During Saturday Night Live’s season 51 finale on May 16, Colin Jost’s “Weekend Update Joke Swap” with Michael Che nearly cost him his “award-winning” hair after Che wrote an apology that ended with a planned shave—just as Che stepped in to stop it.
When Colin Jost stood in the Saturday Night Live spotlight and promised to sacrifice his “beautiful, award-winning, world-famous hair,” it didn’t play like a joke for long. During the season 51 finale, Jost was one step away from actually shaving his head live on air.
The hair-misery began as the latest “Weekend Update Joke Swap” segment on Saturday. May 16. where Jost. 43. and his cohost Michael Che read offensive jokes they had written for each other.. After Che and Jost traded brutal lines that landed on Michael Jackson and Michael B.. Jordan’s Oscar win, Jost moved on to a zinger Che wrote about Kanye West.
“Ye has released a new album called Bully,” Jost began.. “Please try to separate the art from the artist.. Remember. Ye can make awful music and still be right about Hitler.” Jost then framed the moment as the studio audience cringed. acknowledging his joke was “offensive to everyone” before reading what he described as a mea culpa penned by Che.
“To apologize, I’d like to sacrifice the most important thing in my life: my beautiful, award-winning, world-famous hair,” Jost said. “That’s right, I’m shaving it off! Send in the barber.”
A barber joined Jost on stage, quickly put a smock over the comedian’s shoulders, and pulled out a razor.. Jost. now watching the teleprompter. read: “Jerome. make me un-pretty.” Just as the shaving was about to start. Che—42—intervened on stage to ask whether Jost would actually go through with it. stepping in right before the razor did its work.
“No, don’t do it!” Che told Jost after praising him: “Man, you are the greatest comedian of all time.” Both shared a chuckle as Che tried to halt the stunt. “I was so scared,” Jost admitted.
Even though Jost escaped unshaved this time, the “Joke Swap” segment has carried real fallout before.. In December 2024, SNL cameras caught Scarlett Johansson reacting with visible disgust to a vulgar joke Che wrote about her.. Jost read the line on air, including: “Costco has removed the roast beef sandwich from its menu.. I’ve been eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid,” as Johansson watched.
Johansson later described the moment in an InStyle interview in March 2025, saying she was “completely caught off guard” by Che’s one-liner. “It was so vulgar. I just can’t believe that they went there,” she admitted. “I was like — it was so gross. It was really gross. And, like, old-school gross.”
The tension from these segments follows the same route: Che writes an intentionally sharp joke, Jost reads it on “Weekend Update,” and the moment escalates fast enough that even an apology can come with a stunt—hair shaving one time, public reaction another—before the show keeps moving.
There’s another layer to how personal the exchanges can get.. Jost and Che previously traded barbs during a Saturday. March 14 episode of SNL. when Che. 42. told a “Weekend Update” joke about a “wife-carrying” contest in England.. In that bit. Che said: “The winners of the annual wife-carrying contest in England was a couple from Finland.” Che later faced a counterattack during SNL’s season 50 finale. when Jost and Johansson. 41. teamed up to write embarrassing jokes for Che to read.. Che responded onstage with a line that framed the retaliation: “The fact is. I was just lashing out because I’m jealous. ” adding. “I’ve never ever seen a human vagina.. And notice I said ‘human’ because I once spent the summer on a farm.”
For now, the studio’s barber stayed at the ready—but never made the shave—leaving Jost’s “award-winning” hair intact heading into the next stretch of SNL. Saturday Night Live returns with season 52 on NBC this fall.
Colin Jost Michael Che Saturday Night Live SNL Weekend Update Joke Swap Scarlett Johansson Kanye West Jerome barber season 51 finale