saturday Night Live. For a few minutes on Saturday, Weekend Update anchor Colin Jost was sweating bullets after several of his jokes were met with a lackluster reaction from the studio audience.
Eventually, Weekend Update co-anchor Michael Che let Jost off the hook, revealing that he had asked the audience to not laugh at his jokes for April Fools Day.
“At first I was like, am I not mic’ed? And then I was like, I just suck,” Jost said after learning of the prank.
“You’re evil,” Jost then told his longtime partner Che. “That’s the meanest thing you’ve ever done to me. I am covered in sweat.” It took Jost several more moments to regain his composure.”
In a reddit post, an audience member said Che came out prior to the show to ask the audience to participate in his prank. “There was just one small section that laughed, and the rest of us were dead silent. The crowd erupted in laughter for Che, and Jost was like ??? It was really funny when he caught on.”
Most April Fools jokes fall flat. This was not one of them.
Last night’s SNL also feature a funny and creative road rage sketch starring host Quinta Brunson and Mikey Day.